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Google’s Gemini Surpasses 950 Million Monthly Users as AI Assistant Race Intensifies

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Google reported that its AI assistant Gemini has surpassed 950 million monthly active users, tripling its user base over the past year, according to the company’s Q2 2026 earnings call. The milestone follows Gemini crossing 750 million monthly users in February and positions it closer to rival OpenAI’s ChatGPT, which reached 1 billion monthly users in June.

Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai said users have responded well to new agentic features such as Daily Brief and the personalized assistant Gemini Spark, now available in the U.S. and internationally, adding that the company has continued shipping new capabilities at a rapid pace.

Beyond Android, Gemini has built a substantial iOS following, aided by features like the Nano Banana image generation model, with over 137 million iOS downloads recorded in the past 12 months, according to Appfigures. Separately, analytics firm Sensor Tower reported that ChatGPT’s market share among AI assistants fell below 50% for the first time in its latest industry report, while Gemini’s share climbed to 27.7%.

Google also said its AI-driven search overhaul continues to perform well, with its Q&A-style AI Mode surpassing 1 billion users and contributing to incremental growth in overall search queries, while hardware improvements have helped lower associated costs.

James Dargan
About the author
James Dargan

James Dargan is a writer and researcher at The AI Insider. His focus is on the AI startup ecosystem and he writes articles on the space that have a tone accessible to the average reader.

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