Google is on the verge of adding another product to its exclusive club of services with over a billion users, which already includes Search, Gmail, Drive, Android, YouTube, and Chrome. The company revealed during its Q2 2026 earnings call that its AI assistant Gemini now has more than 950 million monthly active users.
User Growth Triples Year Over Year
The company noted that Gemini's user base has tripled compared to last year. In February, Google reported that the Gemini app had surpassed 750 million monthly active users. This rapid growth positions Google's assistant to compete more directly with OpenAI's ChatGPT, which reached 1 billion monthly active users in June.
Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai highlighted the appeal of new agentic features during the call. "Users love new agentic features like Daily Brief and our personalized agent, Gemini Spark, which is now available in the U.S. and internationally. We've been shipping helpful new features like this at an incredible pace," Pichai said.
Strong iOS Presence Boosts Adoption
Beyond Android users, the Gemini app has built a significant user base on iOS, driven by launches such as the Nano Banana image generation model. According to data from Appfigures, the app has been downloaded over 137 million times on iOS in the past 12 months.
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Market Share Shifts Among AI Assistants
In its latest "State of AI" report, analytics firm Sensor Tower noted that ChatGPT's market share among AI assistants fell below 50% for the first time. The report, which covered the first half of 2026, also indicated that Gemini's share rose to 27.7%.
AI Search Mode Also Crosses Billion Users
Many users are turning to AI assistant apps as a replacement for traditional search. However, Google reported that its search business remains strong, partly due to an AI-centric overhaul. During the quarter, the company's Q&A-style AI mode surpassed 1 billion users. Google stated that this feature is driving "an incremental increase" in search queries. The company also noted that through hardware engineering, it has reduced the cost of operating AI mode, even as it introduces new models and features.