ChatGPT Market Share Falls Below 50% in 2026

What did Sensor Tower's State of AI 2026 report find?

ChatGPT's True Audience market share dropped below 50% for the first time in March 2026, falling to 46.4% by the end of May, according to Sensor Tower's State of AI 2026 report. The report was published on June 16, 2026. It covers engagement, spending, and advertising trends across mobile apps and the web.

True Audience is Sensor Tower's metric that measures unique users across both mobile app and web platforms.

How fast is AI app usage growing?

Global time spent on generative AI apps is projected to reach 36 billion hours in H1 2026. That compares to 17.2 billion hours in H1 2025 — more than doubling year-over-year. Gen AI websites also generated over 67 billion visits and roughly 23 billion hours in Q1 2026, up 28% and 41% year-over-year respectively.

Which AI assistants are gaining ground on ChatGPT?

ChatGPT still leads with over 1.1 billion monthly active users. But rivals are closing in fast.

Gemini's growth is tied to its integration with Google's broader product ecosystem. Claude has built a strong reputation for productivity use cases. Claude's True Audience share in the US has more than tripled, driven largely by web usage.

You might also like

Sen. Warren Demands SEC Halt SpaceX IPO

AI Productivity Boom Won't Fix the US Deficit

SpaceX Stock Surges Past Amazon After Record IPO

US Holds Back DeepSeek Trade Blacklist

As TechCrunch reports, 13% of Anthropic's users are paying for a subscription — a conversion rate that leads the field.

What milestone did ChatGPT reach despite losing share?

ChatGPT became the fastest mobile app ever to reach 1 billion monthly active users, hitting that mark in May 2026 — just three years after launch. That's faster than TikTok, YouTube, and Instagram. OpenAI last reported 900 million weekly active users in February 2026.

How much are people spending on AI apps?

Consumer spending on AI is hitting record levels. Global in-app purchase revenue from AI apps is expected to surpass $4 billion in H1 2026 — up 36% over the second half of 2025.

Here's what we know so far about individual app monetization: Claude's average revenue per user on mobile in the US climbed from less than $0.50 in September 2025 to $2.76 in May 2026.

People are also on pace to download nearly 2.3 billion AI apps in H1 2026, compared to spending of $1.83 billion in H1 2025.

What is happening with AI and advertising?

US digital ad spend on AI-themed creatives reached $1.3 billion between January and May 2026, up 48% year-over-year. OpenAI began experimenting with ads in ChatGPT in February 2026. By May, an average of 17% of daily ChatGPT users were being served ads. Software and shopping are the largest advertiser categories on the platform so far.

How is AI changing online shopping?

Gen AI referrals to shopping websites grew across every major retail category between Q4 2024 and Q1 2026. Amazon shoppers who used its AI assistant Rufus converted at nearly double the rate of non-users. However, Amazon has blocked ChatGPT's web crawlers, resulting in flat referral traffic from that platform. Sites like Walmart have embedded their own AI assistants, and Walmart's Spark assistant has been gaining ground.

Are there any regional differences in AI app growth?

Asia recorded its first download decline of 3.3% in Q1 2026, driven by dips in China and India. Despite leading globally in total downloads, Asia trails North America and Europe in in-app spending.

What other trends did the report highlight?

• Over 200,000 apps now mention AI in their descriptions. These apps are on track for roughly 10 billion global downloads in H1 2026, up 25% year-over-year.
• US app downloads driven by "AI" keyword searches have risen sharply over the past two years.
• ChatGPT, DeepSeek, and Google Gemini together account for nearly 90% of total time spent across AI assistant apps in Q1 2026.

For more on how AI assistants are competing on revenue and reach, see our coverage of the Perplexity CEO discussing hybrid local AI and revenue growth, and how Microsoft restricts Claude in certain enterprise contexts.

Sensor Tower CEO Oliver Yeh said in the report: "US app downloads driven by 'AI' keyword searches have skyrocketed over the past two years, and apps featuring 'AI' in their descriptions are on track to reach 10 billion global downloads in H1 2026 alone."

The full State of AI 2026 report is available at sensortower.com.