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AI Observatory · September 2026 edition

Who wins the AI audience, and who actually sends the clicks.

Every month, SEO360 compiles public data from StatCounter, Similarweb and national panels to measure the weight of ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, Perplexity and Copilot across 20 countries and 8 languages.

  • August 2026 data
  • 27 areas tracked
  • 4 public sources
Portrait of Kamel Malek
By Kamel MalekFounder of SEO360 · author of three books on generative search
ChatGPT · clicks sent to websites79.4%−1.5 pts over 12 monthsStatCounter
Gemini · clicks sent to websites10.9%+8.7 pts over 12 monthsStatCounter
ChatGPT · audience share55.5%−17.8 pts over 12 monthsSimilarweb
Claude · audience share9.3%+7.4 pts over 12 monthsSimilarweb
01 · Traffic sent to websites

Gemini has overtaken Perplexity; ChatGPT holds its 79%.

When an assistant cites a source and the user clicks, StatCounter records the visit. ChatGPT still accounts for 79.4% of those clicks worldwide in August 2026, almost unchanged over a year (80.9% in August 2025).

Behind it, the order has changed. Gemini went from 2.2% to 10.9% and has been ahead of Perplexity since March 2026. Perplexity lost almost half its share (8.1% → 4.3%), and so did Copilot (5.2% → 2.8%).

Share of clicks sent to websites, excluding ChatGPT, worldwide, Aug 2025 – Aug 2026
GeminiPerplexityCopilotClaude
051015Gemini overtakes Perplexity
Gemini 10.9%Perplexity 4.3%Copilot 2.8%Claude 2.5%
Aug 25Dec 25Apr 26Aug 26
View the data
AreaChatGPTGeminiPerplexityCopilotClaude
Aug 2580.9%2.2%8.1%5.2%0.9%
Sep 2581.1%2.8%10.8%4.0%1.0%
Oct 2581.3%3.0%11.1%3.5%1.0%
Nov 2581.8%3.0%11.1%3.1%1.1%
Dec 2579.7%4.7%10.8%3.6%1.1%
Jan 2680.5%7.2%7.9%3.5%0.9%
Feb 2680.0%7.5%7.9%3.3%1.4%
Mar 2678.2%8.7%7.1%3.2%2.9%
Apr 2676.8%9.0%7.7%3.8%2.7%
May 2679.0%7.0%7.7%3.2%3.0%
Jun 2676.9%8.0%7.9%3.5%3.7%
Jul 2677.9%9.9%5.9%3.1%3.2%
Aug 2679.4%10.9%4.3%2.8%2.5%

Source: StatCounter

02 · Audience

ChatGPT lost a quarter of its audience share in a year.

Similarweb measures visits to the assistants' websites. ChatGPT's share fell from 73.3% to 55.5%.

Gemini doubled (12.9% → 25.6%) and Claude grew fivefold (1.9% → 9.3%). DeepSeek, Grok, Copilot and Perplexity declined.

Share of visits to AI assistant websites, worldwide
12 months agoAugust 2026
020406080
ChatGPT
55.5%−17.8 pts
Gemini
25.6%+12.7 pts
Claude
9.3%+7.4 pts
DeepSeek
3.4%−0.6 pts
Grok
2.4%−0.2 pts
Copilot
1.6%−0.4 pts
Perplexity
0.9%−1.1 pts
View the data
Assistant12 months agoAugust 2026
ChatGPT73.3%55.5%
Gemini12.9%25.6%
Claude1.9%9.3%
DeepSeek4.0%3.4%
Grok2.6%2.4%
Copilot2.0%1.6%
Perplexity2.0%0.9%

Source: Similarweb

03 · Audience or clicks

Being consulted is not the same as sending traffic.

Side by side, the two measures diverge. Gemini has 25.6% of the audience but 10.9% of the clicks sent to websites: its answers generate proportionally fewer visits to websites.

Conversely, Perplexity, which cites its sources in every answer, sends 4.3% of clicks with 0.9% of the audience. For a brand, the first measure tells you where to be cited, the second where traffic will come from.

