ChatGPT’s early lead among individual users appears to be shrinking as rivals like Google’s Gemini close in on its app and web market share—a shift that could complicate creator OpenAI’s reported plans for an IPO later this year.
OpenAI’s ChatGPT app market share fell from 69.1% in January 2025 to 45.3% in 2026, according to data from mobile intelligence data provider Apptopia, first reported by Big Technology. Over the same period, Apptopia data shows Google’s Gemini chatbot app increased its market share from 14.7% to 25.2%. Elon Musk’s Grok has also been growing rapidly, hitting its highest market share yet at 15.2%—up from 1.6% at the same time last year, according to the data.It’s not just OpenAI’s app market share that has taken a hit; rivals have been gaining in terms of web traffic, too. According to web traffic data from Similarweb, Gemini’s main web landing page, Gemini.google.com, narrowed the gap significantly with ChatGPT.com in December 2025, with 28.38% more traffic, while ChatGPT’s traffic declined 5.59%. Preliminary data shows Gemini surpassed 2 billion monthly visits for the first time in January 2026, while ChatGPT rebounded after two consecutive months of decline, though it remains below its October 2025 peak.
