Uptime Report Research · AI Usage Data

ChatGPT Market Share Is 80.5%: Gemini Quadrupled, Mostly at Perplexity’s and Copilot’s Expense

ChatGPT market share was 80.47% of the website visits AI chatbots referred worldwide in September 2026, and 74.87% in the US, according to StatCounter Global Stats. That is close to its 81.12% a year earlier. Google Gemini grew from 2.82% to 10.94%, and most of that came out of Perplexity and Microsoft Copilot, not ChatGPT.

AI chatbot referral share, worldwide, September 2026 (change vs Sep 2025)

1ChatGPT80.47%-0.65 pts
2Gemini10.94%+8.12 pts
3Perplexity5.84%-5.01 pts
4Copilot1.78%-2.26 pts
5Claude0.95%-0.04 pts
6DeepSeek0.02%-0.16 pts
0.40%AI chatbots’ share of all referral page views (search 91.0%, social 8.6%), September 2026
255 to 1Google referrals for every ChatGPT referral, worldwide, September 2026
1.2Bweekly ChatGPT users, as stated by OpenAI on September 29, 2026. A count of people, not a share.

We downloaded StatCounter’s monthly AI chatbot series for the world, every continent and 218 countries from its first month, April 2025, plus desktop, mobile and tablet splits, daily data for the world and the US, and StatCounter’s comparisons of chatbots against search and social referrals. We then checked every ChatGPT share figure in the top 10 search results against the metric it actually measures and the matching StatCounter month, and collected the user counts OpenAI has published itself.

What this number measures. StatCounter counts referrals: page views on the websites that run its tracker which arrive from a link in a chatbot. A ChatGPT share of 80.5% means 80.5 of every 100 chatbot-referred page views came from ChatGPT. It is not a share of users, conversations or queries, and a chatbot that answers without sending people to websites scores low however much it is used.

The race since April 2025

ChatGPT (dashed: US) Gemini Perplexity Copilot Claude DeepSeek

60%70%80%90%0%4%8%12%16%Apr 25JunAugOctDecFebApr 26JunAugThe leader: ChatGPT share of AI chatbot referralsThe race for secondGemini 10.94%Perplexity 5.84%Copilot 1.78%Claude 0.95%DeepSeek 0.02%World 80.47%US 74.87%US low 61.7%, Apr 2026Apr 2025 worldwide: ChatGPT 84.21%, Gemini 2.31%, Perplexity 12.07%, Copilot 0.23%, Claude 0.30%, DeepSeek 0.88%. US ChatGPT 88.02%May 2025 worldwide: ChatGPT 79.79%, Gemini 1.95%, Perplexity 11.83%, Copilot 5.18%, Claude 0.46%, DeepSeek 0.80%. US ChatGPT 78.40%Jun 2025 worldwide: ChatGPT 79.86%, Gemini 2.19%, Perplexity 11.00%, Copilot 4.83%, Claude 1.11%, DeepSeek 1.02%. US ChatGPT 77.93%Jul 2025 worldwide: ChatGPT 82.65%, Gemini 2.19%, Perplexity 8.03%, Copilot 4.59%, Claude 0.91%, DeepSeek 1.63%. US ChatGPT 80.18%Aug 2025 worldwide: ChatGPT 80.92%, Gemini 2.19%, Perplexity 8.12%, Copilot 5.17%, Claude 0.89%, DeepSeek 2.70%. US ChatGPT 78.53%Sep 2025 worldwide: ChatGPT 81.12%, Gemini 2.82%, Perplexity 10.85%, Copilot 4.04%, Claude 0.99%, DeepSeek 0.18%. US ChatGPT 78.32%Oct 2025 worldwide: ChatGPT 81.35%, Gemini 3.02%, Perplexity 11.13%, Copilot 3.47%, Claude 1.02%, DeepSeek 0.01%. US ChatGPT 78.93%Nov 2025 worldwide: ChatGPT 81.84%, Gemini 2.97%, Perplexity 11.06%, Copilot 3.06%, Claude 1.06%, DeepSeek 0.01%. US ChatGPT 78.84%Dec 2025 worldwide: ChatGPT 79.74%, Gemini 4.74%, Perplexity 10.83%, Copilot 3.60%, Claude 1.07%, DeepSeek 0.02%. US ChatGPT 75.81%Jan 2026 worldwide: ChatGPT 80.51%, Gemini 7.20%, Perplexity 7.87%, Copilot 3.50%, Claude 0.92%, DeepSeek 0.01%. US ChatGPT 74.91%Feb 2026 worldwide: ChatGPT 79.98%, Gemini 7.50%, Perplexity 7.88%, Copilot 3.26%, Claude 1.37%, DeepSeek 0.01%. US ChatGPT 73.62%Mar 2026 worldwide: ChatGPT 78.16%, Gemini 8.65%, Perplexity 7.07%, Copilot 3.19%, Claude 2.91%, DeepSeek 0.02%. US ChatGPT 68.46%Apr 2026 worldwide: ChatGPT 76.85%, Gemini 9.00%, Perplexity 7.73%, Copilot 3.76%, Claude 2.66%, DeepSeek 0.01%. US ChatGPT 61.70%May 2026 worldwide: ChatGPT 79.05%, Gemini 7.04%, Perplexity 7.67%, Copilot 3.24%, Claude 2.99%, DeepSeek 0.01%. US ChatGPT 67.06%Jun 2026 worldwide: ChatGPT 76.89%, Gemini 7.96%, Perplexity 7.87%, Copilot 3.48%, Claude 3.74%, DeepSeek 0.04%. US ChatGPT 66.19%Jul 2026 worldwide: ChatGPT 77.89%, Gemini 9.93%, Perplexity 5.86%, Copilot 3.07%, Claude 3.20%, DeepSeek 0.03%. US ChatGPT 65.11%Aug 2026 worldwide: ChatGPT 79.40%, Gemini 10.93%, Perplexity 4.34%, Copilot 2.77%, Claude 2.53%, DeepSeek 0.02%. US ChatGPT 72.26%Sep 2026 worldwide: ChatGPT 80.47%, Gemini 10.94%, Perplexity 5.84%, Copilot 1.78%, Claude 0.95%, DeepSeek 0.02%. US ChatGPT 74.87%

