ChatGPT still leads, and its lead in search grew. Claude is the fastest-growing by a wide margin. Gemini is growing in usage but not in search, which fits a product built into Android. Perplexity has faded in Indian search.
A year of search interest
| Assistant | Week of 19 Oct 2025 | Week of 18 Oct 2026 | Change | Share of the four |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ChatGPT | 58 | 83 | +43% | 55% → 62% |
| Gemini | 41 | 34 | −17% | 39% → 26% |
| Claude | 1 | 15 | about 15x | 1% → 11% |
| Perplexity | 5 | 1 | −80% | 5% → 1% |
Two moments stand out. Between late January and April 2026, Claude climbed from 2 to 14 in about twelve weeks and has held that level since: a step change, not a spike that faded. ChatGPT hit its 12-month peak in the week of 6 September, dropped sharply for two weeks, then recovered to 97 in early October.
What the app data adds
| App | India downloads (Q2 2026) | Consumer spending (Q2 2026) | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| ChatGPT | n/a | ≈ ₹112.8 crore (+36% YoY) | Largest by spending |
| Gemini | 18.1 million (more than doubled) | ≈ ₹1.8 crore | 18.7% of GenAI time spent, up from 4.9% |
| Claude | 8.5 million (more than 30x) | ≈ ₹62.2 crore (nearly 19x) | Second by spending |
| Perplexity | n/a | ≈ ₹5.8 crore | — |
The only one of the four where search share, downloads and spending all rose sharply.
Growing in usage (time spent, downloads) but not in search. People don't need to search for an assistant that is already on their phone.
Still leads in search and spending, and its search share rose this year.
Search interest fell to the floor of the index; spending is a fraction of the leaders.
What people are searching for
| Rising Claude query (India, 90 days) | Change |
|---|---|
| claude certified associate foundations | +2,250% |
| claude startups program | +1,250% |
| claude ai chats | +1,100% |
| claude for startups | +350% |
“claude code” is the second-largest Claude-related query overall. Together, the pattern suggests Claude's growth in India is being led by developers and founders rather than casual users. Across all AI searches in India, the top terms were “gemini ai”, “claude ai”, “google ai” and “ai video”, and “ai humanizer” was among the fastest risers. See our companion analysis on AI detectors and humanizers.
India's AI assistant market is no longer a one-brand market, but ChatGPT's lead is not shrinking in search.
Claude's rise is large and sustained, Gemini's strength is distribution rather than search, and the three leaders now compete on different ground.
Why this matters
For businesses buying AI tools in India, the market now looks like a three-way race with different strengths: ChatGPT for general use, Gemini through distribution, Claude among developers and paying users. For anyone tracking adoption, search interest alone understates assistants that are built into other products.
Methodology
Google Trends, India, weekly web search interest for the terms “chatgpt”, “gemini”, “claude” and “perplexity”, 19 October 2025–24 October 2026, accessed 23 October 2026. Search terms (not topics) can include unrelated meanings, such as Gemini the zodiac sign, which likely inflates Gemini's baseline. App figures are Sensor Tower estimates as reported by the Economic Times.
Frequently asked questions
Which AI assistant is most searched in India?
ChatGPT. In the week of 18 October 2026 it accounted for about 62% of combined Google search interest across ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude and Perplexity in India.
How fast is Claude growing in India?
Google search interest for “claude” in India rose from 1 to 15 on the Trends index over 12 months, about 15x. Sensor Tower data showed India downloads up more than 30-fold and consumer spending up nearly 19-fold year on year in Q2 2026.
Is Gemini losing users in India?
Not necessarily. Gemini's search interest fell about 17%, but its app downloads more than doubled and its share of GenAI time spent rose to 18.7%. Gemini is built into Android and Google apps, so people don't need to search for it to use it.
What happened to Perplexity in India?
Its Google search interest in India fell from 5 to 1 on the Trends index over the year, the weakest trend of the four.