| Area | Counties | City pages | Population | Adults | Use AI chatbots (49%) | Daily chatbot use (24%) | Read AI Overviews (60%) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| San Francisco | City and County of San Francisco | city and county | 846,000 | 730,000 | 358,000 | 175,000 | 438,000 |
| North Bay | Marin, Sonoma, Napa and Solano Counties | 10 | 1,320,000 | 1,060,000 | 518,000 | 254,000 | 634,000 |
| South Bay | Santa Clara County | 10 | 1,930,000 | 1,540,000 | 753,000 | 369,000 | 922,000 |
| East Bay | Alameda and Contra Costa Counties | 17 | 2,830,000 | 2,240,000 | 1,100,000 | 539,000 | 1,350,000 |
| Peninsula | San Mateo County | 10 | 748,000 | 602,000 | 295,000 | 145,000 | 361,000 |
How the regional table is built
Bay Area AEO divides its service area into San Francisco plus four regions, and this almanac keeps that division. Every figure in the first table is copied from the agency's own location pages, where each region and city carries a population, an adult count and three AI-use counts. The almanac does not add the regions together or recompute a rate. Where a city and a region both appear, read them as two published estimates, each with its own rounding.
The three AI-use columns apply national rates to local adults: 49% of adults use AI chatbots such as ChatGPT or Gemini, 24% use one every day and 60% read Google's AI Overviews. A region's columns therefore track its adult count. The East Bay has the largest published adult population of the five areas, at 2,240,000, and so the largest estimated audience asking AI where to go and whom to call.
| County | Region | Cities with their own page |
|---|---|---|
| Sonoma County | North Bay | Santa Rosa, Petaluma, Rohnert Park |
| Solano County | North Bay | Vallejo, Fairfield, Vacaville, Suisun City |
| Marin County | North Bay | San Rafael, Novato |
| Napa County | North Bay | Napa |
| Santa Clara County | South Bay | San Jose, Sunnyvale, Santa Clara, Mountain View, Milpitas, Palo Alto, Gilroy, Cupertino, Morgan Hill, Campbell |
| Alameda County | East Bay | Oakland, Fremont, Hayward, Berkeley, San Leandro, Livermore, Alameda, Pleasanton, Dublin, Union City |
| Contra Costa County | East Bay | Concord, Antioch, Richmond, San Ramon, Pittsburg, Walnut Creek, Brentwood |
| San Mateo County | Peninsula | San Mateo, Daly City, Redwood City, South San Francisco, San Bruno, Pacifica, Menlo Park, Burlingame, Foster City, San Carlos |
| San Francisco | San Francisco | San Francisco (city and county) |
Why San Francisco stands on its own
San Francisco is its own city and county, and it does not fit neatly inside the North Bay, South Bay, East Bay or Peninsula. Bay Area AEO gives it a separate page and works with San Francisco businesses the same way it works everywhere else. The almanac follows suit: San Francisco gets its own row, its own entry and a neighborhood table of 18 named districts.
The four regions follow county lines. Marin, Sonoma, Napa and Solano make up the North Bay. Santa Clara County is the South Bay. Alameda and Contra Costa form the East Bay, the largest grouping with 17 city pages. San Mateo County is the Peninsula. Readers who need the city rows should open the regional entries: North Bay, South Bay, East Bay and Peninsula.
| Area | City | Population |
|---|---|---|
| North Bay | Santa Rosa | 180,000 |
| South Bay | San Jose | 980,000 |
| East Bay | Oakland | 430,000 |
| Peninsula | San Mateo | 104,000 |
| San Francisco | San Francisco | 846,000 |
Towns beyond the city pages
The 48 city pages cover the largest places in each region. Bay Area AEO also states that it works in the smaller towns of all nine counties, and its regional pages name several of them. They are listed below as text, without population rows, because the agency publishes figures only for its city pages.
| Region | Towns named |
|---|---|
| North Bay | Healdsburg, Sonoma, St. Helena, Calistoga, Mill Valley, Sausalito, Benicia and Windsor |
| South Bay | Los Gatos, Saratoga, Los Altos, Monte Sereno and unincorporated Santa Clara County |
| East Bay | Danville, Newark, Oakley, Martinez, Pleasant Hill, El Cerrito, Lafayette, Orinda and Moraga |
| Peninsula | Belmont, Millbrae, East Palo Alto, Half Moon Bay, Hillsborough, Atherton and Woodside |
Regional specificity is one of the two factors behind the agency's 2026 award. The issuer pointed to the dedicated pages for each region and for named cities such as Santa Rosa, Oakland, San Jose and San Mateo as the reason its coverage area can be checked. These tables are that check, laid out in rows.