Gemini and ChatGPT both top one billion users

Google Chief Executive Officer Sundar Pichai announced that Gemini has reached one billion monthly users, making it the fastest-growing product in the company's history. According to Google spokesperson Alex Joseph, the platform officially crossed the threshold last week. This follows a rapid climb from 750 million monthly users in February to 950 million in late July. Gemini's mobile presence has driven much of this expansion. Josh Woodward, the head of Gemini, revealed that the assistant has surpassed 100 million active users on iOS, indicating that Android users make up the overwhelming majority of its user base.

OpenAI reached its own milestone slightly earlier, quietly disclosing in an August 6 blog post that "more than 1 billion people are putting ChatGPT to work" to solve tasks. Company spokesperson Lindsay McCallum clarified that ChatGPT reached one billion weekly active users in July. However, this milestone also highlights a deceleration in growth for the chatbot. OpenAI previously reported 900 million weekly active users in February, meaning it took five months to add the next 100 million weekly users.

While direct comparisons are difficult because OpenAI measures weekly users and Google tracks monthly users, the data suggests ChatGPT remains the larger platform while Gemini is expanding at a faster rate. Meanwhile, competitors like Anthropic do not disclose official user numbers for Claude, though external estimates place its audience in the tens of millions. The rapid rise of Gemini, fueled by its integration into Android devices, shows that OpenAI's early lead is shrinking. As both giants surpass the billion-user mark, the competition is shifting from pure user acquisition to retaining those audiences and finding sustainable ways to monetize their services.