Google Gemini Nears 1 Billion Monthly Users as AI Competition Heats Up

Google’s AI assistant Gemini is closing in on a major milestone after the company revealed it now has more than 950 million monthly users. The update, shared during Alphabet’s second-quarter 2026 earnings call, puts Gemini on track to become another Google product with more than one billion users.

Gemini joins a portfolio of Google services that have already surpassed the billion-user mark, including Search, Gmail, Drive, Android, YouTube and Chrome. The company also said Gemini’s monthly user base has tripled over the past year, up from 750 million monthly active users reported in February.

Gemini gains ground against ChatGPT.

The rapid growth positions Gemini as a stronger competitor toOpenAI’ss ChatGPT, which reached 1 billion monthly active users in June. Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai attributed Gemini’s momentum to the rollout of new AI-powered features, including Daily Brief and the personalised AI agent Gemini Spark, now available in the United States and other international markets.

"Users love new agentic features like Daily Brief and our personalized agent, Gemini Spark," Pichai said during the earnings call, adding that Google has continued introducing new capabilities at a rapid pace.

Beyond Android, Gemini has also expanded its presence on iOS. The launch of features such as the Nano Banana image generation model helped increase adoption, with Appfigures reporting more than 137 million iOS downloads over the past 12 months.

AI competition continues to intensify.

New market data suggests competition among AI assistants is becoming more balanced. According to SensorTower’s State of AI report for the first half of 2026, ChatGPT’s market share dropped below 50% for the first time, while Gemini’s share increased to 27.7%.

Google also highlighted continued growth in its AI-powered Search experience. The company said its Q&A-style AI Mode has now surpassed 1 billion users and is contributing to an increase in search queries. At the same time, Google said improvements in hardware engineering have reduced the operating costs of AI Mode even as it continues rolling out more advanced models and features.