Gemini adoption surges as Google aims to close ChatGPT gap

Generative AI chatbot adoption is accelerating dramatically, with Google’s Gemini seeing explosive user growth while still trailing OpenAI’s ChatGPT. This race for market dominance illustrates the evolving competitive landscape in consumer AI, even as companies grapple with the substantial computational costs of running these increasingly sophisticated models.

The big picture: Google’s Gemini has reached 350 million monthly active users as of March 2025, representing a massive increase from just tens of millions in late 2024.

• The daily user count has jumped to 35 million, up from merely 9 million users late last year.
• These figures were revealed during testimony from Sissie Hsiao at Google’s antitrust remedies trial, highlighting how usage data has become central to the competitive AI landscape.

Where Google stands: Despite Gemini’s growth surge, Google’s analysis shows ChatGPT still maintains a commanding lead with approximately 600 million monthly active users.

• OpenAI’s ChatGPT has also experienced significant growth, up from around 400 million monthly users reported earlier this year.
• Google has been actively monitoring ChatGPT’s traffic as it works to close this substantial gap.

Behind the growth: Google’s recent releases of improved AI models and expanded platform integrations appear to be driving Gemini’s adoption trajectory.

• The company has launched Gemini 2.0 and 2.5 models, both demonstrating clear improvements over previous versions.
• Google has also been embedding Gemini features throughout its ecosystem, though the company acknowledges some integrations have proven more frustrating than helpful.

The financial paradox: While user growth is typically celebrated in tech, generative AI presents an unusual business challenge where more users can actually mean bigger losses.

• Each person using Gemini or ChatGPT adds to the company’s operational expenses due to the computational intensity of generative AI.
• OpenAI has acknowledged losing money even on its $200 monthly subscription plan, suggesting the industry is still searching for sustainable business models.

Why this matters: The rapid growth of consumer AI platforms is creating an expensive race for market dominance, where companies are currently prioritizing user acquisition over profitability.

• The long-term viability of these AI products depends on either significantly reducing computational costs or developing more effective monetization strategies.