AI Search Use in Southeast Asia: ChatGPT, Gemini and Perplexity by Country (2026)

Thailand breaks the pattern. 85.8% of Thai internet users used an AI tool in late 2025, but only 23.3% had used ChatGPT in the past month when GWI asked in mid-2025, below the 26.5% world average. Microsoft's telemetry gives Thailand the lowest AI adoption of the six and the second-fastest growth of any economy.

Which Southeast Asian country uses AI tools the most?

Vietnam shows the widest gap between AI and search. In GWI's Q4 2025 survey, 91.3% of Vietnamese internet users aged 16 and over had used an AI tool in the past month, while 82.8% had used a search engine. The worldwide figures were 81.2% and 79.3%.

Indonesia leads the region on AI use at 93.6%, behind only Kenya (97.5%) and the UAE (94.2%) among the 54 countries surveyed. The Philippines is 5th at 92.6%, Malaysia 6th at 91.8% and Vietnam 7th. DataReportal published the ranking in April 2026, in its Digital 2026 Mid-Year Global Update.

Thailand and Singapore are the two markets where more people still use a search engine each month than an AI tool. Thailand sits at 87.1% for search and 85.8% for AI. Singapore sits at 86.6% and 85.5%, level with Argentina on AI use.

How many people use ChatGPT in each country?

Malaysia leads: 48.4% of Malaysian internet users aged 16 and over used ChatGPT in the past month in GWI's Q2 2025 wave, against a world average of 26.5%. The figures come from DataReportal's Digital 2026 reports for Malaysia and the other five countries, published in November 2025.

The Philippines follows at 42.4%. Indonesia (37.9%), Vietnam (37.3%) and Singapore (37.1%) sit within a point of each other. Thailand, at 23.3%, is the only one of the six below the global average.

The same survey shows other search habits running alongside AI:

• Translation tools: 49.8% of Indonesians use one each week, and 44.8% of Thais.
• Voice assistants: Thailand (23.1%) and Vietnam (22.0%) lead weekly use.
• Image search on mobile: Indonesia leads at 37.8%; Singapore trails at 20.2%.

Pricing changed after that fieldwork. OpenAI launched its low-cost ChatGPT Go plan in Indonesia on September 22, 2025, at Rp 75.000 a month, according to its ChatGPT release notes.

Malaysia, the Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam followed in an October 2025 expansion to 16 Asian countries, as TechCrunch reported. Singapore was not on that list.

Country detail sits in our Philippines digital marketing statistics, Vietnam digital marketing statistics and Indonesia digital marketing statistics.

Why does Microsoft put AI use so much lower?

Microsoft's AI Economy Institute counts 14.1% of Indonesians aged 15 to 64 as generative AI users in Q1 2026. GWI's survey put Indonesian AI use at 93.6%. Both numbers can be right, because they count different people and different tools.

• Who is counted: GWI surveys internet users aged 16 and over. Microsoft divides by everyone aged 15 to 64, online or not.
• What counts as AI: GWI includes AI features inside other apps. Microsoft counts generative AI products only.
• How it is measured: GWI asks people what they used in the past month. Microsoft uses its own telemetry, adjusted for device share, internet access and population.

On Microsoft's measure, Singapore is the outlier. Its 63.4% ranks 2nd of all economies in the AI Diffusion Report Q1 2026, behind the UAE at 70.1%. The worldwide figure is 17.8%, so Indonesia and Thailand sit below it and the other four above.

Growth runs the other way. Thailand's AI user share grew by 36.4% in relative terms between H1 2025 and Q1 2026, second only to South Korea's 43.2% among the fastest-growing economies. Vietnam is also in that top 15, at 24.9%.

The report links the Asian surge in part to better AI performance in local languages. Microsoft publishes the country series on GitHub.

How fast did Gemini gain on ChatGPT?

Gemini sent 2.73% of Vietnam's AI chatbot referrals in August 2025 and 24.51% in April 2026, on Statcounter's Vietnam AI chatbot data. Over the same eight months ChatGPT's share there fell from 91.36% to 63.72%.

April 2026 was the high point across most of the region. Gemini's share peaked that month in Thailand (25.00%), Vietnam, Singapore (17.83%) and Malaysia (15.36%). ChatGPT hit its lowest share of the 17-month series in the same month in five countries, from 63.72% in Vietnam to 73.36% in the Philippines.

Gemini's share dipped after April but stayed far above its 2025 level. By July 2026 Gemini had passed 13% in the Philippines, where it held 3.68% in April 2025. Indonesia is the slow market: Gemini's best month there was August 2026, at 5.47%.