Audience and clicks sent, worldwide, August 2026
Audience · SimilarwebClicks sent · StatCounter
55.5%ChatGPT79.4%
25.6%Gemini10.9%
9.3%Claude2.5%
0.9%Perplexity4.3%
1.6%Copilot2.8%
3.4%DeepSeek< 0.1%
2.4%Groknot measured
View the data
AssistantAudience · SimilarwebClicks sent · StatCounter
ChatGPT55.5%79.4%
Gemini25.6%10.9%
Claude9.3%2.5%
Perplexity0.9%4.3%
Copilot1.6%2.8%
DeepSeek3.4%< 0.1%
Grok2.4%—

Source: Similarweb, StatCounter

04 · Countries

Explore 20 countries and 6 continents.

Choose the assistant to map, then a country to see the full breakdown and its 12-month trend.

ChatGPT leads everywhere. What changes from one market to another is the gap with the challengers: Gemini tops 15% in Chile, Colombia, Mexico, Argentina, Italy and Japan, while Copilot remains strong in English-speaking countries.

Colour by share of
Share of clicks sent to websites, August 2026
8.7%19.6%
Continents and world

World

ChatGPT 79.4%

Breakdown of clicks sent to websites, August 2026

  • ChatGPT79.4%−1.5 pts
  • Gemini10.9%+8.7 pts
  • Perplexity4.3%−3.8 pts
  • Copilot2.8%−2.4 pts
  • Claude2.5%+1.6 pts

ChatGPT's challengers over 13 months

051015
Aug 25Dec 25Apr 26Aug 26
View the data
AreaChatGPTGeminiPerplexityCopilotClaude
World79.4% −1.5 pts10.9% +8.7 pts4.3% −3.8 pts2.8% −2.4 pts2.5% +1.6 pts
Europe79.2% −5.9 pts10.9% +9.3 pts3.5% −1.5 pts3.5% −3.6 pts2.8% +2.1 pts
North America72.7% −7.4 pts12.5% +9.8 pts3.6% −2.3 pts7.4% −2.4 pts3.9% +2.8 pts
South America76.8% −10.6 pts15.8% +13.0 pts2.6% −1.2 pts2.4% −2.8 pts2.4% +1.9 pts
Asia81.9% +3.5 pts9.8% +7.6 pts5.0% −5.9 pts1.2% −1.6 pts2.1% +1.1 pts
Africa73.2% −11.7 pts16.5% +14.4 pts3.2% −1.2 pts4.5% −2.9 pts2.7% +2.0 pts
Oceania72.4% −12.1 pts10.6% +9.0 pts3.5% −1.2 pts9.4% +1.1 pts4.2% +3.4 pts
France80.5% −6.4 pts10.1% +9.0 pts3.4% −1.6 pts3.2% −3.0 pts2.9% +2.1 pts
Belgium78.1% −4.6 pts11.2% +9.9 pts2.2% −2.0 pts5.4% −5.7 pts3.1% +2.5 pts
Morocco80.9% −11.1 pts13.9% +13.0 pts1.8% −1.0 pts1.2% −1.4 pts2.2% +0.9 pts
Spain78.5% −7.7 pts12.6% +11.0 pts3.5% −1.3 pts3.1% −3.7 pts2.3% +1.8 pts
Mexico74.8% −11.3 pts17.0% +14.6 pts2.1% −1.6 pts4.5% −2.1 pts1.6% +0.9 pts
Argentina77.1% −12.5 pts15.0% +12.2 pts2.0% +0.2 pts3.0% −2.0 pts2.8% +2.2 pts
Colombia72.7% −14.6 pts18.6% +15.9 pts3.5% −1.8 pts3.2% −0.8 pts2.1% +1.4 pts
Chile71.2% −17.4 pts19.6% +16.4 pts3.4% −0.3 pts2.7% −1.0 pts3.0% +2.5 pts
Peru80.0% −6.9 pts14.1% +11.8 pts2.9% −4.0 pts1.3% −1.8 pts1.7% +1.2 pts
United States72.3% −6.3 pts11.7% +9.0 pts3.7% −2.7 pts7.9% −2.6 pts4.4% +3.1 pts
United Kingdom77.5% −3.1 pts9.3% +7.1 pts2.8% −2.6 pts6.4% −4.0 pts4.0% +2.8 pts
Canada73.3% −8.5 pts12.0% +10.0 pts4.3% −1.6 pts7.1% −2.1 pts3.3% +2.4 pts
Germany77.8% −6.4 pts9.9% +8.4 pts5.5% −1.2 pts3.8% −2.8 pts3.0% +2.2 pts
Switzerland76.8% −8.7 pts11.6% +10.1 pts4.9% −2.2 pts2.9% −2.0 pts3.8% +2.9 pts
Italy69.3% −14.8 pts17.5% +15.4 pts5.0% +0.8 pts5.3% −3.2 pts2.8% +2.0 pts
Portugal81.5% −5.3 pts9.7% +8.2 pts2.8% −1.2 pts3.4% −3.5 pts2.6% +2.0 pts
Netherlands81.6% −2.0 pts8.7% +7.1 pts3.3% −2.1 pts3.2% −5.4 pts3.2% +2.5 pts
Brazil79.8% −9.9 pts13.1% +10.4 pts2.1% +0.3 pts2.3% −2.9 pts2.8% +2.4 pts
India78.7% +2.1 pts12.8% +10.1 pts3.6% −11.4 pts1.9% −3.3 pts3.1% +2.6 pts
Japan72.4% −10.3 pts16.0% +11.4 pts2.0% −2.8 pts7.1% +2.1 pts2.5% +1.4 pts

