The monthly users of Google's artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot Gemini app have surpassed 1 billion. As users of OpenAI's ChatGPT topped 1 billion and now Gemini has too, analysts say consumer AI chatbots are establishing themselves as mainstream platforms.
Google CEO Sundar Pichai said on the social media platform X that the Gemini app's monthly active users (MAU) have exceeded 1 billion on the 11th (local time). He said, "Gemini is one of the fastest-growing products in Google's history," adding that the Gemini app has become the 14th Google product to secure 1 billion users.
Gemini is rapidly closing in on ChatGPT. ChatGPT surpassed 1 billion MAU in June. Gemini app MAU rose from 750 million in February to 950 million at the end of July, and surpassed 1 billion last week. That means users increased by 250 million in half a year.
The 1 billion released this time counts only users of the independently launched Gemini app, excluding Gemini features linked to other Google services such as Search, Workspace, and Android.
According to Google, 63% of Gemini users are speaking directly with the AI model using the voice feature instead of typing text. One in five voice conversations also used camera video or the screen sharing feature.
Thirty-eight percent of conversations used at schools included attachments. Analysts say this is because students attach documents or images needed for their studies when asking questions. It was found that small and midsize businesses mainly use Gemini's content generation features such as video or image creation. As a result, the number of images Gemini generates in a day has surpassed 150 million.
Gemini's growth was not limited to Google's own platforms. According to Google, users accessing Gemini through iPhones alone have exceeded 100 million. For macOS users, it was found they use Gemini twice as often as users on other platforms.
However, it is difficult to make a uniform comparison between Gemini and ChatGPT based solely on user numbers. That is because Google and OpenAI use different counting standards. OpenAI calculated users across all of its AI services, while Google compiled statistics this time only for users who used Gemini in app form.
Also, OpenAI mainly uses weekly active users (WAU), meaning people who use the service at least once a week, as a key metric, while Google uses MAU to count people who used the service at least once a month.
OpenAI said ChatGPT's WAU in July surpassed 1 billion. If weekly users are 1 billion, monthly users are likely higher.