ChatGPT’s growth is starting to taper off, according to new data from market intelligence firm Sensor Tower. Today, OpenAI-owned AI chatbots remain the leaders in this space, accounting for 50% of global downloads on mobile devices and 55% of global monthly active users. However, Google’s Gemini is starting to outperform ChatGPT in terms of download growth, monthly active user growth, and time spent in the app, the company’s research found.
Over time, this increased pace of adoption could help Gemini close the gap with ChatGPT. OpenAI is now concerned about that, as the recent “Code Red” memo showed. The document, written by OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, directed staff to focus on improving the company’s AI products, particularly in areas such as personalization, reliability, and image generation.
Looking at recent data, it’s clear that the competition is far from over. Both ChatGPT and Gemini continue to experience significant growth.
ChatGPT’s global monthly active users are up 180% year over year as of November 2025, and Gemini’s monthly active users are up 170%.
However, new data shows that ChatGPT’s global monthly active users grew by only about 6% from August to November, reaching about 810 million. (Monthly active user numbers in the chart above are rounded, the company notes.) This number may suggest that AI chatbots are nearing market saturation, Sensor Tower says.
Meanwhile, Google Gemini’s global monthly active users grew by about 30% during the same period, as adoption increased with the release of Nano Banana, a new image generation model.
Additionally, the report notes that nearly twice as many U.S. Android users are now using Gemini directly through the Android operating system compared to using the standalone Gemini mobile app. This could give Google a competitive advantage in the Android-dominated global market, as it means Gemini is not restricted to being used only within mobile apps or web interfaces.
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Gemini is also increasing its share of the overall AI chatbot market when compared to all top apps such as ChatGPT, Copilot, Claude, Perplexity, and Grok. Over the past seven months (May to November 2025), Gemini has increased its share of global monthly active users by 3 percentage points, the company estimates.
However, ChatGPT’s share of global monthly active users declined by 3 percentage points over the past four months (August to November 2025).
Issues from Perplexity and Claude may also be impacting ChatGPT. Both rivals recorded triple-digit growth for their respective chatbots in 2025, with the former up 370% and the latter 190% year over year.
ChatGPT also saw an 85% year-over-year increase in global downloads in November, which was below the average growth rate of 110% across the cohort.
Perplexity and Gemini grew the most, increasing 215% and 190% year over year, respectively.
Finally, Sensor Tower says that the amount of time Gemini app users spend on the app has more than doubled over the past few months. As of November, Gemini users were spending 11 minutes per day on the app, a 120% increase from March. This seems to be due to the popularity of the image generation model “Nano Banana” released in September.
ChatGPT’s user time spent per day increased by only 6% during the same period. Additionally, ChatGPT users spent 10% less time in November compared to July.
Current data shows that Google is catching up with the market leader, but much of Google’s recent gains are tied to the success of Nano Banana. OpenAI could once again accelerate growth with the release of its own new products if it makes a similar impact.