Share of AI chatbot referrals, all platforms, monthly, Apr 2025 to Sep 2026. The top panel uses a narrower scale than the bottom one. Hover for each month’s values. Source: StatCounter Global Stats, AI Chatbot Market Share, monthly. Licensed CC BY-SA 3.0.

Worldwide, ChatGPT stayed between 76.85% (April 2026) and 84.21% (April 2025) for the whole series. The movement was below it. Gemini started at 2.31% in April 2025, first passed every rival except ChatGPT in March 2026, has held second place since June 2026, and reached 10.94% in September 2026, 3.9 times its share a year earlier. Over the same 12 months Perplexity fell from 10.85% to 5.84% and Copilot from 4.04% to 1.78%, a combined loss of 7.27 points against Gemini’s gain of 8.12. ChatGPT gave up 0.65 points.

The US is where ChatGPT’s lead narrowed. Its US share fell from 78.32% in September 2025 to 61.70% in April 2026, as Gemini, Copilot and Claude all took more of US referrals, then recovered to 74.87% in September 2026. Claude’s US share peaked at 7.18% in July 2026.

Is ChatGPT losing market share?

Worldwide, a little, and how much depends on the window. September 2025 to September 2026, the change was -0.65 points, smaller than the day-to-day range inside a single month (ChatGPT’s daily share ran from 79.0% to 81.4% during September 2026). Comparing three-month averages, which smooth that noise, ChatGPT fell from 81.56% in Jul 2025 to Sep 2025 to 79.25% a year later, -2.31 points, while Gemini gained +8.20 and Claude +1.30; Perplexity (-3.65), Copilot (-2.06) and DeepSeek (-1.48) lost more than ChatGPT did. ChatGPT’s quarterly average was lower than a year earlier in 35 of the 39 large markets we checked.

In the US the decline is clearer: -8.26 points on the quarterly comparison (79.01% to 70.75%), as Gemini gained +9.78 and Claude +3.09. The much steeper declines in other trackers (Similarweb’s estimate of ChatGPT’s share of chatbot site visits went from 73.3% to 55.5% in a year, as quoted by FatJoe and Carly) come from measuring something else.

Why the headlines say 46%, 52%, 57% and 80%

Each figure in the top search results is real, but they come from four different measurements. 3 of the 10 top-10 headlines we traced use Similarweb’s estimates of visits to chatbot websites, 4 repeat Sensor Tower’s count of AI app users, one is First Page Sage’s own estimate of US users, and 2 use StatCounter’s referral series, which they match exactly.

