ChatGPT losing ground to Gemini: Check market share in January
What's the story
OpenAI's ChatGPT is losing its market share to Google's Gemini, a new report from SimilarWeb has revealed. The data shows that ChatGPT's market share has dropped to 64.5% in January 2026, down from a whopping 86% in January 2025. This indicates a decline of more than 20% over the past year. Meanwhile, Gemini has managed to capture 21.5% of the market during the same period.
Market shift
Other AI platforms also gaining traction
The SimilarWeb report also highlights the rise of other AI platforms. Grok has crossed the 3% market share mark and is closing in on DeepSeek at 3.7% market share. Perplexity and Claude are both holding steady at around 2% each. Microsoft's Copilot trails with a 1.1% market share in January 2026, showing little change over the past 12 months.
User engagement
ChatGPT's traffic drops amid Gemini's steady growth
SimilarWeb's data shows a significant drop in ChatGPT's traffic. The platform's average daily visits have fallen by 22% in the last six weeks, from around 203 million to about 158 million. Meanwhile, Gemini has remained stable with an average of 55-60 million daily visits during the same period. This indicates that while OpenAI is losing users, Google is holding on to its existing ones.
Strategic advantage
Google's distribution strength boosts Gemini's usage
Industry experts attribute Google's distribution strength as a major reason behind Gemini's steady usage. Jaspreet Bindra, cofounder of AI & Beyond, said "Google does not necessarily need to out-innovate the competition, but needs to out-distribute it." He added that "distribution is becoming a core moat in the consumer AI race," highlighting how reach across search, operating systems, email and productivity tools can make up for technical shortcomings.
User engagement
Gemini users are more engaged than ChatGPT's
The SimilarWeb data also shows that while ChatGPT remains the default AI interface globally, its growth curve has flattened in recent weeks. Gemini has captured 31-33% of ChatGPT's traffic in early December, rising to around 39-40% by the month's end. Interestingly, even though Gemini users are fewer in number, they tend to be more engaged with an average visit duration of 7 minutes and pages viewed per visit at 4.3 compared to ChatGPT's lesser stats.