- ChatGPT recorded its lowest SEO market share since industry tracking officially began
- Google Gemini continued its expansion with the integration of Android, Chrome, Search and Workspace.
- Perplexity regained its traffic share after months of declining SEO activity across all platforms
New market figures suggest OpenAI’s ChatGPT is gradually losing SEO share as competitors gain ground in the increasingly competitive AI chatbot sector.
The latest data from Statcounter claims that ChatGPT accounted for 76.85% of AI chatbot referrals in April 2026 – which may seem high, but it’s actually the lowest share recorded by the platform after three straight months of losses for OpenAI, which stood at over 84% just a year ago.
Google Gemini continues to grow, reaching an all-time high of 9% market share and holding second place for two months in a row, with Perplexity and Copilot also rebounding after months of decline, while a recent rise for Claude has started to subside.
Rivals grow as OpenAI plunges
Aodhan Cullen, CEO of Statcounter, said the AI chatbot SEO market is entering a whole new phase of competition.
Google’s strategy of integrating Gemini into Search, Android, Workspace and Chrome is clearly paying off in terms of user adoption – the question now being whether Gemini can break the 10% barrier in the coming months.
Perplexity rose to 7.73% from 7.07% in March 2026, regaining some of the share lost over the past year.
Copilot climbed to 3.76% from 3.19%, although both remain well below their respective 2025 highs.
Claude’s SEO share fell to 2.66% in April, from 2.91% in March this year, a period which saw him more than double his share in a single month, and was widely attributed to the ‘QuitGPT’ movement.
This followed OpenAI’s controversial deal with the Pentagon, which prompted many users to look for alternatives.
Weekly data had already indicated that the rise was slowing, with Claude’s share peaking at 3.6% in week 12 before falling again.
Cullen said Claude’s data makes a useful case study in news-related adoption patterns because the initial spike was dramatic, but some decline was expected given the nature of these movements.
At 2.66%, Claude remains significantly above its level at the start of the year at only 0.92% in January.
What this means for website owners and marketers
The dominance of OpenAI’s ChatGPT is gradually eroding over time as traffic spreads in an increasingly competitive field.
For website owners and digital marketers, optimizing for a single AI tool is no longer a sufficient strategy.
Generative engine optimization across multiple platforms should be part of any digital marketing plan going forward.
The AI chatbot market is fragmenting and no single player can claim permanent dominance.
ChatGPT is still well ahead, but its share has fallen by almost 8 percentage points in a single year.
Google Gemini is approaching double-digit share and the challengers combined now hold more than 23% of the reference market.
Website owners who rely on traffic generated by ChatGPT should also diversify their generative engine optimization strategies across Gemini, Perplexity, Copilot, and Claude.
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