Source: StatCounter

05 · Trend

The same shift in every major market.

Across the eight areas tracked month by month, Gemini is growing everywhere and Copilot is declining everywhere. Perplexity is declining too, except in Italy (4.2% → 5.0%).

The pace differs: in Italy Gemini reaches 17.5% of clicks sent, against 9.3% in the United Kingdom.

Share of clicks sent to websites, Aug 2025 – Aug 2026 (same scale for every market)
GeminiPerplexityCopilotClaude
WorldChatGPT 79.4%
05101520
Aug 25Dec 25Apr 26Aug 26
FranceChatGPT 80.5%
05101520
Aug 25Dec 25Apr 26Aug 26
SpainChatGPT 78.5%
05101520
Aug 25Dec 25Apr 26Aug 26
United StatesChatGPT 72.3%
05101520
Aug 25Dec 25Apr 26Aug 26
United KingdomChatGPT 77.5%
05101520
Aug 25Dec 25Apr 26Aug 26
GermanyChatGPT 77.8%
05101520
Aug 25Dec 25Apr 26Aug 26
ItalyChatGPT 69.3%
05101520
Aug 25Dec 25Apr 26Aug 26
MexicoChatGPT 74.8%
05101520
Aug 25Dec 25Apr 26Aug 26
View the data
AreaGeminiPerplexityCopilotClaude
World2.2% → 10.9%8.1% → 4.3%5.2% → 2.8%0.9% → 2.5%
France1.1% → 10.1%5.0% → 3.4%6.1% → 3.2%0.8% → 2.9%
Spain1.6% → 12.6%4.8% → 3.5%6.8% → 3.1%0.5% → 2.3%
United States2.8% → 11.7%6.4% → 3.7%10.5% → 7.9%1.3% → 4.4%
United Kingdom2.2% → 9.3%5.4% → 2.8%10.4% → 6.4%1.1% → 4.0%
Germany1.5% → 9.9%6.8% → 5.5%6.6% → 3.8%0.8% → 3.0%
Italy2.1% → 17.5%4.2% → 5.0%8.6% → 5.3%0.8% → 2.8%
Mexico2.5% → 17.0%3.7% → 2.1%6.6% → 4.5%0.7% → 1.6%

Source: StatCounter

06 · Languages

Each assistant's weight, language by language.

StatCounter does not publish data by language: each point is the simple average of the countries where the language dominates, with multilingual countries counted in full.

Gemini weighs more in Spanish-speaking countries; Copilot in English-speaking countries and Japan; Claude in English-speaking countries.

Share of clicks sent to websites by language, August 2026 (each row has its own scale)
FR · ES · ENPortuguese, German, Italian, Dutch, Japanese
ChatGPT
69.3%FR 79.8%ES 75.7%EN 74.3%81.6%
Gemini
8.7%FR 11.7%ES 16.2%EN 11.0%17.5%
Perplexity
2.0%FR 2.5%ES 2.9%EN 3.6%5.2%
Copilot
2.8%FR 3.2%ES 3.0%EN 7.2%7.2%
Claude
2.2%FR 2.7%ES 2.2%EN 3.9%3.9%
View the data
LanguageChatGPTGeminiPerplexityCopilotClaude
French (France, Belgium, Morocco)79.8%11.7%2.5%3.2%2.7%
Spanish (Spain, Mexico, Argentina, Colombia, Chile, Peru)75.7%16.2%2.9%3.0%2.2%
English (United States, United Kingdom, Canada)74.3%11.0%3.6%7.2%3.9%
Portuguese (Portugal, Brazil)80.6%11.4%2.4%2.8%2.7%
German (Germany, Switzerland)77.3%10.7%5.2%3.4%3.4%
Italian (Italy)69.3%17.5%5.0%5.3%2.8%
Dutch (Netherlands)81.6%8.7%3.3%3.2%3.2%
Japanese (Japan)72.4%16.0%2.0%7.1%2.5%

Source: StatCounter

07 · National panels

What surveys say in France and Spain.

