- ChatGPT lost 18.7 points of share among the top eight AI assistants in a year; Gemini and Claude gained most
- WorkBuddy is the fastest-growing AI product with 10M+ visits (+140.1% MoM)
- Other Industries is the fastest-growing category this month (+17.5% like-for-like)
AI Chatbot Market Share: ChatGPT vs Gemini vs Claude
Over the last 12 months ChatGPT’s share fell 18.7 points; Gemini gained the most (+12.6 points), followed by Claude (+7.4).
| Assistant | September 2025 | August 2026 | Change (pts) | Visits |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 74.6% | 55.9% | -18.7 | 5.6B |
| 13.4% | 25.9% | +12.6 | 2.6B |
| 2.0% | 9.4% | +7.4 | 950.2M |
| 4.2% | 3.5% | -0.7 | 354.2M |
| 2.2% | 2.1% | -0.2 | 209.6M |
| 1.1% | 1.6% | +0.5 | 159.8M |
| 2.1% | 0.9% | -1.2 | 95.2M |
| 0.4% | 0.6% | +0.2 | 61.1M |
Monthly share breakdown
| Month | ChatGPT | Gemini | Claude | DeepSeek | Grok | 豆包 | PerplexityAI | Kimi |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025-09 | 74.6% | 13.4% | 2.0% | 4.2% | 2.2% | 1.1% | 2.1% | 0.4% |
| 2025-10 | 73.0% | 14.0% | 2.3% | 4.2% | 2.4% | 1.0% | 2.6% | 0.3% |
| 2025-11 | 70.6% | 16.3% | 2.2% | 4.2% | 2.8% | 1.1% | 2.3% | 0.5% |
| 2025-12 | 66.1% | 20.8% | 2.1% | 3.9% | 3.2% | 1.3% | 2.2% | 0.5% |
| 2026-01 | 64.1% | 23.2% | 2.3% | 3.4% | 3.5% | 1.3% | 1.9% | 0.4% |
| 2026-02 | 62.1% | 24.5% | 3.4% | 3.2% | 3.5% | 1.1% | 1.8% | 0.5% |
| 2026-03 | 57.4% | 26.0% | 6.1% | 3.5% | 3.3% | 1.6% | 1.7% | 0.5% |
| 2026-04 | 54.3% | 27.2% | 8.1% | 4.1% | 2.8% | 1.6% | 1.5% | 0.4% |
| 2026-05 | 53.3% | 27.8% | 9.1% | 4.1% | 2.3% | 1.5% | 1.3% | 0.4% |
| 2026-06 | 53.4% | 28.4% | 9.4% | 3.7% | 2.1% | 1.5% | 1.1% | 0.4% |
| 2026-07 | 54.6% | 26.9% | 9.7% | 3.5% | 2.1% | 1.5% | 1.0% | 0.6% |
| 2026-08 | 55.9% | 25.9% | 9.4% | 3.5% | 2.1% | 1.6% | 0.9% | 0.6% |
Share of web visits among these eight products; the sample is fixed so months are comparable. Not total market share, and not share of users.
From one dominant player to a multi-player race. ChatGPT is still far ahead — about 2.2x Gemini’s share — but it gave up 18.7 points in 12 months. Users are not leaving AI assistants; they are adding or switching to others.
The lost share was not spread evenly: Gemini and Claude captured 96% of all share gains. A plausible explanation: Gemini rides on distribution through Google Search, Android and Workspace; Claude has built a strong reputation in coding, long documents and research. For newcomers, the general-assistant entry point is being re-divided among a few giants; differentiation is more likely to come from vertical use cases.
Notably, ChatGPT’s share has risen for 3 straight months (53.3% → 55.9%). The race may be moving from erosion to a standoff — the next few months matter more than the past year’s cumulative change.
Fastest-Growing AI Tools This Month
Among AI products with 10M+ monthly visits, WorkBuddy grew fastest (+140.1% month over month) to 14.9M visits.
Products with 10M+ monthly visits only; suspected data breaks excluded (see methodology). Full fastest-growing chart →
5 products with 10M+ visits grew more than 40% this month. Big month-over-month jumps usually belong to products just past launch; a single month is a signal worth following, not a verdict. Check each product’s 12-month trend before drawing conclusions.
A decline is not necessarily decay: seasonality, redesigns and domain changes can all dent a single month. Two or three consecutive months of decline are the real warning sign.
Most Visited AI Websites: How Concentrated Is AI Traffic?
ChatGPT alone accounts for 32.6% of all tracked visits; the top 10 AI websites take 65.9% and the top 100 take 82.0% — the remaining 17,324 sites share the other 18.0%.
Top 20 AI websites by traffic →
A “typical” AI website (the median) gets about 14.2K visits a month — 5 orders of magnitude below ChatGPT. For most AI products the real competition is not ChatGPT but other products in the same niche.
Such concentration also means distribution — search, app stores, directories, social platforms — is scarcer than features. Outside the top tier, the ability to acquire users often decides whether an AI product survives.
