In a significant disclosure during its ongoing antitrust remedies trial, Google revealed impressive usage statistics for its AI chatbot, Gemini. While you might not personally use AI products like Gemini frequently, their adoption is rapidly increasing. Court documents presented during the testimony of Sissie Hsiao, formerly leading Google's Gemini efforts, showed that the platform reached 350 million monthly active users (MAU) as of March 2025. This figure represents a substantial leap from late last year and indicates Google is making headway in the competitive AI chatbot market, although it still faces a considerable challenge from established players.The growth trajectory for Gemini has been steep. The 350 million MAU figure, accompanied by 35 million daily active users, starkly contrasts with its performance late last year when, according to Google, it only had tens of millions of monthly users and a mere 9 million daily users. This surge likely stems from several factors, including the release of improved models like Gemini 2.0 and 2.5, which offered demonstrable performance enhancements over predecessors. Furthermore, Google has been actively integrating Gemini features across its vast ecosystem, exposing the AI to a broader user base, even if some integrations have faced criticism for usability.Despite this remarkable expansion, Google acknowledges it remains significantly behind the current market leader, OpenAI's ChatGPT. Google's own analysis, presented in the trial, estimates ChatGPT's traffic at around 600 million monthly active users. This aligns with reports from earlier in the year that placed ChatGPT usage near 400 million MAU, suggesting continued growth for OpenAI as well. The gap underscores the substantial effort Google still requires to catch up, even with its recent momentum and the advantages of its existing user base and infrastructure.It's worth noting that measuring web traffic and user engagement can be complex, with different metrics potentially telling different stories. For instance, claims of high weekly active users can sometimes be based on peak periods within a month. However, the monthly active user metric is generally more straightforward. Given that Google presented these figures under oath in a high-stakes legal battle, there's a reasonable degree of confidence that the numbers are based on reliable internal data, rather than inflated marketing claims.Attracting hundreds of millions of users, while a crucial goal for market penetration and long-term viability, presents unique economic challenges for generative AI providers. Unlike traditional web services, each interaction with powerful AI models like Gemini or ChatGPT incurs significant computational costs. Google hasn't disclosed the profitability of Gemini subscriptions, but OpenAI has openly stated it loses money even on its premium $200 monthly plan due to the high resource demands. Therefore, while a large user base is essential for refining models and establishing market presence, it simultaneously escalates operational expenses, highlighting the critical need for reducing the cost of running these sophisticated AI systems to achieve sustainable profitability.
