Google Gemini web traffic soars 643% as ChatGPT growth slows

Traffic data like this doesn’t measure raw model capability, but it does show how quickly the demand side of the AGI race is rebalancing. A year ago, consumer generative AI was essentially a one‑horse market; now Gemini, Claude, Grok and Perplexity form a real competitive pack. If SimilarWeb’s numbers hold, Google is finally converting its infrastructure and distribution edge into sustained usage gains, not just one‑off launch spikes.([officechai.com](https://officechai.com/ai/google-geminis-traffic-grew-643-y-o-y-in-feb-2026-chatgpts-grew-37-similarweb-data/))

Strategically, a 600%‑plus growth rate suggests that Google’s bet on tightly coupling Gemini to Search, Android, and Workspace is working. As Gemini’s share rises, OpenAI loses some de‑facto standard status with both users and regulators, which could matter in future antitrust or safety proceedings. The downturn in DeepSeek’s traffic is a reminder that “viral frontier model” is not a durable moat; without continuous differentiation, usage can evaporate as fast as it arrived.

For the race to AGI, diversified user bases mean multiple labs will accumulate high‑quality interaction data at scale, feeding back into training and evaluation. That makes the contest less about who has the single biggest product and more about who can turn heterogeneous usage patterns into stable, aligned, continually improving systems.