Google's Gemini app passed 1 billion monthly active users on Aug. 11, making it the fastest-growing product in Google's history. The tally covers people who opened the Gemini app or its web interface, excluding encounters with Gemini inside products such as Search and Workspace. Google paired the announcement with usage data, leaving revenue and the number of paying subscribers undisclosed.

Google has not disclosed how many subscribers pay for any of its AI tiers. On the announcement date, Google AI Plus cost $7.99 a month and Google AI Ultra cost $100 a month. Alphabet has raised its 2026 capital-spending forecast to between $195 billion and $205 billion, much of it directed to the infrastructure used to serve AI models. The Gemini announcement supplied no paid-customer figure against that spending plan.

What Changed

AI-generated summary, reviewed by an editor. More on our AI guidelines.

Gemini arrived in December 2023 after Google had run its consumer chatbot under the Bard name. At Google I/O in May 2025, the company's count stood at more than 400 million monthly users. Its July 22, 2026 earnings disclosure put the app at 950 million, with daily active users tripling from a year earlier. The update implies the app added roughly 50 million monthly users during the following three weeks. Gemini was the 14th Google product to pass a billion users and the fastest to get there. Gmail took roughly 14 years to reach that size. Sundar Pichai wrote on X, "1B+ people are now using Gemini every month to spark new ideas and get things done. It's our fastest growing product ever, and our 14th to hit the 1B-user mark."

OpenAI said on Aug. 6 that ChatGPT had passed 1 billion weekly active users, a higher usage threshold than a monthly count. Sensor Tower estimated that ChatGPT reached 1 billion monthly app users in May 2026, three months before Gemini. The Gemini figures are company-reported throughout, and each lab defines its usage metric on its own terms. Google has not published its definition of a monthly active user.

The app ships on effectively every Android phone and is built into Chrome, Search and Workspace. It is also replacing Google Assistant, which shuts down on Android and Wear OS in September 2026. Some monthly actives therefore arrive through default placement. That default placement does not cover iOS, where a user has to download the app. Google said Gemini had more than 100 million active users there.

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In its usage release, Google said that 63% of users spoke to Gemini and one in five Gemini Live interactions included a camera feed or screen sharing. It also said 38% of school-related requests included an attachment, while Gemini generated more than 150 million images a day and automated actions across more than 40 Android apps.

Gemini 3.5 Pro was promised at I/O for June 2026 and remained unreleased on Aug. 11. Google said in July that it was still working on the model and had begun training Gemini 4. Reports have indicated that Google has been unhappy with Gemini Pro's coding performance, which lags behind that of OpenAI and Anthropic models. Demis Hassabis has stepped back from day-to-day management of Google DeepMind and remains at the company. By then, Jeff Dean, a central engineering figure there for nearly three decades, had left. Google says Gemini 3.5 Pro will be generally available "when it is ready."

Frequently Asked Questions

How many people use the Gemini app each month?

Google said the app passed 1 billion monthly active users on Aug. 11, up from the 950 million reported in its July 22, 2026 earnings disclosure. The count covers people who opened the Gemini app or its web interface.

Does the 1 billion figure include Gemini inside Google Search?

No. The tally excludes encounters with Gemini inside products such as Search and Workspace. Google has also not published its definition of a monthly active user.

How many Gemini users pay for it?

Google has not disclosed how many subscribers pay for any of its AI tiers. On the announcement date, Google AI Plus cost $7.99 a month and Google AI Ultra cost $100 a month.

Is Gemini now bigger than ChatGPT?

The two figures are not directly comparable. Google reports monthly active users, while OpenAI said on Aug. 6 that ChatGPT had passed 1 billion weekly active users, a higher usage threshold. Sensor Tower estimated ChatGPT reached 1 billion monthly app users in May 2026, three months before Gemini.

Has Google shipped Gemini 3.5 Pro?

No. It was promised at I/O for June 2026 and remained unreleased on Aug. 11. Google said in July it was still working on the model and had begun training Gemini 4, and says 3.5 Pro will be generally available when it is ready.

AI-generated summary, reviewed by an editor. More on our AI guidelines.

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Editor-in-Chief and founder of Implicator.ai. Former ARD correspondent and senior broadcast journalist with 10+ years covering tech. Writes daily briefings on policy and market developments. Based in San Francisco. E-mail: editor@implicator.ai