ChatGPT, which initiated the AI ​​boom and was long considered the sole leader, has recently been losing market share to its competitors. The most notable growth during this period was achieved by Google Gemini. Recent traffic analysis published by SimilarWeb shows that Google Gemini has achieved significant growth momentum and doubled its market share within a year.

ChatGPT’s dominance is diminishing

Gemini, which accounted for only 6.4 percent of total traffic to generative AI tools last year, has increased this share to 12.9 percent today. In contrast, ChatGPT’s market share has fallen from 87.1 percent to 74.1 percent during the same period. OpenAI’s tool remains the industry leader with 700 to 800 million weekly users.

However, the rapid closing of the gap is remarkable. Investor Chamath Palihapitiya, assessing this outlook, argues that tech giants with strong distribution will be decisive in this race, and that companies like Google, leveraging their existing ecosystem, can achieve more aggressive growth in the long term.

One of the key drivers behind Gemini’s rise is its visual editing tool, Nano Banana. Nano Banana launched as a feature that allows users to create and edit images.

This tool, which generated significant buzz on social media upon its initial release, attracted a significant number of new users to Gemini. Following Nano Banana’s launch in August, Gemini app downloads increased by 331 percent compared to the end of July. In the US market alone, the increase between September and October was 88 percent.

During the same period, Adobe Firefly’s downloads decreased by between 68 percent and 82 percent. Following this rapid rise, Gemini surpassed ChatGPT in the list of most downloaded free apps on iOS.

Although the race is still led by ChatGPT, it is clear that the “era of one-sided superiority” is over, and the generative artificial intelligence market is expected to witness much fiercer competition in the coming period.