ChatGPT’s market share slips below 50% for first time

More than 3 and a fractional years aft ChatGPT’s archetypal release, AI assistants are present utilized by millions of radical worldwide, and the competitory scenery is changing fast. While OpenAI’s chatbot is inactive the astir fashionable adjunct worldwide, globally, its marketplace stock has dipped beneath 50% for the archetypal clip arsenic users are migrating betwixt antithetic assistants similar Google’s Gemini, Anthropic’s Claude, and xAI’s Grok, according to analytics steadfast Sensor Tower’s State of AI Report for 2026.

ChatGPT’s maturation has been impressive. It became the fastest app ever to scope 1 cardinal monthly users, arsenic Sensor Tower reported this month. Notably, OpenAI counts play progressive users, and it past reported 900 cardinal of them successful February. The chatbot inactive remains the astir fashionable AI adjunct worldwide with implicit 1.1 cardinal monthly users, followed by Gemini with 662 cardinal and Claude with 245 million.

Image Credits: Sensor TowerImage Credits:Sensor Tower

Until January, ChatGPT commanded implicit 50% marketplace share, but by May’s end, it had fallen to 46.4% acknowledgment to the emergence of Gemini (27.7%) and Claude (10.3%). Other assistants, including Grok, Perplexity, DeepSeek, and Meta AI, person little than 5% marketplace share.

Image Credits: Sensor TowerImage Credits:Sensor Tower

Sensor Tower’s State of AI Report besides recovered that users are progressively consenting to power betwixt assistants. Specific events look to accelerate that behavior: OpenAI’s woody with the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) successful February triggered a measurable spike successful uninstalls, for illustration — suggesting marque spot and values alignment substance to users, not conscionable features. While Gemini’s momentum is mostly owed to its integration with Google’s broader ecosystem of tools, Anthropic’s Claude has gained a beardown estimation for productivity usage cases and is closing successful connected ChatGPT’s idiosyncratic retention rate.

In the archetypal fractional of 2026, radical are connected gait to download astir 2.3 cardinal AI apps and walk implicit $4.2 cardinal connected them, according to Sensor Tower estimates. That compares to $1.83 cardinal successful spending successful H1 2025 — a leap that suggests the manufacture is shifting its absorption from axenic maturation toward monetization. That said, some download and walk maturation rates person decelerated, an indicator that the marketplace whitethorn beryllium maturing adjacent arsenic implicit numbers climb.

Regionally, Asia recorded the archetypal download diminution of 3.3% successful Q1 2026, thrust by dips successful China and India. Despite starring globally successful full downloads, Asia trails North America and Europe erstwhile it comes to in-app spending — a divided that matters for companies deciding wherever to put successful premium features and monetization.

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In the U.S., users are gravitating toward AI assistants for productivity tasks and spending much connected premium features. Across platforms, mean gross per idiosyncratic has grown industry-wide, but Claude is lasting out. Thirteen percent of Anthropic’s users are paying for a subscription program — a conversion complaint that leads the tract and volition beryllium a metric worthy watching for investors evaluating which AI businesses are gathering lasting revenue.

Sensor Tower estimates that the hours spent connected AI apps volition person accrued from 17.2 cardinal hours successful H1 2025 to astir 36 cardinal hours successful H1 2026. The apical 3 assistants bid 89% clip spent connected AI adjunct apps. Meanwhile, adjacent categories similar AI companions oregon AI contented procreation apps stay fragmented and wide unfastened to competition, which represents some a hazard and an accidental depending connected which players determination first.

OpenAI started experimenting with ads successful ChatGPT successful February. According to Sensor Tower, the institution has scaled the fig of ads gradually, on with the stock of users who spot them. By May, an mean of 17% of regular users were being served ads — a fig to ticker arsenic ChatGPT’s monetization strategy evolves beyond subscriptions.

Image Credits: Sensor TowerImage Credits:Sensor Tower

Software and buying are the largest advertiser categories successful ChatGPT truthful far, followed by Media & Entertainment and Food & Dining.

As ChatGPT deepens its buying integrations, it is progressively sending referral postulation to retailers similar Target, Walmart, and Costco. Amazon, which has blocked ChatGPT’s web crawlers, has seen stagnant referral postulation from the level arsenic a result.

That creates an opening for others. Sites similar Walmart person embedded their ain AI assistants to assistance shoppers find products. While Amazon’s Rufus has seen level idiosyncratic growth, Walmart’s Spark has been gaining ground. Sensor Tower besides noted that Amazon shoppers who utilized Rufus some spent much clip successful the app and converted astatine higher rates than those who didn’t, hinting that on-platform AI tin meaningfully power purchasing behaviour erstwhile users really prosecute with it.