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Similarweb — AI Chatbot Traffic & Market Share (Published Data)

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Source: ai-research/similarweb-gen-ai-market-winners-2026-06-30.md, ai-research/similarweb-gen-ai-stats-2026-06-30.md, ai-research/similarweb-most-used-ai-aug-2025-2026-06-30.md, ai-research/similarweb-chatgpt-monthly-visits-2026-06-30.md, ai-research/momentic-ai-chatbot-market-share-2026-06-30.md, ai-research/ppcland-genai-traffic-share-june-2026-2026-06-30.md, ai-research/searchenginejournal-gemini-gains-share-2026-06-30.md — Similarweb (own blog + Global AI Tracker) and secondary sources that compile Similarweb data

The actual published Similarweb chatbot-traffic figures (the data gated behind the trackers are not). Similarweb releases this monthly via its own blog, a “Global AI Tracker,” and a widely-cited LinkedIn update. The one-line story: ChatGPT is still #1 by raw web traffic, but its share of generative-AI web traffic has roughly halved in ~16 months — from the mid-80s% in early 2025 to the low-50s% by mid-2026 — as Gemini surged (~5% → ~27%) and Claude went from a rounding error to third place (~1.4% → ~8–9%). Every figure below is dated and attributed; read the web-only caveat before quoting any of it.

Key Takeaways

  • ChatGPT’s share roughly halved. Similarweb’s own Global AI Tracker: 86% (Jan 2025) → 64% (Jan 2026) → 52.7% (May 26, 2026). ^[inferred] (the three points come from SEJ’s Jan reading and PPC Land’s June-update reading of the same tracker.)
  • Gemini is the big winner: ~5% (Jan 2025) → 21% (Jan 2026) → 27.3% (May 2026). April 2026 set a record 2.76B monthly web visits (+574% YoY per officechai/Similarweb).
  • Claude rocketed to third: ~1.4–1.6% → 8.2–8.9% in 12 months; 203M (Jan 2026) → 824M (Apr 2026) web visits (+306% in a quarter); US share 12.5% in April 2026.
  • Absolute monthly web visits, April 2026 (worldwide): ChatGPT 5.51B · Gemini 2.76B · Claude 824M · DeepSeek 411M · Grok 279M · Perplexity 155M · Copilot 130M — combined 10.07B; ChatGPT + Gemini ≈ 82%.
  • Growth Sep 2024 → Mar 2026 (Similarweb): ChatGPT web visits +84%, Gemini ~9x, Claude ~770%.
  • The caveat that changes everything: these are web visits to the chatbot domains only — they exclude API, native mobile apps, embedded assistants (Copilot in Windows/Office, Gemini in Search/Workspace), and coding tools (Claude Code, Cursor). Share also depends on the app-set/denominator, so Similarweb’s own tracker (52.7%) and Momentic’s seven-app set (54.7%) differ by a few points for roughly the same date.

Absolute monthly web visits (Similarweb)

Representative months (worldwide visits to each platform’s primary web domain):

MonthChatGPTGeminiClaudeDeepSeekGrokPerplexity
2025-013.85B268M77M278M1.2M100M
2025-085.85B723M148M319M191M148M
2025-125.52B1.74B173M329M271M180M
2026-045.51B2.76B824M411M279M155M

The shape of the story: ChatGPT’s raw web visits plateaued around 5.5–6B from mid-2025 onward, while Gemini (268M → 2.76B) and Claude (77M → 824M) did almost all the growing. ^[inferred] (2025 monthly figures from Similarweb’s “Winners and Losers”; Aug 2025 from “Most Used Gen-AI”; April 2026 from Momentic’s Similarweb-sourced table.)

Earlier anchor: ChatGPT.com scaled 2.6B → 5.7B (+117% YoY) to July 2025; Perplexity ~3x YoY to ~140M; Gemini ~700M (July 2025) — at which point ChatGPT had >8x Gemini’s web traffic. By April 2026 that gap was 2x.

