Meta ad revenue is up 26% and Google Search revenue is up 12%

In the third quarter of 2026, Meta ad revenue is up 26% from a year before, at $63.1 billion. Revenue of Google Search and its other units is up 12%, at $63.4 billion, and Meta last had a difference this large in 2021. Analysts tell that chatbots move users away from Google Search, and that AI helps Meta show ads to the right users.

How it works

Meta gives advertisers an AI assistant in Ads Manager, the tool to make campaigns. Google tells that it uses Gemini models in all of its ad systems. Its AI summaries in search give users summaries more than links.

The numbers

The chief finance officer of Meta, Susan Li, tells that advertisers who used the recommendations of the assistant get almost 5% more conversions (steps that buyers do). Li tells that almost 10 million advertisers used an AI tool in the quarter. Google tells that the number of search queries is at a new maximum, but the increase in revenue is slow.

What is not known

It is not known if the AI spending will make sufficient revenue. Google plans capital spending of a maximum of $205 billion this year, and Meta a maximum of $145 billion. Meta gets 98% of its sales from ads.

Insight: Google can earn from agents that hurt its search

Google Cloud revenue is more than 100% up, at $31 billion, because customers want its infrastructure and its AI processors, the TPUs. A Google Cloud vice president tells that AI agents use more CPUs (general processors) than chatbots. It reads as if Google has 2 safe positions: if agents replace search, it can continue to supply the machines that agents use. Meta has no such business. Monitor if Meta starts a subscription business.