Google’s AI chatbot Gemini has blown up in popularity, reaching about 350 million active users each month as of March. This is a massive jump from last fall – back in October 2024, Gemini had only around 9 million people using it daily, but by March 2025 it was seeing 35 million daily users. In other words, usage of Google’s AI helper has exploded in just a few months.
Gemini’s Growth and How It Compares
Even with this rapid growth, Google’s Gemini is still playing catch-up to its biggest AI rivals. For context, OpenAI’s ChatGPT has an estimated 600 million monthly users (as of March) – almost twice Gemini’s count. And Meta’s AI assistant (simply called Meta AI) isn’t far behind ChatGPT, with around 500 million monthly users as of last September, according to CEO Mark Zuckerberg. That means Gemini, at 350 million, is huge – but ChatGPT remains on top, and Meta’s chatbot had a head start too. (Companies measure “monthly active users” a bit differently, but you get the idea.)
On the bright side, Gemini is already ahead of some other AI tools from companies like Microsoft or startups like Anthropic and Perplexity, according to Google’s internal data. And Google has been aggressively pushing Gemini out to more people by baking it into popular products. In the past year, Google integrated Gemini’s AI smarts into Samsung phones, Google Workspace apps (like Docs and Gmail), and the Chrome browser – putting the chatbot in front of millions of users by default. This wide exposure is a big reason why Gemini’s user numbers have surged so high, so fast.
Leadership Shakeup at the Gemini Team
Internally, the fast growth hasn’t been enough for Google to declare victory – especially since ChatGPT is still ahead. In early April, news broke that Google decided to shake up the leadership of the Gemini project. Sissie Hsiao, the executive who had been leading the Gemini (formerly Bard) team, stepped down from that role, and Josh Woodwardwas appointed to take over. Woodward is a Google veteran who heads Google Labs and previously oversaw the launch of NotebookLM (an AI note-taking project). The leadership change was abrupt – Hsiao left the post effective immediately – showing how urgent Google feels the race in AI has become.
Google’s AI leadership framed the swap as a move to refocus and speed up Gemini’s development. In a memo to staff, Demis Hassabis, the CEO of Google DeepMind, said the change would “sharpen our focus on the next evolution of the Gemini app”. In other words, bringing in new leadership is meant to help Gemini quickly get better and more competitive. (For her part, Sissie Hsiao reportedly said her tenure was like “chapter 1” of Gemini’s story and that she’ll take a short break before returning to Google in a new role.) With Woodward now at the helm, the Gemini team is gearing up for “chapter 2,” aiming to close the gap with ChatGPT and push Gemini to the next level.
Future Plans: Ads and Monetization
So what’s next for Google’s rapidly-growing chatbot? Aside from improving Gemini’s capabilities, Google is also thinking about how to monetize it down the road – basically, how it can make money from all these users. Google’s core business is advertising, and the company has hinted that ads could eventually find their way into the Gemini chatbot. During an earnings call in February, CEO Sundar Pichai said Google has plans to insert ads into Gemini’s responses in the future (similar to how the company put ads in the AI-generated summaries on Google Search). The idea is that these AI features cost a lot of computing power, so at some point they’ll need to pay for themselves, likely through advertising or paid services.
However, Google is treading carefully when it comes to monetizing Gemini. Pichai made it clear that no ads will appear in Gemini in 2025 – the focus for now is on improving the experience and growing the user base. In fact, Google plans to offer both a free version of Gemini and a paid version for power users, rather than rushing to stuff it with advertisements. Pichai emphasized that while Google does have “very good ideas for native ad concepts” for the chatbot, they want to “lead with the user experience” first and make sure Gemini works well at a large scale before introducing any ads. In other words, Google doesn’t want to drive users away by being too eager to make money off Gemini’s popularity.
Looking further ahead, Google sees Gemini as a key part of its future. Pichai has called Gemini a top priority for the company and even said Google believes it could be the next Google app to reach half a billion users. That would put it in the same league as products like Gmail or YouTube. But Pichai also admits that competitors are still ahead for now – “we have some work to do in 2025 to close the gap and establish a leadership position there as well,” he told his team.
Bottom line: Google’s Gemini chatbot is growing like crazy, with hundreds of millions of users, but it’s not alone in the AI race. ChatGPT (and to a lesser extent Meta’s AI) currently have even bigger numbers. Google is responding by revamping the Gemini team’s leadership and planning ways to eventually make money from the chatbot (likely through ads or premium features), all while trying to keep users happy.
For students and everyday users, this means you can expect Gemini to keep getting better – and don’t be surprised if down the line you see some subtle ads or paid options popping up in your AI chats. Google is playing the long game with Gemini, aiming to catch up to ChatGPT and hopefully set the standard for what a helpful AI assistant should be.