ChatGPT Leads as Consumers Build Their Own AI Toolkits

OpenAI’s ChatGPT is the artificial intelligence AI platform consumers name as the best, but it is not the only one they use.

PYMNTS Intelligence data shows 60% of AI users turn to ChatGPT for shopping and purchasing while 57% use Gemini for the same tasks. For entertainment and hobbies, the split is 65% to 59%. Consumers aren’t picking a winner. They’re building a toolkit and switching by task.

That behavior is showing up in market share. ChatGPT’s share of global users fell to 46.4% by the end of May. In March, it slipped below 50% for the first time, according to data from Sensor Tower’s State of AI 2026 June report. In comparison, Gemini holds 27.7% of global users and Claude 10.3%. Despite the dip, ChatGPT still leads on raw users, with 1.1 billion monthly.

Stated Preference Doesn’t Match Actual Behavior

When consumers pick one platform as the best for a task, ChatGPT wins by a wide margin, PYMNTS Intelligence data has found. When the same consumers reported which platforms they actually opened, that margin collapses.

For example, to manage finances, 66% of respondents used ChatGPT and 54% used Gemini. For planning travel, 66% and 57%. For learning and self-improvement, 70% used ChatGPT against 60% for Gemini.

A pattern also emerged across different devices. Among dedicated AI platform users on Android, 73% reported Gemini use compared with 49% of iOS users, PYMNTS Intelligence data showed, a gap that reflects default placement more than active preference.

“ChatGPT built the category, but as viable alternatives have scaled, users are naturally diversifying their toolkit,” Tom Grant, vice president of research at Apptopia, said, according to a February post. “The multi-app usage figure is the number I’d watch here. It tells me that people aren’t just experimenting anymore, they’re building workflows around specific products for specific use cases.”

Distribution Is Now the Competitive Edge

A market where consumers run multiple tools simultaneously shifts the terms of competition. Winning a benchmark matters less than owning the moment a user opens an app. According to a June 16 press release, Sensor Tower noted that ChatGPT, DeepSeek and Google Gemini account for nearly 90% of total time spent across AI assistant apps in the first quarter of 2026. Concentration at the top holds. What has shifted is how platforms get there.

Brand trust is now a variable. TechCrunch reported June 16 that OpenAI’s deal with the U.S. Department of Defense in February triggered a measurable spike in uninstalls. Claude reached No. 1 on the U.S. App Store the same month after Anthropic publicly declined a similar contract. Platform loyalty, it turns out, is not just a function of model quality.

Monetization is diverging along the same lines. Claude’s average revenue per user on mobile in the United States climbed from less than $0.50 in September to $2.76 in May, Sensor Tower found. Meanwhile, according to TechCrunch, Claude converts 13% of users to paid subscriptions, the highest rate among major assistants. By May, an average of 17% of ChatGPT daily users were being served ads as OpenAI tested advertising alongside its subscription tiers, TechCrunch added.

Shopping Is Where the Portfolio Behavior Gets Expensive

Commerce is where fragmented usage carries the most direct revenue consequence. PYMNTS Intelligence found that one-third of consumers prefer linking a digital wallet directly to an AI platform to complete purchases, with redirecting to a merchant site ranking second. Whoever holds the shopping entry point routes the transaction.

ChatGPT is sending referral traffic to Target, Walmart and Costco through its expanding shopping integrations, TechCrunch reported. Amazon, which has blocked ChatGPT’s web crawlers, has seen stagnant referral traffic as a result. OpenAI previously shut down Instant Checkout, PYMNTS reported in March.

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