Over 23 days (August 9 to 31, 2026), we tracked more than 2 million product listings across more than 100,000 SERPs and AI Mode responses. We ran the same shopping queries through both Google AI Mode and traditional search on the same day at the same moment. When the exact same product showed up on both, the price in AI Mode was 21.6% higher on average.

Looking at all products on each side (not just the matches), AI Mode listings sit 49% higher than traditional search listings. Only 1.28% of products ranking in traditional search also appear in AI Mode for the same search on the same day. Matched products show a price discrepancy 38.1% of the time; when they do, AI Mode is more expensive 68.4% of the time (about two-thirds).

The main seller differs on 49.6% of matched products. This is a fascinating study that reveals more about Google's Shopping Graph and the inconsistencies between classic search and AI Mode for free listing placements. While the higher price might be displayed within the grid result in AI Mode (making the top-level comparison less accurate), what we tend to see is that the retailer with the lowest price gets the click in the end.

This research is useful from a consumer perspective, as it is helpful to understand that the products being recommended in AI Mode might not be giving 'price' as much weighting as we would have expected. AI search was supposed to eliminate the friction of comparing prices across five different tabs, but if it only serves pricier inventory by default, it hasn't saved us any work. We're trading the visible effort of opening multiple windows for the invisible penalty of paying more without ever seeing the cheaper option that was one tab over.