Ivan Mehta, writing for TechCrunch:

Google is about to add another name to its long list of products with more than a billion users, a list that already includes Search, Gmail, Drive, Android, YouTube, and Chrome. The company said during its Q2 2026 call that the AI assistant Gemini now has over 950 million monthly users.

The company noted that Gemini users have tripled from last year. Earlier, in February, it said that the Gemini app crossed 750 million monthly active users. With this growth, Google’s assistant is in line to compete more closely with OpenAI’s ChatGPT, which hit 1 billion monthly active users in June.

ChatGPT reaching 1 billion users through a singularly focused app demonstrates strong organic interest. This is quite different from Google reaching a similar milestone by integrating Gemini into virtually every Search product and service it already offers, all of which had massive existing user bases to begin with. It is also akin to Meta touting Threads as a huge success when, in reality, it largely piggybacked on promotion to existing Instagram users.