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Google denies reports of ads coming to Gemini in 2026

Google's Vice President of Global Ads has confirmed that the tech giant is currently not planning to bring ads to Gemini in 2026.

Gemini's increasing popularity can be attributed to Nano Banana. (Image Source: Google)

Google Gemini, the AI chatbot pre-installed on most Android devices, recently saw its global monthly active user base grow by 30 per cent. The AI chatbot’s popularity reportedly caused OpenAI CEO Sam Altman to declare a company-wide code red and work on a new LLM codenamed “Garlic”.

Owing to Gemini’s increasing popularity, a recent AdWeek report claimed that Google was working with advertisers to bring ads to the platform. It goes on to say that the tech giant is in talks with two advertising clients to bring ads to the AI chatbot sometime next year. In a post on X, Dan Taylor, the Vice President of Global Ads at Google, said that the “story is based on uninformed, anonymous sources who are making inaccurate claims. There are no ads in the Gemini app and there are no current plans to change that.”

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This story is based on uninformed, anonymous sources who are making inaccurate claims. There are no ads in the Gemini app and there are no current plans to change that.

— Dan Taylor (@edantaylor) December 8, 2025

To give you a quick recap, ChatGPT still leads the AI chatbot race, accounting for 50 per cent of global downloads on mobile and 55 per cent of the monthly active users around the world. As for Gemini, the report from the market research firm Sensor Tower said Gemini’s growth mostly came from its new AI image generation model – Nano Banana.

While Google has said that it is not planning to bring advertisements to Gemini next year, the tech giant has already started testing ads in Google Search’s AI Mode. Last month, a post by the known tipster Tibor Blaho hinted that the beta version of ChatGPT for Android included references to an “ads feature”, along with other things like “bazaar content”, “search ad”, and “search ads carousel.”