Headline Where, when What it measures Figure StatCounter ChatGPT referral share, same month Note
ChatGPT 80.47%, Perplexity 5.84% StatCounter AI chatbot page (Google snippet), Oct 2026 StatCounter: chatbot referrals to websites 80.5% 80.47% (World, Sep 2026) Same series as this report. Matches our download.
ChatGPT drops below 50% of AI assistants Reddit r/charts, Jun 2026 Wording and timing match Sensor Tower's app-user share (via TechCrunch) 46.4% 79.05% (World, May 2026) We could not load the thread; the wording is from its search result. Users of AI apps, not referrals.
ChatGPT 52.1% (US, Sep 2026) First Page Sage, Oct 1, 2026 First Page Sage estimate of US monthly active users, web and mobile; counts Copilot inside ChatGPT 52.1% 74.87% (US, Sep 2026) No public method or raw data. StatCounter's US figure with Copilot added is 81.56%.
ChatGPT 55.5% of global AI web traffic FatJoe, Oct 7, 2026 Similarweb: visits to chatbot websites (Aug 2026 update) 55.5% 79.40% (World, Aug 2026) Visits to chatgpt.com versus other chatbot sites. Apps and API excluded.
ChatGPT 57.5% of worldwide web-visit share; 63.5% in the US Momentic, Oct 2026 Similarweb: visits to chatbot websites, Sep 2026 57.5% 80.47% (World, Sep 2026) US figure 63.5% against StatCounter US 74.87%.
55.5% of visits (Similarweb) and 80.5% of referrals (StatCounter) Carly, Oct 4, 2026 Quotes both; the 80.5% is StatCounter 80.5% 80.47% (World, Sep 2026) The one top-10 page that labels the two metrics. Its StatCounter figures for Sep 2025, Jan 2026 and May 2026 also match.
ChatGPT 46.4%, 1.1B users LinkedIn post, Jun 2026 Sensor Tower: monthly users of AI assistant apps and web, May 2026 46.4% 79.05% (World, May 2026) Repeats the TechCrunch figure.
ChatGPT's market share slips below 50% (46.4%) TechCrunch, Jun 16, 2026 Sensor Tower State of AI report: share of AI assistant users, end of May 2026 46.4% 79.05% (World, May 2026) Gemini 27.7% and Claude 10.3% in the same report; StatCounter had Gemini at 7.04% and Claude at 2.99% of referrals.
ChatGPT usage falls below 50% AI market share YouTube video, Jun 2026 Same Sensor Tower figure 46.4% 79.05% (World, May 2026) Same source as TechCrunch.
ChatGPT drew 56.4% of AI chatbot website visits Visual Capitalist, Oct 14, 2026 Similarweb: chatbot website visits, Sep 2026 56.4% 80.47% (World, Sep 2026) Desktop and mobile web, apps excluded.

Headline figures as published on each page, read in October 2026. Similarweb and Sensor Tower figures are as reported by those pages; we did not access either company’s data. The StatCounter column is our download for the region and month each headline refers to. Source: StatCounter Global Stats, AI Chatbot Market Share, monthly. Licensed CC BY-SA 3.0.

The gap between the measures says something useful. ChatGPT’s share of referrals (80.5%) is much higher than its share of visits to chatbot sites (about 56% to 57% in September 2026 on the pages above). Gemini’s share of referrals (10.9%) is well below its share of visits (25.0% to 25.7% on the same pages). Put together, the two measures mean a visit to ChatGPT produces more clicks out to websites than a visit to Gemini does. The data cannot say why: it could be how each product shows links, or what people ask each one.

Which number to use. For “how much traffic do chatbots send to websites”, use StatCounter: ChatGPT 80.47% of chatbot referrals worldwide, September 2026. For “which chatbot do people visit”, use a visit-based panel and say so. For “how many people use ChatGPT”, use OpenAI’s own figure, 1.2B weekly users (September 29, 2026), and note it is weekly users, not a share.

ChatGPT market share by country

Dots: average share of AI chatbot referrals, Jul 2026 to Sep 2026. * ChatGPT share swung 10 or more points in one month during the last six months.