Market-share trend

Momentic’s seven-app web-visit share (computed from Similarweb visits; quarterly snapshots, Feb 2025 → Apr 2026):

ChatbotFeb 2025→→→Q1 2026Apr 2026
ChatGPT76.5%79.0%78.2%70.8%62.4%54.7%
Gemini5.6%7.6%9.7%16.4%24.6%27.4%
Claude1.4%1.4%2.0%2.2%3.4%8.2%
DeepSeek12.0%6.3%4.3%4.2%3.2%4.1%
Grok1.0%2.6%2.6%2.8%3.5%2.8%
Perplexity2.2%1.8%2.0%2.3%1.8%1.5%
Copilot1.3%1.3%1.3%1.3%1.1%1.3%

Similarweb’s own Global AI Tracker gives slightly different share numbers (different denominator): ChatGPT 86% → 64% over the year to Jan 2026 (Gemini 5% → 21%); then 52.7% by May 26, 2026 (Gemini 27.3%, Claude 8.9%, DeepSeek 4.0%, Grok 2.8%, Copilot 2.0%, Perplexity 1.3%). Same trajectory, ±2–3 pp on the absolute share.

Growth & engagement

  • Platform growth, Sep 2024 → Mar 2026 (Similarweb Gen AI Stats): ChatGPT web visits +84%; Gemini ~9x; Claude ~770%. App MAU over the same window: ChatGPT +156%, Gemini +1,100%, Claude ~3x in Jan–Mar 2026 alone.
  • 2025 full-year web-visit growth (Similarweb): Grok +22,388% (Grok 3 launch), Gemini +548%, Meta.ai +169%, Claude +125%, Perplexity +80%, ChatGPT +43%, DeepSeek +18%. (DeepSeek spiked +121% in Feb 2025, 277M → 614M.)
  • Engagement (Similarweb, mid-2025): ChatGPT led on app stickiness (43.87% daily, Aug 2025) vs Gemini’s 5.59% — many Android-pushed Gemini installs go unused. Web engagement (July 2025): ChatGPT 4.14 pages/visit, 425s, 30% bounce; Gemini 3.72 / 377s / 31%; Perplexity 3.81 / 322s / 30%.

The web-only caveat (read before quoting)

Similarweb’s gen-AI numbers measure website visits to the platforms’ domains (chatgpt.com, gemini.google.com, claude.ai, etc.), worldwide, desktop + mobile web. They do not capture:

  • API usage — where most heavy enterprise OpenAI/Anthropic revenue flows.
  • Native mobile apps (except where reflected in web), and embedded assistants — Copilot inside Windows/Office, Gemini inside Google Search/Workspace — which never hit a standalone web domain.
  • Coding tools — Claude Code, Cursor, GitHub Copilot.

So the data understates API-heavy players (Anthropic, OpenAI enterprise) and ecosystem-embedded players (Google, Microsoft). It also measures share, which depends on the chosen app-set — which is why “ChatGPT’s share” reads 52.7%, 54.7%, or 76.85% in the same quarter across Similarweb’s own tracker, Momentic’s seven-app set, and other panels (Statcounter, Apptopia). None is wrong; they answer different questions.

Why it matters for GEO

  • It’s a three-horse web race now (ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude) where it was a one-platform market 18 months ago — so a visibility strategy built around a single engine is a risk (Similarweb’s own framing). Track all engines.
  • Visit share ≠ influence. A platform’s traffic share is not the same as its referral output or citation weight — Claude and Perplexity punch well above their visit weight on outbound referrals, and AI visibility (being cited in answers) decoupled from AI referrals long ago. ^[inferred] See B2B vs B2C AI Visibility and Downstream Impact.
  • The visits/referrals decoupling (AI visits climbing toward 1.5B/month while referrals stay flat at 240–280M) is the same Similarweb data viewed from the publisher side — see AI Search Trends.

Try It

  • Right-size the opportunity: weight your GEO effort by where your audience actually is — for most consumer brands that’s ChatGPT + Gemini (≈82% of web visits); for technical/B2B audiences, Claude and Perplexity matter far more than their ~10% combined visit share implies.
  • Don’t quote share without the denominator + date — say “ChatGPT held 54.7% of seven-app web-visit share in April 2026 (Similarweb via Momentic),” not “ChatGPT has 55% market share.”
  • Re-pull monthly: the trend moves ~2 pp/month; this article is a 2026-06-30 snapshot. Similarweb’s blog (now watchlisted) and its LinkedIn Global AI Tracker post fresh numbers each month.

Open Questions

  • Similarweb’s own Global AI Tracker share (52.7%, May 2026) and Momentic’s seven-app share (54.7%, Apr 2026) differ by ~2 pp for near-identical dates because of denominator/app-set differences — the exact composition of Similarweb’s tracker “Other” bucket isn’t published.
  • Web-only measurement structurally undercounts API and embedded usage; there is no published Similarweb figure that reconciles web visits with total (API + app + embedded) usage.

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