What happens? The AI chatbot race just made a splash. New data shows that ChatGPT, which once grew at a tremendous rate, is finally reaching a plateau, while Google’s Gemini is rapidly gaining momentum. According to Sensor Tower data, Gemini’s user base grew 30% between August and November, while ChatGPT barely budged.
- Overall, ChatGPT still has a strong lead with around 810 million monthly active users, but its growth over the same period (August-November) was only 6%, indicating a slowdown.
- ChatGPT leads the way with 55% market share, but fell 3 percentage points while Gemini gained 3.
This is important because: Twins aren’t just hype. One of the biggest drivers of its acceleration is its viral tool called Nano Banana, a visual model that attracted attention for its rapid image generation. Some may think it’s a gimmick, but the numbers suggest it worked well. Recent comparisons between Gemini and ChatGPT also show how the AI landscape is changing.
Gemini and Perplexity also saw the most explosive year-over-year growth across the AI space, up 190% and 215%, respectively. This puts them right on the heels of ChatGPT, after a year of experimentation by users who had once chosen OpenAI almost exclusively.
Who wins users’ attention? Market share is one aspect, but time spent in apps shows a different picture. Gemini users now use an average of 11 minutes per day, a 120% increase since March. ChatGPT users, on the other hand, only increased their time by 6% and usage actually decreased by 10% between July and November. This means that people still use ChatGPT more overall, but Gemini users seem to be more addicted once they try it.
Okay, what’s next? Currently, ChatGPT is still the biggest name in AI assistants. But Gemini has something every competitor desires, and that’s momentum. If this trend continues, we may face a very different AI landscape in 2026, where leaders cannot rely solely on early dominance.