ChatGPTGeminiPerplexityCopilotClaude0%10%20%30%40%50%60%70%80%90%100%Indonesia, average of Jul 2026 to Sep 2026: ChatGPT 85.5%, Gemini 5.3%, Perplexity 7.3%, Copilot 0.3%, Claude 1.5%IndonesiaRomania, average of Jul 2026 to Sep 2026: ChatGPT 83.8%, Gemini 9.2%, Perplexity 2.3%, Copilot 2.2%, Claude 2.5%RomaniaPakistan, average of Jul 2026 to Sep 2026: ChatGPT 82.3%, Gemini 12.7%, Perplexity 1.5%, Copilot 1.1%, Claude 2.4%PakistanPoland, average of Jul 2026 to Sep 2026: ChatGPT 81.9%, Gemini 11.5%, Perplexity 3.2%, Copilot 2.0%, Claude 1.3%PolandNepal, average of Jul 2026 to Sep 2026: ChatGPT 80.9%, Gemini 13.0%, Perplexity 2.3%, Copilot 0.8%, Claude 2.9%. ChatGPT share swung 10+ points in a month during the last six months.Nepal *Sweden, average of Jul 2026 to Sep 2026: ChatGPT 80.8%, Gemini 9.8%, Perplexity 2.8%, Copilot 3.9%, Claude 2.7%SwedenGreece, average of Jul 2026 to Sep 2026: ChatGPT 80.8%, Gemini 12.8%, Perplexity 2.2%, Copilot 2.1%, Claude 2.1%GreeceNetherlands, average of Jul 2026 to Sep 2026: ChatGPT 80.6%, Gemini 8.8%, Perplexity 3.6%, Copilot 3.9%, Claude 3.1%NetherlandsBulgaria, average of Jul 2026 to Sep 2026: ChatGPT 80.4%, Gemini 13.7%, Perplexity 2.7%, Copilot 1.6%, Claude 1.6%BulgariaMalaysia, average of Jul 2026 to Sep 2026: ChatGPT 80.0%, Gemini 13.2%, Perplexity 3.3%, Copilot 2.5%, Claude 1.0%MalaysiaBrazil, average of Jul 2026 to Sep 2026: ChatGPT 79.4%, Gemini 13.7%, Perplexity 2.2%, Copilot 2.4%, Claude 2.2%BrazilWorldwide, average of Jul 2026 to Sep 2026: ChatGPT 79.3%, Gemini 10.6%, Perplexity 5.3%, Copilot 2.5%, Claude 2.2%WorldwideFrance, average of Jul 2026 to Sep 2026: ChatGPT 78.5%, Gemini 10.6%, Perplexity 4.3%, Copilot 3.3%, Claude 3.2%FranceIndia, average of Jul 2026 to Sep 2026: ChatGPT 77.8%, Gemini 13.2%, Perplexity 4.1%, Copilot 2.0%, Claude 2.8%IndiaSouth Africa, average of Jul 2026 to Sep 2026: ChatGPT 77.8%, Gemini 8.8%, Perplexity 3.3%, Copilot 8.0%, Claude 2.1%South AfricaBelgium, average of Jul 2026 to Sep 2026: ChatGPT 77.2%, Gemini 10.9%, Perplexity 3.1%, Copilot 5.8%, Claude 3.0%BelgiumSpain, average of Jul 2026 to Sep 2026: ChatGPT 77.1%, Gemini 13.2%, Perplexity 4.2%, Copilot 3.4%, Claude 2.1%SpainGermany, average of Jul 2026 to Sep 2026: ChatGPT 76.6%, Gemini 10.9%, Perplexity 5.7%, Copilot 3.7%, Claude 3.0%GermanyChina, average of Jul 2026 to Sep 2026: ChatGPT 76.6%, Gemini 13.6%, Perplexity 1.3%, Copilot 1.6%, Claude 0.8%ChinaTurkey, average of Jul 2026 to Sep 2026: ChatGPT 76.3%, Gemini 19.7%, Perplexity 0.9%, Copilot 1.4%, Claude 1.7%TurkeyUnited Kingdom, average of Jul 2026 to Sep 2026: ChatGPT 76.1%, Gemini 10.2%, Perplexity 3.2%, Copilot 6.8%, Claude 3.8%United KingdomArgentina, average of Jul 2026 to Sep 2026: ChatGPT 75.8%, Gemini 16.3%, Perplexity 2.1%, Copilot 3.1%, Claude 2.7%ArgentinaPhilippines, average of Jul 2026 to Sep 2026: ChatGPT 75.3%, Gemini 14.0%, Perplexity 5.5%, Copilot 4.2%, Claude 1.0%PhilippinesMexico, average of Jul 2026 to Sep 2026: ChatGPT 73.9%, Gemini 17.9%, Perplexity 2.5%, Copilot 4.6%, Claude 1.1%MexicoAustralia, average of Jul 2026 to Sep 2026: ChatGPT 73.5%, Gemini 9.8%, Perplexity 4.2%, Copilot 8.7%, Claude 3.8%AustraliaSingapore, average of Jul 2026 to Sep 2026: ChatGPT 73.4%, Gemini 14.9%, Perplexity 5.6%, Copilot 2.8%, Claude 3.3%SingaporeEgypt, average of Jul 2026 to Sep 2026: ChatGPT 71.8%, Gemini 19.9%, Perplexity 4.1%, Copilot 2.4%, Claude 1.8%EgyptJapan, average of Jul 2026 to Sep 2026: ChatGPT 71.0%, Gemini 17.1%, Perplexity 2.2%, Copilot 7.5%, Claude 2.1%JapanCanada, average of Jul 2026 to Sep 2026: ChatGPT 70.9%, Gemini 14.1%, Perplexity 4.4%, Copilot 7.2%, Claude 3.3%CanadaUnited States, average of Jul 2026 to Sep 2026: ChatGPT 70.7%, Gemini 12.6%, Perplexity 4.2%, Copilot 7.9%, Claude 4.5%United StatesVietnam, average of Jul 2026 to Sep 2026: ChatGPT 70.6%, Gemini 23.2%, Perplexity 2.8%, Copilot 1.4%, Claude 2.0%VietnamThailand, average of Jul 2026 to Sep 2026: ChatGPT 69.0%, Gemini 23.9%, Perplexity 3.5%, Copilot 1.3%, Claude 2.2%ThailandItaly, average of Jul 2026 to Sep 2026: ChatGPT 68.2%, Gemini 18.4%, Perplexity 5.9%, Copilot 5.0%, Claude 2.6%ItalyHong Kong, average of Jul 2026 to Sep 2026: ChatGPT 49.0%, Gemini 29.4%, Perplexity 13.5%, Copilot 7.1%, Claude 0.6%. ChatGPT share swung 10+ points in a month during the last six months.Hong Kong *Russia, average of Jul 2026 to Sep 2026: ChatGPT 41.1%, Gemini 23.3%, Perplexity 26.5%, Copilot 3.1%, Claude 4.7%Russia