Which AI Categories Are Growing
General AI takes 64.0% of all visits. Among categories with 50M+ visits, Other Industries grew fastest (+17.5% like-for-like) and News & Analytics declined the most (-8.1%).
| Category | Share of visits | Visits | MoM | Sites | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| General AI | 64.0% | 11.1B | +0.8% | 2,225 | |
| Image & Design | 9.6% | 1.7B | +0.5% | 1,431 |  |
| Office & Collaboration | 6.1% | 1.1B | -3.3% | 1,249 |  |
| Characters & Fun | 4.0% | 699.1M | -0.6% | 359 |  |
| Programming | 3.1% | 537.4M | -2.6% | 1,769 |  |
| Industry Services | 2.6% | 442.4M | -1.3% | 3,134 |  |
| Marketing & Sales | 2.3% | 390.8M | -3.5% | 2,175 |  |
| Video | 2.1% | 367.7M | -1.3% | 903 |  |
| Audio | 1.8% | 311.4M | +2.0% | 735 |  |
| Education & Research | 1.6% | 281.3M | +6.3% | 1,030 |  |
| Writing | 1.1% | 191.2M | -0.8% | 674 |  |
| Other Industries | 0.9% | 158.4M | +17.5% | 1,191 |  |
| News & Analytics | 0.7% | 120.7M | -8.1% | 549 |  |
Industry Services has the most products (3,134 sites) yet only 2.6% of visits; its average site gets 14% of the overall average — crowded and fragmented, a classic long-tail category: easy to enter, hard to scale.
Education & Research grew +6.3% like-for-like, in line with the back-to-school season — a seasonal lift that should not be extrapolated.
Most Popular AI by Country: China, US, India
In China, DeepSeek leads on the web and 豆包 leads in apps; in the US, ChatGPT leads on both web and apps; in India, ChatGPT leads on both web and apps.
China is split: different products win on the web and in apps, so the entry point is not yet unified — while in the US and India one product wins both. That calls for very different channel strategies.
India is one of ChatGPT’s biggest growth markets on mobile, with about 4.1x the US downloads over 30 days. Downloads measure acquisition, not engagement or payment — compare with the in-app revenue below.
AI Apps: Downloads and In-App Purchase Revenue
ChatGPT leads both downloads (78.7M over 30 days, August 2026) and in-app purchase revenue (about $313.8M, August 2026); Claude ranks second by revenue.
| App | Category | Top 10 by in-app purchase revenue |
|---|---|---|
| General AI | ||
| General AI | ||
| Image & Design | ||
| General AI | ||
| Image & Design | ||
| Image & Design | ||
| Image & Design | ||
| Characters & Fun | ||
| Image & Design | ||
| Characters & Fun |
| App | Category | Top 10 by downloads |
|---|---|---|
| General AI | ||
| General AI | ||
| General AI | ||
| General AI | ||
| General AI | ||
| Image & Design | ||
| Image & Design | ||
| Video | ||
| Image & Design | ||
| Image & Design |
In-app purchase revenue covers App Store and Google Play only (including subscriptions); it excludes Android app stores in mainland China and other revenue such as web subscriptions or API sales, so it is not total company revenue. AI app downloads chart →
In-app revenue is even more concentrated than downloads: ChatGPT earns about 3.0x the runner-up Claude, and 54% of the top-10 total.
Downloads are not revenue: Google Gemini, 豆包, Meta AI are top-10 by downloads but not by in-app revenue — they rely more on pre-installs, ecosystem traffic or free tiers than on in-app purchases; for 豆包, the measure also excludes Android app stores in mainland China.
5 of the top 10 earners are image or video creation apps (Canva, Meitu, Hypic, …): on mobile, creative tools remain the most reliable paid category after AI assistants.
FAQ
How much traffic do AI websites get?
According to AlphaMoat, the 17,424 AI websites we track received 17.3B visits in August 2026 (+0.3% like-for-like month over month).
What is ChatGPT’s market share?
Among eight leading AI assistants (ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, DeepSeek, Grok, Doubao, Kimi, Perplexity), ChatGPT held 55.9% of web visits in August 2026, down from 74.6% in September 2025. This is share of web visits among these eight products, not share of users.
What is the most visited AI website?
ChatGPT was the most visited AI website in August 2026 (5.6B visits), 32.6% of all tracked visits.
Which AI tools are growing fastest?
Among AI products with 10M+ monthly visits, WorkBuddy grew fastest (+140.1% month over month) to 14.9M visits.
Which AI app makes the most money?
By App Store and Google Play in-app purchase revenue (including subscriptions), ChatGPT earned the most over the last 30 days as of August 2026 — about $313.8M. This excludes Android app stores in mainland China and other channels such as web subscriptions, so it is not total company revenue.
Where does this data come from, and how often is it updated?
Web figures are third-party estimates of monthly visits, with a product’s multiple domains consolidated. App figures are trailing 30-day download and in-app purchase revenue estimates. The page updates monthly; web and app data are each labelled with their own data month.
Methodology
- Visits are third-party estimates of monthly web visits (desktop and mobile web), best read for scale and trend; a product’s multiple domains are consolidated.
- Like-for-like month-over-month only compares products with data in both months; newly tracked products are excluded so that catalogue growth is not mistaken for traffic growth.
- Products whose visits fell below 30% of, or rose above 4x, the previous month are treated as suspected data breaks and excluded from growth figures and mover lists (1,129 this month, notably NotebookLM (159.8M → 12.9M), Fastmoss (5.0M → 847.4K)). Their raw figures remain on their own product pages.
- AI assistant share is each product’s share of web visits among eight fixed products (ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, DeepSeek, Grok, Doubao, Kimi, Perplexity) — comparable month to month, but not total market share and not share of users.
- App downloads are trailing 30-day estimates. In-app purchase revenue covers App Store and Google Play only (including subscriptions); it excludes Android app stores in mainland China and other revenue such as web subscriptions or API sales, so it is not total company revenue.
- Web, app-download and app-revenue data may cover different months; each is labelled separately and they are never added together.