Is it Google, is it a GPT? Here’s who’s winning the AI race
As of early 2026, ChatGPT leads AI platform traffic with 60–65% market share, but Google Gemini is rapidly gaining ground with integration into Google Search and a $1 billion annual deal with Apple, signalling a potential shift in dominance. Picture: Camille Cohen / AFP
Image: Camille Cohen / AFP
A couple of years ago, the Artificial Intelligence (AI) landscape had a rather different landscape with OpenAI’s ChatGPT the dominant force in the land.
Back in 2022 when ChatGPT first began to surge in popularity as users shifted from traditional web browser searches to AI-assisted research, it seemed like there were no other major players in the market.
If you used AI in your workflow, it was highly likely that it was ChatGPT.
However, as 2026 has dawned, Google Gemini has become a major threat to ChatGPT’s market dominance.
ChatGPT Leads AI Traffic, But Google Gemini’s Integration with Apple Signals Rising Dominance
According to web traffic analytics, ChatGPT still leads overall AI platform traffic worldwide, commanding roughly around 60–65% of shared visits as of early 2026. Gemini is listed as having between 13 and 20% market share, but this figure is constantly increasing.
Gemini, though, is rapidly rising and gaining substantial ground. This is down to the fact that Google now integrates Gemini into its search functionality, meaning users don’t actually have to download a separate app to access the AI-enabled ability.
Another big shift came earlier this week, with the news that Apple will soon be ditching ChatGPT in favour of Google Gemini.
Apple had already been using OpenAI’s ChatGPT for the majority of its AI tasks.ChatGPT was integrated with Siri (the Apple voice assistant) in late 2024, as Apple symbolically acknowledged it could not do the job properly itself.Things have changed since then, though, as Google Gemini has overtaken ChatGPT in popularity and arguably functionality too.
The deal is said to be worth $1 billion per year, which Apple will pay Google.
Yes, ChatGPT is still the leader - but Google Gemini will only keep improving and it certainly seems it will dominate over the long term.