Panels measure audience or self-reported use, including assistants missing from traffic measures: Mistral AI's Le Chat, Meta AI, Grok. Their totals do not add up to 100%.

FranceMonthly unique visitors
ChatGPT21.6 M
Gemini2.8 M
Le Chat1.5 M

38.1% of French people use conversational AI. Médiamétrie, September 2025.

SpainShare of AI users who use each tool
ChatGPT74%
Gemini42%
Copilot23%
Meta AI11%
Grok8%
Perplexity8%
Amazon Q8%
Claude5%

78% of internet users have used AI, 36% daily. Multiple answers allowed. AIMC, fieldwork Oct–Dec 2025.

08 · Profiles

Strengths and weaknesses of each assistant.

What matters for a brand: audience, clicks sent back to websites, and the index each assistant searches for its sources.

ChatGPT

OpenAI · United States
Audience55.5%
Clicks sent79.4%

GEO lever. Allow OAI-SearchBot, look after Bing indexing, publish factual, dated passages.

Strengths. Largest audience worldwide and top source of clicks to websites. Versatile: search, writing, file analysis, voice, agents. ChatGPT Search shows clickable sources in the answer.

Limits. Audience declining: from 73.3% to 55.5% of visits in a year. Outside search mode, answers do not always cite a source. Citations concentrate on a small number of domains.

Where it finds sources. Bing index, the OAI-SearchBot crawler and publisher agreements.

Gemini

Google · United States
Audience25.6%
Clicks sent10.9%

GEO lever. Strong Google SEO, structured data, business profile and a recognised Knowledge Graph entity.

Strengths. Massive distribution: Android, Chrome, Google Workspace and Google Search. Fastest audience growth: from 12.9% to 25.6% in a year. Especially strong in Spanish-speaking markets and Italy.

Limits. Sends few clicks relative to its audience: 25.6% of visits, 10.9% of traffic sent. Answers built into Google can capture the click before the website. Visibility closely tied to the Google ecosystem.

Where it finds sources. Google index and Knowledge Graph, like AI Overviews and AI Mode.

Claude

Anthropic · United States
Audience9.3%
Clicks sent2.5%

GEO lever. Check your presence in Brave Search, allow Anthropic's crawlers, publish expert, well-structured content.

Strengths. Fastest relative growth: from 1.9% to 9.3% of visits in a year. Known for long-form writing, document analysis and code. Weighs more in English-speaking markets: 4.4% of clicks in the US.

Limits. Still few clicks to websites: 2.5% of traffic sent worldwide. No native integration into an operating system or search engine. Audience more professional than mainstream.

Where it finds sources. Brave Search index according to industry analyses, ClaudeBot and Claude-SearchBot crawlers.

Perplexity

Perplexity AI · United States
Audience0.9%
Clicks sent4.3%

GEO lever. Allow PerplexityBot, date and update content, publish comparisons.

Strengths. Answer engine: every answer cites its sources. Own index, focused on freshness. Above its average in Germany (5.5%) and Italy (5.0%).

Limits. Sharp decline: from 8.1% to 4.3% of traffic sent to websites in a year. Modest mainstream audience: 0.9% of visits. Legal disputes with several news publishers.

Where it finds sources. Own index fed by PerplexityBot, supplemented by third-party sources.

Copilot

Microsoft · United States
Audience1.6%
Clicks sent2.8%

GEO lever. Bing Webmaster Tools, IndexNow protocol, clean markup.

Strengths. Built into Windows, Edge and Microsoft 365. Strong in business and English-speaking countries: 7.9% of clicks in the US. Relies on Bing, a mature index.

Limits. Traffic sent declining: from 5.2% to 2.8% in a year. Low direct audience: 1.6% of visits. Use often limited to the workplace.

Where it finds sources. Bing index.

DeepSeek

DeepSeek · China
Audience3.4%
Clicks sent< 0.1%

GEO lever. Low priority for traffic; monitor what it says about your brand.

Strengths. Open-weight models, very low usage cost. Strong reasoning performance. 3.4% of visits worldwide.

