Green Owl

AI

ChatGPT's lead

A year ago, 3 of every 4 visits to an AI chatbot website went to ChatGPT. Now it's about half. Here's where they went.

Numbers as of 24 Sept 2026

The full story

  1. ChatGPT’s lead: its share of visits to AI chatbot websites fell from 76.4 percent in May 2025 to 52.7 percent in May 2026. Gemini rose from 8.9 to 27.3 percent, Claude from 1.6 to 8.9, DeepSeek slipped from 5.3 to 4.0, Grok stayed at 2.8, and others went from 3.7 to 3.3. The others grew faster.
  2. Still the biggest: ChatGPT's website got 5.6 billion visits in May 2026, about twice Gemini's. Still ahead because 900 million people use it weekly, OpenAI's own count from February 2026, and its app isn't in this chart, which counts websites only. Its slice shrank. It is far from small.
  3. The biggest climber: Gemini's website got 2.9 billion visits in May 2026, 5.5 times a year earlier. What drove it: Gemini 3, launched 18 November 2025 in the app and in Google Search, and Google’s own doors, Android, Chrome and Search. Some of those visits start inside Google’s own products.
  4. The fastest climber: Claude's website got 953 million visits in May 2026, 9.6 times a year earlier. What drove it: a Super Bowl ad on 8 February 2026 pitching Claude as ad-free, and a new model, Claude Opus 4.6, on 5 February. Still only about a sixth of ChatGPT's visits.
  5. The one that held still: DeepSeek's website got 430 million visits in May 2026, about the same as a year ago. Its big moment was early 2025, with 615 million visits in February after its R1 model went viral. Since then the whole field of AI websites grew 70 percent in an average month. Its visits he
  6. The one that peaked: Grok's website got 245 million visits in May 2026, 1.4 times a year ago. Its best month was March 2026, with 326 million visits, a record. Then it slipped, down about a quarter by May. Visits up 37 percent, and its slice held at 2.8 percent.
  7. The twist: ChatGPT didn't lose visitors. Its website visits were up 2 percent, 5.6 billion. Gemini up 450 percent, 2.9 billion. Claude up 855 percent, 953 million. DeepSeek down 1 percent, 430 million. Share fell. Visits didn't. The rest of the chart: Grok up 37 percent, Copilot up 42 percent, Perpl
  8. Which AI do you open first? A row of the ChatGPT, Gemini and Claude logos, plus an ellipsis labeled Other. Below, with generous spacing: Better than ChatGPT? Follow Green Owl if you want more.

Share of visits to the seven biggest AI chatbot websites, May 2025 vs May 2026 (Similarweb).

ChatGPT: 76% to 53%. Gemini: 9% to 27%. Google's chatbot tripled its share. Claude: 1.6% to 8.9%. Anthropic's went from last of the seven to third. DeepSeek: 5% to 4%. Grok: 2.8% both times. Copilot and Perplexity together: 3.7% to 3.3%.

One thing the chart doesn't show: ChatGPT didn't lose visitors. Its visits were roughly flat year over year; the others grew around it, so its slice shrank.

Also: this counts website visits only. Phone apps aren't included, and ChatGPT's app is huge, so its real reach is bigger than this.

Want to see how this looks now?

When enough people ask, we re-check the numbers and redraw it.

Where the numbers come from

Show all 16 sources

Companies in this picture

AnthropicDeepSeekGoogleOpenAIxAI

More like this

+6 cards+2+2+3+8 cards+9