Google’s Gemini Reaches 350 Million Monthly Active Users but Lags Rivals

Gemini, Google’s chatbot, grew to reach 350 million monthly active users in March but still lagged behind ChatGPT and Meta AI, TechCrunch reported Wednesday (April 23), citing data revealed during Google’s antitrust suit.

The data also showed that Gemini increased its number of daily active users fourfold since October, according to the report. The chatbot had 35 million daily active users in March, up from 9 million in October.

While the chatbot has gained widespread consumer adoption, it lags behind its two most popular competitors, the report said.

OpenAI’s ChatGPT had 600 million monthly active users in March, according to the Google data, and Meta AI had about 500 million monthly active users in September, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg said at the time, per the TechCrunch report.

It was reported April 3 that Google removed the head of Gemini as the AI chatbot continues to lag behind ChatGPT. Sissie Hsiao stepped down to be replaced by Josh Woodward, the head of Google Labs who oversaw the launch of NotebookLM.

Google DeepMind CEO Demis Hassabis reportedly told staffers in a memo that the change in leadership would “sharpen our focus on the next evolution of the Gemini app.”

During a February earnings call, Google CEO Sundar Pichai said the company plans to insert ads in the Gemini multimodal model, as it did in the AI Overviews portion of its search engine in an attempt to recoup the high costs of processing AI workloads.

Gemini ads will not come in 2025, and Google will focus on offering a free and paid version of Gemini, Pichai said.

“We do have very good ideas for native ad concepts,” Pichai said during the call. “But you will see us lead with the user experience” and first make sure it works at scale.

In December, Pichai told Google staff that 2025 will be a crucial year for the company and “the stakes are high” as Google focuses on unlocking the benefits of technology and solving real user problems.

Gemini is a top priority, and Google believes this will be its next app to reach 500 million users, Pichai said.

“But we have some work to do in 2025 to close the gap and establish a leadership position there as well,” Pichai said.

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