Google's Gemini Southeast Asia Report 2026 puts native-language prompts at nearly 70 per cent of Gemini use across six Southeast Asian markets, e27 reported.

The report said active users in the region more than doubled over the past year, without giving an absolute user count.

Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam were listed as six of Gemini's largest regional user bases.

The missing user count leaves no direct public adoption comparison against ChatGPT, Microsoft Copilot, Anthropic's Claude, Meta AI or China-linked assistants.

Native-Language Prompts Drive Gemini Use In Southeast Asia

The report put native-language input at nearly 70 per cent across the six markets.

Vietnam led the language-use figures at 89 per cent, followed by Thailand at 87 per cent and Indonesia at 84 per cent, according to the dataset cited by e27.

The same report described Southeast Asia as a region of more than 600 million people and hundreds of languages and dialects, with nearly 40 per cent of the population under 25.

Mobile Requests Make Up 75 Per Cent Of Gemini Activity

Gemini requests in Southeast Asia are mainly mobile. e27 reported that Google data put 75 per cent of regional requests on mobile devices, while more than 40 per cent of prompts involve voice commands, photos or video uploads.

Voice-only prompts accounted for 10 per cent of usage, according to the report. e27 connected those figures to a regional internet economy shaped by mobile commerce, digital payments, short-form video and super-app behaviour, citing the Google, Temasek and Bain e-Conomy SEA estimate of US$263 billion in 2024 gross merchandise value.

SEA-HELM Benchmark Supports The Language Claim

The report cited the Southeast Asia Holistic Evaluation of Language Models, or SEA-HELM, for Gemini's regional language performance.

Gemini ranked as the best-performing large language model for Southeast Asian languages on that evaluation, according to Google.

Dr Leslie Teo, Senior Director of AI Products at AI Singapore, said regional AI adoption depends on technology feeling "native, not translated".

He said models need local context for learning, nuance-heavy writing and complex business brainstorming.

Gemini Spark Rolls Out In Local Languages

Gemini usage in the region extends beyond text answers.

Around 40 per cent of queries ask the app to generate outputs such as images, music, videos and documents, according to the report.

Users in Southeast Asia have generated five billion images with Nano Banana over the past year.

They have also created almost one million songs since Lyria 3 was introduced in the region, according to Google.

Gemini Spark, the agentic feature for completing tasks through Workspace tools, is rolling out in local languages to Gemini Advanced Ultra subscribers in Southeast Asia this week.

Spark works with Gmail, Docs and Slides and can operate in the background when a laptop is closed or a phone is locked.

The remaining public-record gaps are Gemini's absolute active-user count, retention rates, market-by-market revenue, paid-conversion rate for Gemini Advanced Ultra and direct usage comparisons with ChatGPT and Meta AI.