ChatGPT's market share drops below 50% as Gemini, Claude surge

ChatGPT, once the undisputed leader in generative AI services, has seen its global market share dip below 50% for the first time, signaling a significant shift in the competitive landscape. A report by market research firm Sensor Tower indicates that while ChatGPT remains the most popular AI service, its dominance is being challenged by rivals like Google Gemini and Anthropic Claude.

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ChatGPT still remains the most popular AI service, but its global market share has fallen below 50% for the first time.

Despite facing increased competition, ChatGPT continues to exhibit impressive growth, having become the fastest application to reach over 1 billion monthly active users. OpenAI reported 900 million weekly active users as of February. Currently, ChatGPT leads with over 1.1 billion monthly active users, followed by Gemini with 662 million and Claude with 245 million. However, the market dynamics are changing rapidly. ChatGPT's share dropped from over 50% in January to 46.4% by the end of May, while Gemini's share grew to 27.7% and Claude's to 10.3%. Other AI platforms like Grok, Perplexity, DeepSeek, and Meta AI currently hold less than 5% each.

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Users are increasingly switching between different AI services based on their needs.

The report also highlights a decline in user loyalty to single AI services. An increasing number of users are engaging with multiple platforms, switching between them based on specific requirements. External factors, such as OpenAI's partnership with the U.S. Department of Defense announced in February, have also influenced user decisions, leading to a noticeable trend of uninstalls among some users who consider corporate image and values.

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Gemini's rapid growth is largely due to its deep integration with Google Search, Gmail, and other services.

Gemini's rapid ascent is attributed to its deep integration with Google services like Search and Gmail. Claude has built a reputation for its strong productivity performance, narrowing the gap with ChatGPT in user retention. In the U.S. market, users are increasingly willing to pay for AI features, with Claude leading in subscription rates at approximately 13%. The overall time spent by global users on AI tools is also projected to nearly double, from 17.2 billion hours in the first half of 2025 to 36 billion hours in the first half of 2026, underscoring AI's growing integration into daily life and work.

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Claude has built a reputation for its excellent productivity performance, gradually closing the gap with ChatGPT in user retention.