ChatGPT drops below 50% of AI market share for the first time, report shows
Gemini and Claude are gaining ground fast, and that changes the math of where your business needs to show up.
In short
A report published by TechCrunch in June 2026 shows ChatGPT fell to 46.4% of the AI market, below 50% for the first time since launch. Gemini already holds 27.7% and Claude 10.3%, and the three together add up to more than 2 billion monthly active users. For anyone who wants to be recommended by AI, this means one thing: it's no longer enough to think about ChatGPT alone.
The drop nobody expected this fast
In January 2026, ChatGPT still held more than half the AI assistant market. Five months later, according to Sensor Tower's State of AI 2026 report, its share fell to 46.4%. It's the first time the tool has dropped below 50% since it launched.
Source: TechCrunchThere are at least three different conversations happening about your business, not just one.
Who's growing
Google's Gemini now accounts for 27.7% of the market, and Anthropic's Claude has reached 10.3%. Together, ChatGPT, Gemini and Claude add up to more than 2 billion monthly active users. Showing up in just one AI stopped being enough a while ago, but now it's even clearer: there are at least three different conversations happening about your business, not just one.
What this changes for local business owners
If your AI visibility strategy, if you have one, was built with ChatGPT alone in mind, it's already outdated. A customer who asks Gemini or Claude about your type of business needs to find the same clear, consistent information they'd find on ChatGPT. The good news: the fundamentals are the same across all three AIs, so getting it right once solves it for all three.
Frequently asked questions
Does this mean ChatGPT is losing relevance?
Not exactly. ChatGPT is still, by far, the most used AI, with more than 1.1 billion monthly users. What changed is that it stopped being practically the only option: more and more people also use Gemini or Claude, so ignoring those two means missing out on a real slice of potential customers.
Do I need to do something different for each AI?
No. The foundation is the same: clear, consistent, structured information about your business, published in a way any AI can read and understand. What changes is just making sure that foundation is available to all of them, instead of optimizing for just one AI.
How do I know if Gemini or Claude already know my business?
With a free MerbIQ scan: in 60 seconds we ask ChatGPT, Gemini and the leading AIs about your business at the same time, and show you exactly what each one answers today. That way you can see if you're missing from any of those conversations.
Our take
Big market news usually talks about app stores, funding rounds, fights between giants. But what matters to a small business here is simple: the more spread out the AI market gets, the less sense it makes to bet everything on one tool. We think it's worth small business owners knowing these numbers, not to become tech market experts, but to understand why "showing up well on ChatGPT" is no longer the whole yardstick.
See how ChatGPT, Gemini and Claude see your business today.
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