ChatGPT’s user growth has slowed, report finds (techcrunch.com)

ChatGPT's user growth is experiencing a slowdown, according to Sensor Tower's recent report. Despite maintaining dominance with 50% of global mobile downloads and 55% of monthly active users (approximately 810 million), ChatGPT's growth rate has decreased to just 6% from August to November 2025. In contrast, Google's Gemini is gaining traction, with a significant 30% rise in monthly active users during the same period, bolstered by the launch of its image generation model, Nano Banana. This shift in user engagement raises concerns for OpenAI, prompting a “code red” internally to focus on enhancing AI product offerings in key areas such as personalization and image generation. The implications of these findings are noteworthy for the AI/ML community as they underscore a competitive landscape where user preferences and app performance metrics are critical. Despite both ChatGPT and Gemini showing year-over-year growth (180% and 170%, respectively), the data suggests ChatGPT might be approaching market saturation, while Gemini's integration with Android provides a tactical advantage, increasing user engagement and time spent in-app. With rivals like Perplexity and Claude also registering impressive growth, OpenAI faces the challenge of innovating rapidly to regain its momentum in a fast-evolving AI marketplace.