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ZDNET’s key takeaways
- Visits to gemini.google.com have doubled over the past year.
- Web traffic to other chatbots has declined or remained steady.
- Users say Gemini excels in routine tasks and app integration.
Visits to gemini.google.com — the web domain for Google’s flagship AI chatbot — have more than doubled over the past year, according to new data from data aggregation company Similarweb.
The Gemini webpage now constitutes 12.9% of total web traffic to online generative AI tools, Similarweb found, up from 6.4% in 2024.
Also: ChatGPT was down Thursday – what we know about the outage
The data also shows that ChatGPT web usage overwhelmingly dominates that of other leading chatbots, representing around 74% of total chatbot web traffic. But that number is down from a year ago, when it stood at around 87% — indicating a possibly loosening grip on the market as more conversational AI chatbots join the market, and as competitors like Google and Anthropic expand their AI offerings.
Traffic to xAI’s Grok has seen marginal decline over the past six months (from 3.1% to 2%), while Microsoft Copilot’s has remained roughly steady (currently representing 1.2% of total traffic), according to Similarweb.
Methodological limitations
Similarweb acknowledges that its measuring methodology is imperfect, however, since visits to a chatbot’s primary web address don’t necessarily reflect usage across the board.
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In Google’s case, Gemini has been embedded across a number of the company’s AI tools, including AI Overviews, which has become a core feature within its search engine. Measuring visits to gemini.google.com therefore only reflects one small slice of a probably much larger pie.
Also: 5 reasons I use local AI on my desktop – instead of ChatGPT, Gemini, or Claude
“Comparing Gemini on this standalone basis with ChatGPT is misleading because it doesn’t take into account Google’s much broader AI initiatives,” Similarweb spokesman David Carr told ZDNET via email. “We’ve been working on segmenting out [Gemini’s] contribution to Google search, but that’s more challenging, with both AI Overviews and AI Mode to account for.”
To determine a more complete picture of the most popular AI chatbot, you’d also need to look at app downloads and active user numbers.
What Gemini has over other chatbots
Still, the spike in web traffic to Gemini’s website is impressive, especially compared to the decline or plateauing of similar tools. What accounts for such dramatic growth?
When ZDNET asked users about the particular strengths of Gemini over other chatbots, a number of users highlighted its usefulness across a wide range of tasks – even if its competitors excel in more specialized domains.
Also: Spend too much time scheduling meetings? This Gemini feature could save you the hassle
“Compared to Gemini, ChatGPT and Claude are more helpful with in-depth writing and ideation, but for fast and everyday tasks, Gemini is unparalleled,” said Baruch Labunski, founder of SEO company Rank Secure. “It’s true Gemini is not perfect…Nevertheless, for everyday organisation and routine tasks, it is Gemini I find myself relying on the most.” (Rank Secure has a strategic partnership with Google, providing it with early access to certain beta features, among other perks.)
Similarly, Jenny Kay Pollock, cofounder of Women X AI, a platform designed to connect women working across the AI sector, said that Gemini-based tools like NotebookLM and Gemini 2.5 Flash Image (aka Nano Banana) give Google an edge over its competitors.
“Each foundation model has its strengths,” she told ZDNET. “ChatGPT for creativity, Claude for depth, and Gemini for integrated, multimodal work.” (Gemini 2.5 Flash Image is accessible via the Gemini website, but NotebookLM is a separate platform, so the latter’s popularity can’t be directly linked to the website’s jump in traffic over the past year.)
Also: Beware of promptware: How researchers broke into Google Home via Gemini
Other users also mentioned the integration factor, noting that Gemini’s major strength is the fact that it can seamlessly draw from their personal data across Google’s suite of other apps.
“The fact that [Gemini] integrates with tools such as Gmail or Google Docs means that my workflow from research through to content creation is much more fluid,” said Michael Pedrotti, cofounder of GhostCap, a company specializing in video game server hosting.
Labunski echoed that point: “Gemini is seamless within my ecosystem of Google services,” he said. “The ability to integrate seamlessly with Gmail, Drive, and Docs means I don’t have to juggle multiple apps to get work done.”
Also: Google’s new Jules Tools is very cool – how I’m using it and other Gemini AI CLIs
Other tech developers have also been leaning more heavily into integrating their flagship AI chatbots with popular personal and workplace productivity services. Earlier this month, for example, Microsoft announced that its Copilot AI assistant could connect with and retrieve information from users’ personal accounts across Outlook, Google Drive, Gmail, and other apps.
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