ChatGPT's web traffic dropped 22% over six weeks as Google's Gemini captured over 20% market share, according to Similarweb data. The shift marks the first significant erosion of OpenAI's dominance since ChatGPT launched in late 2022.
ChatGPT's seven-day average visitors fell from nearly 203 million to 158 million between early December 2025 and January 2026. During the same period, Gemini's traffic held steady at 55-60 million daily visits while its market share increased 3.3% month-over-month in December, according to analytics from Similarweb.
The traffic decline coincides with Google's Gemini 3 launch in November 2025. The latest model upgrade delivered superior performance in reasoning tasks, coding accuracy, and multimodal comprehension, positioning Google as the new leader in AI model evaluations according to industry analysts.
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman declared an internal "Code Red" emergency in December 2025, according to internal memos obtained by The Wall Street Journal and The Information. Altman instructed employees to pause monetization initiatives including advertising, shopping assistants, and personal agents to focus on improving ChatGPT's competitive position.
Gemini now commands 21.5% of the generative AI market share, up from 5.7% a year ago and 12.9% three months prior. ChatGPT's share fell from 87.2% to 68% in December 2025, then dropped further to 64.5% on January 2, 2026, according to Similarweb's Global AI Tracker.
Google's ecosystem integration provides structural advantages. Gemini reaches more than 650 million monthly active users, with the app gaining 200 million users since July 2025, while ChatGPT counts approximately 810 million monthly active users.
Enterprise adoption favors Google due to compliance infrastructure and cloud integration. Google's TPU v5 chips optimize Gemini workloads, reducing costs and improving efficiency compared to OpenAI's reliance on Microsoft Azure and Nvidia hardware.
User engagement metrics show deeper interactions on Gemini. Average visit duration reaches 7 minutes 20 seconds with 4.3 pages per visit, compared to ChatGPT's 6 minutes 32 seconds and 3.8 pages per visit according to Similarweb data.
Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff publicly switched from ChatGPT to Gemini 3 in November. "Just spent 2 hours on Gemini 3. I'm not going back. The leap is insane - reasoning, speed, images, video... everything is sharper and faster," Benioff wrote on X.
Other AI models show limited growth despite ChatGPT's decline. Anthropic's Claude rose from 1.5% to 2% market share over twelve months, while xAI's Grok increased from 2.1% to 3.4% in six months. Microsoft's Copilot remained flat at 1.1-1.5% share.
Google AI CEO Demis Hassabis acknowledged the progress while emphasizing continued work. "A lot more hard work still to do of course, but making relentless progress," Hassabis wrote in response to the traffic data.
Wall Street responded positively to Google's AI momentum. Alphabet shares surged over 65% in 2025, making it a top performer among the "Magnificent Seven" tech stocks. Bank of America noted Gemini's potential as a "demand generator" for Search and Google Cloud.
The competitive landscape reflects Google's full-stack advantage. DeepMind researchers develop models, proprietary TPU chips train them efficiently, Google Cloud hosts them, and integration delivers them across 3 billion Android devices.
OpenAI faces structural challenges beyond traffic declines. The company depends on Microsoft's cloud infrastructure and Nvidia's expensive chips, creating cost disadvantages that could impact long-term competitiveness.
Similarweb's first Global AI Tracker of 2026 shows the center of gravity shifting in digital discovery. "AI isn't replacing search, it's expanding the discovery ecosystem," said Similarweb CEO Or Offer. "Brands that understand and optimize their visibility in these moments will define the next decade of digital competition."
The traffic data measures web visits to dedicated URLs, not native app usage where ChatGPT maintains advantages. However, the 22% decline represents the most significant challenge to OpenAI's market position since the generative AI race began.
