ChatGPT is leading the AI chatbot market, with a record 3.7 billion visits in October, according to data from Similarweb. This represents a month-over-month growth of 17.2% and a 115.9% increase from the previous year. 

Since May 2024, when ChatGPT reached 2.2 billion visits, it has seen consistent double-digit monthly growth, marking an 8% MoM increase in August, 18.7% in September, and another 17% in October. 

Comparisons with Google Chrome

ChatGPT’s monthly usage numbers are beginning to rival competitors like Google Chrome. Chrome has an estimated 3.45 billion monthly users and a user base of about 35.4 billion globally. The platform saw a 45.35% growth over the last five years, though its annual growth rate has decreased.

ChatGPT depends on browsers like Chrome to function. Its in-built search capabilities, ChatGPT Search relies on Bing’s indexing system. However, it offers an alternative that users find comparable to traditional search engines, per Digital Trends. 

Comparison across other generative AI tools

Other generative AI tools also saw traffic growth in October. Perplexity AI reached 90.8 million visits, reflecting a 25.5% MoM and 199.2% YoY growth. Despite plagiarism concerns, the company is actively competing in the AI market and is reportedly raising $500 million to boost its valuation to $8 billion, while OpenAI’s valuation has already reached $157 billion.

Google’s Gemini chatbot had 291.6 million visits, a 6.2% MoM, and a 19% YoY increase. This is partly fueled by a new ChromeOS update that brought AI features to Chromebooks. Microsoft’s CoPilot standalone site saw an 87.6% MoM rise to 69.4 million visits in October after Bing redirected interactions to the CoPilot site.

Anthropic’s Claude AI reached 84.1 million visits in October, growing 25.5% MoM and 394.9% YoY following its desktop app launch. Google’s NotebookLM, a more niche application of Gemini, saw a significant 200% MoM growth with 31.5 million visits in October.

OpenAI's expanding product offerings

OpenAI has been keeping ChatGPT updated with new features and versions. Recently, it launched ChatGPT Search, which lets users receive real-time responses from an in-house search engine. 

While in beta testing, SearchGPT reportedly grew faster, with a 150% MoM growth rate in September —well above competitors like Perplexity AI and Claude, according to BrightEdge. The tool also generated four times more referral traffic than these AI tools. 

OpenAI has also integrated tools like the DALL-E image generator into ChatGPT.