The world plus the 34 largest markets in StatCounter’s July 2022 sample-size list (at least 20 million page views that month), sorted by ChatGPT share. Three-month averages smooth single-month swings. Source: StatCounter Global Stats, AI Chatbot Market Share, monthly. Licensed CC BY-SA 3.0.

ChatGPT led in every one of the 39 large markets. Gemini was second in 37 of them, and its highest shares were in Hong Kong (29.4%), Thailand (23.9%) and Russia (23.3%). The lowest ChatGPT shares were in Russia (41.1%), Hong Kong (49.0%) and Italy (68.2%). Russia is the outlier: Perplexity took 26.5% of chatbot referrals there. The US average for the quarter was 70.7%, against 79.0% a year earlier.

Market ChatGPT Gemini Perplexity Copilot Claude Second place ChatGPT vs year earlier ChatGPT, Sep 2026 Flags
United States 70.7% 12.6% 4.2% 7.9% 4.5% Gemini -8.3 pts 74.9%
India 77.8% 13.2% 4.1% 2.0% 2.8% Gemini +0.9 pts 77.3%
Turkey 76.3% 19.7% 0.9% 1.4% 1.7% Gemini -17.6 pts 75.5%
United Kingdom 76.1% 10.2% 3.2% 6.8% 3.8% Gemini -4.6 pts 79.8%
China 76.6% 13.6% 1.3% 1.6% 0.8% Gemini +65.7 pts 81.2% DeepSeek step in 2025
Indonesia 85.5% 5.3% 7.3% 0.3% 1.5% Perplexity +5.2 pts 85.0%
Germany 76.6% 10.9% 5.7% 3.7% 3.0% Gemini -7.5 pts 78.9%
Canada 70.9% 14.1% 4.4% 7.2% 3.3% Gemini -10.8 pts 71.1%
Poland 81.9% 11.5% 3.2% 2.0% 1.3% Gemini -7.0 pts 80.6%
France 78.5% 10.6% 4.3% 3.3% 3.2% Gemini -8.5 pts 79.0%
Brazil 79.4% 13.7% 2.2% 2.4% 2.2% Gemini -10.1 pts 76.5%
Mexico 73.9% 17.9% 2.5% 4.6% 1.1% Gemini -11.7 pts 70.9%
Spain 77.1% 13.2% 4.2% 3.4% 2.1% Gemini -8.8 pts 77.6%
Australia 73.5% 9.8% 4.2% 8.7% 3.8% Gemini -11.7 pts 78.1%
Vietnam 70.6% 23.2% 2.8% 1.4% 2.0% Gemini -20.9 pts 67.4%
Malaysia 80.0% 13.2% 3.3% 2.5% 1.0% Gemini -6.9 pts 81.5%
South Africa 77.8% 8.8% 3.3% 8.0% 2.1% Gemini -1.6 pts 80.1%
Thailand 69.0% 23.9% 3.5% 1.3% 2.2% Gemini -14.4 pts 69.8%
Singapore 73.4% 14.9% 5.6% 2.8% 3.3% Gemini -3.7 pts 77.2%
Pakistan 82.3% 12.7% 1.5% 1.1% 2.4% Gemini -9.8 pts 84.0%
Italy 68.2% 18.4% 5.9% 5.0% 2.6% Gemini -16.2 pts 69.6%
Netherlands 80.6% 8.8% 3.6% 3.9% 3.1% Gemini -4.1 pts 82.7%
Hong Kong 49.0% 29.4% 13.5% 7.1% 0.6% Gemini +0.2 pts 51.7% 10+ point monthly swing
Japan 71.0% 17.1% 2.2% 7.5% 2.1% Gemini -11.8 pts 74.1%
Philippines 75.3% 14.0% 5.5% 4.2% 1.0% Gemini -7.0 pts 74.7%
Argentina 75.8% 16.3% 2.1% 3.1% 2.7% Gemini -13.7 pts 74.5%
Russia 41.1% 23.3% 26.5% 3.1% 4.7% Perplexity -8.6 pts 36.1%
Nepal 80.9% 13.0% 2.3% 0.8% 2.9% Gemini -9.6 pts 82.9% 10+ point monthly swing
Greece 80.8% 12.8% 2.2% 2.1% 2.1% Gemini -9.0 pts 81.0%
Romania 83.8% 9.2% 2.3% 2.2% 2.5% Gemini -6.1 pts 84.3%
Belgium 77.2% 10.9% 3.1% 5.8% 3.0% Gemini -5.9 pts 79.7%
Egypt 71.8% 19.9% 4.1% 2.4% 1.8% Gemini -17.4 pts 72.2%
Bulgaria 80.4% 13.7% 2.7% 1.6% 1.6% Gemini -8.1 pts 81.1%
Sweden 80.8% 9.8% 2.8% 3.9% 2.7% Gemini -4.7 pts 81.7%
Bangladesh 76.4% 18.5% 2.1% 1.2% 1.8% Gemini -11.7 pts 75.0%
Hungary 78.3% 14.4% 3.3% 2.8% 1.3% Gemini -3.7 pts 78.5%
Nigeria 74.4% 13.4% 3.6% 5.2% 3.4% Gemini -7.9 pts 77.6%
Norway 80.7% 8.3% 2.9% 5.2% 2.8% Gemini -3.9 pts 82.4%
Colombia 71.5% 19.7% 3.8% 3.0% 2.1% Gemini -15.8 pts 67.1%

