ChatGPT’s Market Share Drops Below 50% as Competitors Gain Ground
With millions of users worldwide and a competitive landscape rapidly evolving, ChatGPT's market share has dipped below 50%, according to Sensor Tower's latest report.
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ChatGPT's Market Share Slips Below 50%
More than three and a half years since its launch, AI assistants have become an integral part of daily life for millions across the globe. However, the competitive landscape is shifting as ChatGPT’s market share has dropped below 50% for the first time.
According to Sensor Tower's State of AI Report for 2026, ChatGPT still leads with over 1.1 billion monthly users, followed by Google’s Gemini at 662 million and Anthropic’s Claude at 245 million. While OpenAI's chatbot remains the most popular globally, its dominance is eroding.
Specific events have accelerated this shift. For instance, OpenAI's deal with the U.S. Department of Defense in February led to a spike in uninstalls, highlighting that brand trust and values alignment matter to users beyond just features.
The report also indicates that users are increasingly switching between different assistants. Gemini’s momentum is largely due to its integration with Google’s broader ecosystem, while Claude has gained a strong reputation for productivity use cases. Users now spend nearly 36 billion hours on AI apps in the first half of 2026, up from 17.2 billion in 2025.
In terms of monetization, both download and spending growth rates have decelerated. However, the U.S. is seeing users gravitate toward productivity tasks with higher spending on premium features. Sensor Tower estimates that AI app spending will hit $4.2 billion by mid-2026, up from $1.83 billion in 2025.
As for regional trends, Asia saw its first download decline of 3.3% in Q1 2026 due to dips in China and India. Despite leading globally in total downloads, Asia lags behind North America and Europe in in-app spending, a significant factor for companies deciding where to invest.
OpenAI has begun experimenting with ads in ChatGPT, serving an average of 17% of daily users by May. This strategy is evolving as the company scales, creating new opportunities for other platforms like Walmart’s Spark. Sites like Walmart have embedded their own AI assistants to help shoppers find products more efficiently.
