Remember when ChatGPT felt like it was everywhere? The AI chatbot that went from zero to cultural phenomenon in what felt like minutes is showing its first real signs of hitting a ceiling. According to fresh data from market intelligence firm Sensor Tower, ChatGPT's user growth has dramatically slowed to just 6% over the past three months, while Google's Gemini surged ahead with a 30% jump during the same period.
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The numbers tell a pretty clear story. From August to November 2025, ChatGPT's global monthly active users grew by only around 6%, reaching roughly 810 million users. That's a significant slowdown for an app that was seeing 180% year-over-year growth earlier this year. Meanwhile, Gemini's monthly active users jumped by approximately 30% in that same timeframe, largely thanks to the breakout success of its Nano Banana image generation model that launched in September.
Here's the thing: ChatGPT isn't going anywhere. It still commands an impressive 50% of global mobile downloads and 55% of monthly active users, maintaining its position as the category leader. But the gap is closing. Gemini has gained three percentage points of market share over the past seven months, while ChatGPT's share dropped by three points from August to November.
The competition isn't just coming from Google, either. Perplexity saw explosive 370% year-over-year growth, while Anthropic's Claude jumped 190%. Even ChatGPT's 85% download growth, while impressive in absolute terms, lagged behind the overall cohort's average of 110%. Gemini and Perplexity led the download race with 190% and 215% growth respectively.
What's really interesting is how users are engaging with these platforms. Gemini users are now spending about 11 minutes daily in the app - more than double the time from March, representing a 120% increase. ChatGPT users, on the other hand, saw only a 6% rise in daily time spent, with a notable 10% decline in November compared to July.
Google has a structural advantage that's starting to show. Android users can now engage with Gemini directly through the operating system compared to using the standalone Gemini mobile app. With Android dominating globally, this integration provides Google with a substantial competitive edge that's difficult for standalone apps to match.
OpenAI seems to be aware of the pressure. The company's recent "code red" memo reportedly urged teams to prioritize improvements in personalization and reliability, reflecting growing internal concern about competitive pressure from Google and emerging rivals. The internal alarm suggests OpenAI recognizes that ChatGPT's first-mover advantage is eroding.
The broader picture here is about market saturation. After its explosive launch in November 2022, ChatGPT became the fastest-growing consumer application in history, reaching 100 million monthly active users in just two months. By August 2025, it was set to hit 700 million weekly active users, up from 500 million in March. But every rocket eventually runs out of fuel, and it looks like ChatGPT might be approaching that point.
So what happens next? The coming months will test whether ChatGPT can reignite growth through innovation or if Gemini's momentum will continue to build. For the broader AI ecosystem, this intensified competition promises accelerated innovation, improved capabilities, and potentially lower barriers to access - benefits that will ultimately shape how artificial intelligence integrates into our daily digital lives.
The AI chatbot market is experiencing its first major inflection point since ChatGPT's explosive debut. What started as a one-horse race has become a genuine competition, and that's probably good news for everyone who uses these tools. Better products, more features, and actual competition, sounds like the market is finally working the way it's supposed to.