Average share of AI chatbot referrals, Jul 2026 to Sep 2026, compared with Jul 2025 to Sep 2025. The 40 largest markets by StatCounter’s July 2022 page-view sample; StatCounter does not publish chatbot-specific sample sizes. Flags: ChatGPT’s monthly share moved 10 points or more in one month since Mar 2026; or DeepSeek averaged 20% or more of referrals a year earlier, before the September 2025 step change described below. Source: StatCounter Global Stats, AI Chatbot Market Share, monthly. Licensed CC BY-SA 3.0.

Desktop vs mobile

ChatGPTGeminiPerplexityCopilotClaudeWorldwideChatGPT, Sep 2026: desktop 80.01%, mobile 83.72%80.083.7Gemini, Sep 2026: desktop 11.25%, mobile 8.82%11.28.8Perplexity, Sep 2026: desktop 5.67%, mobile 6.87%5.76.9Copilot, Sep 2026: desktop 2.00%, mobile 0.33%2.00.3Claude, Sep 2026: desktop 1.05%, mobile 0.24%1.10.2DesktopMobileUnited StatesChatGPT, Sep 2026: desktop 73.90%, mobile 87.96%73.988.0Gemini, Sep 2026: desktop 13.85%, mobile 7.62%13.87.6Perplexity, Sep 2026: desktop 3.09%, mobile 2.79%3.12.8Copilot, Sep 2026: desktop 7.10%, mobile 1.14%7.11.1Claude, Sep 2026: desktop 1.96%, mobile 0.40%2.00.4DesktopMobileChatGPT bars scaled 0 to 100%; other bars scaled 0 to 30%

Share of AI chatbot referrals on desktop and mobile, Sep 2026. Source: StatCounter Global Stats, AI Chatbot Market Share, monthly. Licensed CC BY-SA 3.0.

ChatGPT’s share is higher on phones: 83.72% of mobile chatbot referrals worldwide in September 2026, against 80.01% on desktop. Copilot’s referrals come mostly from desktops: 2.00% of desktop referrals and 0.33% of mobile ones; in the US the split is 7.10% to 1.14%. Gemini had 11.25% on desktop and 8.82% on mobile. Chatbots’ share of all referrals was 1.16% on desktop and 0.08% on mobile.

How small chatbot referrals still are

StatCounter also compares chatbots with search engines and social networks as sources of referrals. In September 2026, chatbots sent 0.40% of all referral page views worldwide, up from 0.33% a year earlier; the highest month was April 2026 at 0.43%. Search engines sent 91.01%. In StatCounter’s direct Google vs ChatGPT comparison, Google had 99.61% and ChatGPT 0.39% (0.19% in the US). For a website owner, a ChatGPT share of 80.5% is a large slice of a very small pie. Our search engine market share report tests whether that small pie has dented Google’s share of search referrals.

What OpenAI itself has said about ChatGPT users

StatCounter cannot count users. OpenAI’s own posts are the only primary source for ChatGPT’s user numbers, and they are not all the same measure. Here is every user figure we found in OpenAI’s posts since September 2025, quoted exactly.