Our Southeast Asia SEO statistics chart the August 2026 split for all six countries. For reporting on AI search in your own analytics, see our roundup of AI SEO reporting tools.

What happened to Perplexity, Copilot and Claude?

Perplexity sent 22.46% of Indonesia's AI chatbot referrals in May 2025 and 6.23% in August 2026, per Statcounter. Telkomsel announced a Perplexity Pro bundle with its mobile data plans on May 28, 2025, the month Perplexity's share there peaked.

Its worldwide share fell from 12.07% in April 2025 to 4.34% in August 2026. Vietnam is the exception in the region: Perplexity peaked at 5.62% there, and its August 2026 share of 2.74% was above August 2025's 2.49%.

I would not drop Perplexity from a GEO plan for Singapore or the Philippines on this chart alone. A falling referral share can mean fewer clicks per answer as well as fewer users.

Two smaller assistants have a clear best market in the region:

• Microsoft Copilot: the Philippines, at 8.27% of AI chatbot referrals in June 2025 and 4.48% in August 2026, against 2.77% worldwide.
• Claude: Singapore, at 5.58% in June 2026, the highest monthly share for Claude in any of the six countries.

Which AI websites get the most visits?

chatgpt.com was the 4th most visited website in both Indonesia and Singapore in August 2026, ahead of facebook.com in each. Similarweb ranks sites by web visits, not app use, in its country lists for Indonesia, Thailand and the other four markets.

The 2025 column is Similarweb's June to August 2025 ranking, printed in DataReportal's Digital 2026 country reports. gemini.google.com did not appear in the top 20 for any of the six countries in that ranking. In August 2026, perplexity.ai was outside the top 50 in all six.

Thailand is the one market where the two assistants sit side by side, 9th and 10th. It is also where Gemini's share of AI chatbot referrals was highest in August 2026.

Can people use Google's AI Mode in their own language?

Yes, in five of the region's main languages. Google's AI Mode help page, read on September 13, 2026, lists Filipino, Indonesian, Malay, Thai and Vietnamese among its supported languages, and all six countries among its locations. The newer layers of AI Mode are still English only.

The AI Overviews help page lists the same Southeast Asian languages. The dates each language arrived are in the timeline in our Southeast Asia SEO statistics.

For local businesses, the practical guides are how AI Overviews choose local results, how AI search finds local businesses and the signals these systems read in local schema and Business Profiles.

Do Southeast Asians trust AI to decide for them?

Not yet, for most. 1 in 5 consumers across the ten ASEAN countries say they trust AI to make the best decision or give a recommendation they can follow as given. 3 in 5 prefer a final human check or use AI as one of several sources.

Google and Milieu surveyed 7,200 consumers for that finding in September 2025. The results appear in the e-Conomy SEA 2025 report by Google, Temasek and Bain.

Interest runs ahead of trust. The same report puts general interest in AI across the region at 3 times the global average, on Google data for January to August 2025.

Singapore, Brunei, the Philippines, Indonesia and Malaysia all rank in the global top 20 for interest in multimodal AI, on Google Trends data for January to September 2025.

Excitement splits the region. GWI's Q2 2025 wave, reported in DataReportal's Digital 2026 Global Overview Report, found 61.3% of Vietnamese internet users excited about AI, 6th of 54 countries. The Philippines, 5th for monthly AI use in the later Q4 2025 wave, came in below the world average on excitement at 47.2%.

Hire an SEO and GEO specialist for these markets

A page that ranks on Google can still miss an AI Mode answer written in Vietnamese. I lead SEO and GEO at Seotal, and we match you with vetted freelance specialists in the Philippines, Vietnam, Indonesia and Malaysia. They optimise for ChatGPT Search, Perplexity, AI Overviews and Gemini with structured data and direct-answer formatting.

You get 3 to 5 vetted profiles within 72 hours of your brief. A part-time retainer costs $1,000 to $2,000 a month for 60 to 80 hours, with a 3-month minimum and a 30-day replacement guarantee. Hourly work runs $15 to $30 with no minimum (see pricing).

Hire an AI SEO specialist from the Philippines or Vietnam, or hire an SEO expert for the market you are entering.

AI search in Southeast Asia: frequently asked questions

Does DeepSeek still send traffic to websites in Southeast Asia?

DeepSeek sends almost none. Its share of AI chatbot referrals was 0.03% or less in all six countries in August 2026, per Statcounter. In Singapore it fell from 5.00% in August 2025 to 0.42% in September and zero in October.

How many internet users does Southeast Asia have?

About 500 million, or 10% of the world's online population, according to e-Conomy SEA 2025, which cites Euromonitor data for January to August 2025.