Limits. Sends almost no clicks: 0.02% of traffic sent to websites. Data stored in China; blocked in Italy by the data protection authority in January 2025. Traffic sent fell from 2.7% to almost zero in a year.

Where it finds sources. Built-in web search, provider undocumented.

Grok

xAI · United States
Audience2.4%
Clicks sentnot measured

GEO lever. Active, citable presence on X, expert commentary.

Strengths. Real-time access to posts on X. Built into the X app. 2.4% of visits worldwide.

Limits. Repeated controversies over the moderation of its answers. Not covered by StatCounter's traffic-sent measure. Audience slightly down: from 2.6% to 2.4% in a year.

Where it finds sources. Posts on X and web search.

Le Chat

Mistral AI · France
Audiencenot measured
Clicks sentnot measured

GEO lever. Get cited by the press and reference French-language sources.

Strengths. European player: hosting and GDPR compliance front and centre. Agreement with AFP for news content. 1.5 million monthly unique visitors in France (Médiamétrie, Sept 2025).

Limits. Audience far below the leaders: 14 times smaller than ChatGPT in France. Not covered by Similarweb or StatCounter. Limited awareness outside France.

Where it finds sources. Web search and partner news content (AFP).

Meta AI

Meta · United States
Audiencenot measured
Clicks sentnot measured

GEO lever. A well-kept social presence, customer reviews and content shared on Meta's networks.

Strengths. Built into WhatsApp, Instagram, Facebook and Messenger. Used by 11% of AI users in Spain (AIMC). Open-weight Llama models.

Limits. Used inside messaging apps: few clicks to websites. Not covered by Similarweb or StatCounter. Later launch in the European Union (2025).

Where it finds sources. Web search through partner engines.

Portrait of Kamel Malek
Kamel Malek
Founder & agency director

An SEO practitioner since 2001, Kamel Malek runs SEO360 (Alicante, Valencia, Madrid, Paris). He has published three books on visibility in generative engines, including Generative Engine Optimization and Rétablir les faits.

The SEO360 teamLinkedInGenerative Engine OptimizationRétablir les faits
Method

Two public measures, never added together. Similarweb measures visits to the assistants' websites (mobile apps are not counted). StatCounter measures clicks from an assistant to a website, across its network of tracked sites. Country-level 12-month changes come from StatCounter's monthly export and are rounded to the nearest point. National surveys measure audience or self-reported use.

Sources
StatCounter — AI Chatbot Market Share (August 2026)Similarweb — Gen AI website traffic share (August 2026)Médiamétrie — Conversational AI in France (September 2025)AIMC — Navegantes en la Red, 28th edition
FAQ

Frequently asked questions

Which AI assistant is used most in France?

ChatGPT, by far. In August 2026 it generated 80.5% of the clicks AI assistants sent to French websites, ahead of Gemini (10.1%), Perplexity (3.4%), Copilot (3.2%) and Claude (2.9%), according to StatCounter. In September 2025 Médiamétrie counted 21.6 million monthly unique visitors for ChatGPT in France, against 2.8 million for Gemini and 1.5 million for Mistral AI's Le Chat.

What is ChatGPT's worldwide market share in 2026?

It depends on the measure. ChatGPT received 55.5% of visits to AI assistant websites in August 2026 according to Similarweb, down from 73.3% a year earlier. It still accounts for 79.4% of the clicks assistants send to websites, according to StatCounter.

Which AI assistant is growing fastest?

Gemini in volume: its share of visits rose from 12.9% to 25.6% between August 2025 and August 2026, and its share of traffic sent to websites from 2.2% to 10.9%. Claude in pace: from 1.9% to 9.3% of visits over the same period, according to Similarweb.

Are AI market shares different in Spanish-speaking countries?

Yes. Gemini weighs significantly more there: between 12.6% (Spain) and 19.6% (Chile) of traffic sent to websites in August 2026, against 10.1% in France and 10.9% worldwide. ChatGPT still leads everywhere, at between 71.2% and 80.1% depending on the country.

Why does the observatory publish two market share measures?

Because they answer two different questions. Audience (Similarweb) shows where people ask their questions. Traffic sent (StatCounter) shows which assistants actually send visitors to websites. For a brand, the second measures traffic potential, the first awareness potential.

AI Assistant BarometerAI Observatory · September 2026 edition
AI Assistant BarometerAI Observatory · September 2026 edition

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