Date Figure Exact wording OpenAI post
September 15, 2025 700 million weekly active users “700 million weekly active users of ChatGPT” How people are using ChatGPT
October 6, 2025 over 800 million ChatGPT users “reach over 800 million ChatGPT users” Introducing apps in ChatGPT and the new Apps SDK (Not labelled weekly)
February 27, 2026 more than 900M weekly active users “more than 900M weekly active users, and we now have more than 50 million consumer subscribers” Scaling AI for everyone
August 6, 2026 more than 1 billion people “how more than 1 billion people are putting ChatGPT to work” From asking to doing: How the world is putting ChatGPT to work (Period not stated)
September 11, 2026 over 1 billion people each week “products used by over 1 billion people each week” Rapidly scaling online storage to serve over 1 billion ChatGPT users (All OpenAI products)
September 29, 2026 1.2B weekly users “our collective 1.2B weekly users” DevDay 2026 Recap

Source: openai.com posts, read October 2026. Figures OpenAI did not label as weekly are marked. These are company statements, not audited counts.

Over a year in which ChatGPT’s weekly users went from 700 million to 1.2 billion by OpenAI’s count, its worldwide share of chatbot referrals moved by less than a point (81.12% to 80.47%). Shares measure position against rivals; a growing market can carry a flat share and much larger absolute traffic.

Step changes to read with care

StatCounter’s daily data show several overnight jumps that look like changes in how referrals are passed or labelled rather than in what people use. We cannot see StatCounter’s raw traffic, so we cannot confirm the causes, but the timing is worth knowing before quoting any single month.

  • Copilot, May 1, 2025. Worldwide, Copilot went from 0.53% of chatbot referrals on April 30 to 4.49% on May 1, and averaged 4.78% in the following week against 0.21% the week before.
  • DeepSeek, early September 2025. DeepSeek averaged 1.89% of worldwide referrals from August 25 to September 2, 2025 and 0.04% for the rest of September. In China, its monthly share went from 96.8% in August to 8.5% in October 2025, which is why ChatGPT now leads China in this series.
  • Claude, September 10, 2026. Claude averaged 1.60% of worldwide referrals on September 1 to 9, 2026 and 0.67% from September 10 (US: 2.42% to 1.69%). In the US, Claude fell from 7.18% in July to 1.85% in September, while ChatGPT rose from 65.11% to 74.87%.
  • Gemini, December 2025. Gemini’s rise was not a single-day step: it averaged 3.21% on December 1 to 10, 2025 and 7.06% on January 1 to 10, 2026.
Do not quote October 2026 yet. StatCounter’s export already carries an October 2026 row that puts ChatGPT at 53.06% and Gemini at 27.88% worldwide. At retrieval on 2026-10-29 its daily data ran only to September 30, so the October figure rests on an incomplete and unexplained sample. We excluded it; StatCounter also says it may revise any figure for 45 days.

What this means for MSPs

Treat chatbot referrals as a small, growing channel. Chatbots sent 0.40% of referral page views in September 2026. For client websites, check analytics for chatgpt.com, gemini.google.com, perplexity.ai, copilot.microsoft.com and claude.ai referrers before recommending spend on “AI search” work; for most SMB sites the volume will be small next to Google.

Plan for more than one assistant. ChatGPT still sends most chatbot traffic, but in the US Gemini, Copilot and Claude together took 22.0% of chatbot referrals in September 2026. Clients will use several assistants, which matters for acceptable-use policies, data loss prevention rules and which AI tools you license and support. Our small business AI adoption report shows how many firms use AI at all.

Copilot shows up on desktops. Copilot’s referrals come mostly from desktops: 7.1% of US desktop chatbot referrals in September 2026, against 1.1% on mobile. Where client staff use it through Windows or Microsoft 365, it is already on the managed fleet, so set its data access through Microsoft 365 policies rather than treating it as shadow IT.

Quote the metric with the number. In a QBR or proposal, “ChatGPT has 80.5% of chatbot referrals (StatCounter, September 2026)” and “ChatGPT has 46% of AI app users (Sensor Tower, May 2026)” are both true and mean different things. The same discipline applies to desktop numbers, as our Linux market share and Windows 11 market share reports show.

Frequently asked questions

What is ChatGPT’s market share in 2026?

In September 2026, ChatGPT sent 80.47% of the website visits that AI chatbots referred worldwide, and 74.87% in the US, according to StatCounter Global Stats. Measured by visits to chatbot websites (Similarweb), the figures quoted in 2026 are around 55% to 57%; by users of AI apps (Sensor Tower, May 2026), 46.4%.

Is ChatGPT losing market share?

Not in StatCounter’s worldwide referral data: ChatGPT had 81.12% in September 2025 and 80.47% in September 2026, a change of -0.65 points. In the US it fell from 78.32% to 74.87%, with a low of 61.70% in April 2026. Visit-based and app-based trackers show a larger decline.

What is ChatGPT’s market share compared to Gemini?

