While OpenAI’s ChatGPT remains the undisputed leader in the world of AI chatbots, competitors are rapidly gaining traction. Data from analytics companies Similarweb and Sensor Tower highlight impressive growth for rival platforms like Google’s Gemini and Microsoft’s Copilot, as well as other emerging players in the chatbot market.
According to Similarweb, which tracks web traffic, there has been a notable increase in user engagement across several AI platforms. For example, Google’s Gemini saw a 7.4% rise in daily web visits in March, reaching 10.9 million visits globally. Microsoft’s Copilot, which runs on OpenAI’s technology, also saw a modest 2.1% increase in traffic, with daily visits reaching 2.4 million.
The chatbot space is becoming even more diverse. Anthropic’s Claude registered 3.3 million daily visits in March, while DeepSeek, a Chinese AI platform, reported an astonishing 16.5 million visits, sharing the top spot with xAI’s Grok, which only launched its web app a few months ago. Grok’s rapid growth has been exceptional, showing a massive 800% increase in web traffic from February to March.
Despite these impressive gains, ChatGPT’s dominance remains clear. By late March, the platform had surged past 500 million weekly active users. Still, as David Carr, editor at Similarweb, points out, the competition for the second-place spot is heating up, particularly with DeepSeek and Grok emerging as strong contenders.
On the mobile front, app data from Sensor Tower reveals similar growth trends. Claude’s mobile app experienced a significant 21% increase in weekly active users during the week following the launch of its new model, Claude 3.7 Sonnet, in late February. Google’s Gemini app saw a 42% spike in active users two weeks after the release of the Gemini 2.0 Flash model.
Abraham Yousef, a senior analyst at Sensor Tower, explains that the increased engagement can be attributed to both the release of new AI models and the addition of innovative features, such as Google’s new “canvas” function for Gemini, which allows users to preview coding outputs. Claude has also been enhancing its features steadily, which has fueled further interest.
Despite the growing competition, OpenAI is still far ahead in terms of user numbers. As of March, ChatGPT’s mobile app had ten times the number of active weekly users as the combined total of Gemini and Claude. For now, while other AI chatbots continue to gain ground, ChatGPT’s lead appears secure.
