Generative AI tools are rapidly expanding, and ChatGPT has emerged as the most popular, with a staggering 3.7 billion monthly visits worldwide. This puts ChatGPT’s traffic close to that of Google Chrome, which boasts around 3.45 billion monthly users. Recent data from Similarweb shows that ChatGPT experienced a 17.2% month-over-month increase and an impressive 115.9% year-over-year growth.
ChatGPT’s growth was boosted by several milestones in 2024, including OpenAI’s switch from a subdomain to the primary chatgpt.com domain and a notable traffic surge in May when it reached 2.2 billion visits. Since its launch in November 2022, OpenAI has consistently added new features, like ChatGPT Search, which offers real-time answers for breaking news, sports, and stock information—positioning it as a competitor to Google Search.
Despite this growth, ChatGPT remains reliant on web browsers for access. Google Chrome, with 35.4 billion total users in 2024, remains a leader in the browser market, though its growth has been steady rather than exponential, showing a 45.35% increase over the last five years, according to StatCounter.
Meanwhile, other AI platforms are growing steadily. For instance, Perplexity saw 90.8 million visits in October, a 25.5% month-over-month increase, while Google’s Gemini chatbot had 291.6 million visits. Anthropic’s Claude chatbot grew to 84.1 million visits, boosted by new desktop applications, and Microsoft’s Copilot surged with 69.4 million visits after an 87.6% month-over-month rise.
In addition, OpenAI recently acquired the domain Chat.com, though its intended purpose remains unannounced. Other tools, like NotebookLM by Google, also show growth, with a 200% increase in October as users utilize it for AI-enhanced note-taking and content summarization.