In September 2026, ChatGPT had 80.47% of AI chatbot referrals worldwide and Google Gemini 10.94%, about 7.4 to 1. A year earlier Gemini had 2.82%, so its share grew 3.9 times. In the US, Gemini had 13.43%.

Which AI chatbot has the most market share?

ChatGPT, by every tracker we checked. In StatCounter’s referral data it led in all 39 large markets we examined, with the lowest shares in Russia (41.1%) and Hong Kong (49.0%) on average from Jul 2026 to Sep 2026.

What is the market share of AI chatbots compared with search?

Small. In September 2026, AI chatbots sent 0.40% of the referral page views StatCounter tracks across search engines, social networks and chatbots, against 91.01% from search engines and 8.60% from social media. Google sent about 255 referrals for every one from ChatGPT.

How many people use ChatGPT?

OpenAI said ChatGPT had 1.2B weekly users in its September 29, 2026 DevDay recap, up from 700 million weekly active users in September 2025 and more than 900 million in February 2026. StatCounter does not count users; its share figures are referral page views.

Download the data. ai-chatbot-referral-share-2025-2026.csv (CSV): monthly AI chatbot referral shares for the world, every continent and 218 countries since Apr 2025; desktop, mobile and tablet splits for the world and 28 large markets; daily world and US shares; and the search vs social vs chatbot and Google vs ChatGPT series. Derived from StatCounter Global Stats and shared, as StatCounter’s license requires, under CC BY-SA 3.0. Credit StatCounter Global Stats (with a link) and The Uptime Report.

Methodology

Sources. StatCounter Global Stats: “AI Chatbot Market Share” (all platforms, desktop, mobile and tablet), “Search vs Social vs AI Chatbot” and “Google vs ChatGPT”, monthly, downloaded as CSV from StatCounter’s chart export on 2026-10-29; daily AI chatbot data for the world and the US, April 1, 2025 to September 30, 2026. User figures from OpenAI’s own posts on openai.com. The headline pages in the reconciliation table, read in October 2026.

Definitions. StatCounter’s AI chatbot share is each chatbot’s share of page views on sites running the StatCounter tracker that were referred by a tracked chatbot (ChatGPT, Google Gemini, Perplexity, Microsoft Copilot, Claude, DeepSeek and a small “Other”). Country rankings use the simple average of the three latest complete months (Jul 2026 to Sep 2026). “Large markets” are countries with at least 20 million page views in StatCounter’s July 2022 sample, the latest sample-size list it publishes.

Coverage. StatCounter’s chatbot series begins in April 2025; earlier months are zero in its export. September 2026 is the latest complete month; October 2026 was partial at retrieval and is excluded from every figure except the warning above.

Limitations. Referrals depend on chatbots passing a referrer when a user clicks a link; apps and in-chat answers that send no click are invisible. StatCounter’s sample is the sites that use its tracker, unweighted. It says it removes bot activity and may revise figures for 45 days. Similarweb, Sensor Tower and First Page Sage figures are quoted from the pages that published them; we did not access those companies’ data.

Not advice. This is an analysis of public usage data, not a product recommendation.

Cite as:The Uptime Report. "ChatGPT Market Share Is 80.5%: Gemini Quadrupled, Mostly at Perplexity's and Copilot's Expense." October 2026. https://theuptimereport.com/chatgpt-market-share/

References

  1. StatCounter Global Stats, AI Chatbot Market Share Worldwide (and country, device and daily views via the chart CSV export). Accessed October 2026.
  2. StatCounter Global Stats, Search vs Social vs AI Chatbot Market Share and Google vs ChatGPT Market Share. Accessed October 2026.
  3. StatCounter Global Stats, FAQ (methodology, referrals, bots, revisions, license). Accessed October 2026.
  4. StatCounter, sample size by country, July 2022. Accessed October 2026.
  5. OpenAI, How people are using ChatGPT, September 15, 2025. Accessed October 2026.
  6. OpenAI, Introducing apps in ChatGPT and the new Apps SDK, October 6, 2025. Accessed October 2026.
  7. OpenAI, Scaling AI for everyone, February 27, 2026. Accessed October 2026.
  8. OpenAI, From asking to doing: How the world is putting ChatGPT to work, August 6, 2026. Accessed October 2026.
  9. OpenAI, Rapidly scaling online storage to serve over 1 billion ChatGPT users, September 11, 2026. Accessed October 2026.
  10. OpenAI, DevDay 2026 Recap, September 29, 2026. Accessed October 2026.
  11. Headline sources in the reconciliation table: First Page Sage, FatJoe, Momentic, Carly, TechCrunch, Visual Capitalist, Reddit r/charts, LinkedIn, YouTube. Accessed October 2026.

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Comments

3 responses to “ChatGPT Market Share Is 80.5%: Gemini Quadrupled, Mostly at Perplexity’s and Copilot’s Expense”

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