Ranked: the most-used AI chatbots on the web in 2026
ChatGPT still gets 56.4% of all AI chatbot website visits, but that's down from 71.8% a year ago. Gemini now holds a quarter of the market and Claude has more than quadrupled its share. Here's the latest Similarweb data, in charts.
On this page
Similarweb published its latest generative AI traffic numbers on October 12, 2026. They cover September and show how much the chatbot market has changed in a year. ChatGPT is still far ahead, with 56.4% of worldwide AI chatbot website visits. A year earlier it had 71.8%. Most of that share went to Google's Gemini, which now gets one visit in four, and to Anthropic's Claude, which has climbed into a clear third place.
The ranking
Here are the seven chatbots in Similarweb's tracker, ranked by their share of worldwide website visits in September 2026.
Source: Similarweb, September 2026. Chart: HelloAITech.
The same numbers as a table:
| Rank | Chatbot | Company | Share, Sep 2026 | Share, Oct 2025 | Change |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | ChatGPT | OpenAI | 56.4% | 71.8% | −15.4 pts |
| 2 | Gemini | 25.0% | 13.6% | +11.4 pts | |
| 3 | Claude | Anthropic | 9.6% | 2.3% | +7.3 pts |
| 4 | DeepSeek | DeepSeek | 3.4% | 4.1% | −0.7 pts |
| 5 | Grok | xAI | 2.3% | 2.8% | −0.5 pts |
| 6 | Copilot | Microsoft | 1.5% | 2.0% | −0.5 pts |
| 7 | Perplexity | Perplexity | 0.9% | 2.5% | −1.6 pts |
The seven shares add up to 99.1%. Similarweb doesn't name the sites that make up the rest.
A year of change
A year ago, the chatbot web was basically ChatGPT's alone. It had almost three-quarters of all visits, and no rival had more than 14%. Twelve months later, three companies have real shares.
Source: Similarweb. Chart: HelloAITech.
Only two chatbots gained share: Gemini and Claude. Everyone else lost ground, including the smaller players that looked like challengers a year ago. Perplexity had the biggest drop after ChatGPT, falling from 2.5% to 0.9%. DeepSeek, which made headlines in early 2025, is down to 3.4%.
A falling share doesn't necessarily mean ChatGPT is shrinking. If the whole market grows, ChatGPT can lose share and still get more visits than before. Similarweb's update shows only shares, not visit counts, so it can't answer that question by itself.
The trend: Gemini's surge has stalled
Similarweb's last two monthly updates cover eight different months between September 2025 and September 2026. Put together, they show a clear turn this summer.
Source: Similarweb updates for August and September 2026. Dotted lines join months with no published data. Chart: HelloAITech.
| Month | ChatGPT | Gemini | Claude |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sep 2025 | 73.3% | 12.9% | 1.9% |
| Oct 2025 | 71.8% | 13.6% | 2.3% |
| Mar 2026 | 56.7% | 25.4% | 6.0% |
| Apr 2026 | 53.7% | 26.7% | 8.0% |
| Jun 2026 | 52.7% | 27.8% | 9.2% |
| Jul 2026 | 54.3% | 26.6% | 9.6% |
| Aug 2026 | 55.6% | 25.6% | 9.3% |
| Sep 2026 | 56.4% | 25.0% | 9.6% |
Three things stand out:
- Gemini's big jump happened over the winter. Its share almost doubled between October and March, then it crept up to its June peak of 27.8%. Since then it has lost share every month.
- ChatGPT bottomed out in June at 52.7% and has gained share in each of the three months since.
- Claude grew fastest in the first half of 2026, from 6.0% in March to 9.2% in June, and has stayed between 9.2% and 9.6% since.
Who keeps people around longest
Share of visits is one measure. Engagement is another. Similarweb's ranking of the top AI chatbot and tool sites for September 2026 also shows how long a typical visit lasts.
| Site | Rank in AI category | Avg. visit duration | Pages per visit |
|---|---|---|---|
| chatgpt.com | 1 | 6:43 | 4.75 |
| gemini.google.com | 2 | 6:30 | 4.21 |
| claude.ai | 3 | 5:57 | 4.17 |
| chat.deepseek.com | 4 | 5:22 | 3.22 |
| grok.com | 6 | 10:24 | 9.62 |
| character.ai | 7 | 15:21 | 12.25 |
| perplexity.ai | 8 | 4:19 | 3.69 |
| copilot.microsoft.com | 9 | 4:17 | 3.07 |
The big three assistants are very close: a typical visit lasts six to seven minutes. The sites with the longest visits are companion and entertainment chatbots. Character.ai visits average more than 15 minutes, and Grok visits more than 10. That fits how people use them: for long, casual chats rather than quick questions. Character.ai ranks seventh among AI sites but isn't in Similarweb's seven-chatbot share list, so the share chart above doesn't include companion apps.
What this data doesn't show
Similarweb's data is also an estimate built from panels and traffic modelling, not a count from the companies themselves. It's the most widely cited source for this kind of comparison, but treat small differences, such as tenths of a point, as noise.
What it means for builders
- ChatGPT is still the default. If you're building a GPT, an app integration or content that answers questions people ask chatbots, ChatGPT is where most of the web audience is.
- It's a three-company market now. Gemini and Claude together get more than a third of visits. If your product, docs or brand need to show up in AI answers, test how all three describe you, not just ChatGPT.
- Claude's web audience is worth taking seriously. It went from a niche tool to almost 10% of visits in a year, helped by its strength in coding and long tasks. We covered its latest models in our Claude Opus 5.5 and Claude Sonnet 5.5 posts.
- Watch the newcomers. Meta's Muse Wonder launched after this data was collected. It will be the first real test of whether a fourth player can break into the top tier.
Bottom line
ChatGPT is still the most-used AI chatbot on the web by a wide margin, but its share has fallen from almost three-quarters to just over half in a year. Gemini took most of that share, Claude took much of the rest, and the smaller chatbots have all lost ground. Over the summer, Gemini's growth stalled and ChatGPT started to win back a little share. If you build with or for AI chatbots, plan for at least three major platforms, and keep in mind that apps and built-in assistants make up a large part of usage these numbers don't show.
Sources
Written by
HelloAITech Team · Editor
We cover the latest announcements and features in AI, with a special focus on Claude and Anthropic, and write practical guides to help you put them to work.