For the first time since it became a synonym for artificial intelligence, ChatGPT has fallen below half the market. According to the latest data, in May 2026 its share is 46.4 percent, down from over 50 percent in January. It's still the biggest - with 1.1 billion monthly users against Gemini's 662 million and Claude's 245 million - but the trend is clearer than the number. When a monopoly starts to melt, the question isn't whether it will fall, but how fast.

Google's Gemini holds 27.7 percent, and Anthropic's Claude 10.3 percent. Google isn't winning with a better product so much as with an ecosystem - when the assistant is built into your phone, your browser and your email, it doesn't have to be the best, it just has to be there. Anthropic, for its part, builds loyalty differently: 13 percent of Claude's users pay for a subscription, the highest rate in the industry. Different strategies, the same goal - turning a habit into revenue.

The most interesting part is why people are leaving. Some of the cancellations on ChatGPT came after OpenAI signed a deal with the US Department of Defense - users voted by deleting the app. At the same time, by May 17 percent of daily users were already seeing ads in ChatGPT. The free tool that conquered the world now wants to get paid, one way or another - either through a subscription or through attention sold to advertisers.

The numbers for the whole industry are growing: 2.3 billion AI app downloads and 4.2 billion dollars (about 3.9 billion euros) in spending are expected in the first half of 2026 alone, more than double compared with last year. But growth of the whole pie doesn't mean the biggest slice stays the biggest. The market is maturing, and maturity always brings the same thing - the competition stops being polite.