Sensor Tower 2026 AI Report: ChatGPT's market share falls below 50% for the first time, industry accelerates shift towards commercial monetization

According to the latest "2026 Artificial Intelligence Status Report" released by Sensor Tower, as users migrate between different AI assistants, ChatGPT's global market share fell below 50% for the first time at the end of May this year, dropping to 46.4%. Nevertheless, ChatGPT remains the global leader with over 1.1 billion monthly active users (MAU); Google Gemini and Claude under Anthropic follow closely, occupying 27.7% (662 million MAU) and 10.3% (245 million MAU) of the market share, respectively.

The report points out that as the growth rates of downloads and spending slow down, the AI industry is shifting from pure user expansion to commercial monetization. It is expected that in the first half of 2026, global AI app downloads will approach 2.3 billion, and total user spending will exceed $4.2 billion. In terms of paid subscriptions, Claude stands out with a leading industry conversion rate of 13%.

In addition, the commercialization paths of AI platforms are becoming increasingly diverse. Since February of this year, ChatGPT has been testing its advertising business, and as of May, about 17% of daily active users have been shown ads, primarily focused on software and shopping. At the same time, the role of AI assistants in e-commerce guidance is becoming more prominent, profoundly influencing consumer purchasing behavior and the traffic distribution of major retail platforms.