ChatGPT is losing referral share while Gemini and Claude grow at triple digits and Perplexity stalls

SE Ranking data for 2026: ChatGPT accounts for 74.78% of AI referral traffic, down from 79.74% in 2025, followed by Gemini at 11.56%, Perplexity at 7.23%, Copilot at 3.51% and Claude at 2.62%.

A falling share is not falling volume: ChatGPT’s own referral volume still grew about 27% year on year — the rest of the market simply grew faster. Gemini grew 231% and Claude 320%, with most of Claude’s increase landing in March 2026, when its worldwide share jumped 159% in a single month.

Perplexity is the one platform that clearly stalled: global referral volume was roughly flat, and its US share of AI traffic fell from 11.42% in 2025 to 6.85% in 2026. Gemini overtook it in early 2026, pushing it to third.

Teams concentrating all GEO effort on a single platform.

Agencies that have to explain to clients why monitoring across several AI platforms is necessary.

Estimates of the shares vary widely: across four public 2026 studies, ChatGPT’s share ranges from 62.6% to 95.1% depending on whether the sample is a B2B brand panel, enterprise customers or web-wide GA data. The trend is more useful than the absolute figures.

The trend itself is consistent: share is dispersing away from ChatGPT, and the two fastest growers are Gemini and Claude.