ChatGPT still handles more than 8 in 10 AI chatbot visits worldwide

ChatGPT is not losing its lead. A new study from the research firm Graphite finds it accounts for more than 81% of worldwide traffic to major AI chatbots. No rival, including Google's Gemini and Anthropic's Claude, has reached even 10%. Earlier this year, it looked like those rivals were closing in.

What the numbers show

After surging through the first half of 2025, ChatGPT usage largely stayed flat for seven months. Growth then picked up again. Monthly visits climbed nearly 20% to a record 61.35 billion in September, according to Graphite. Business Insider also reported that ChatGPT now has 1.2 billion weekly users.

Rivals are growing fast too. Claude had extraordinary growth over the past year, and Gemini expanded quickly. But both started from much smaller bases, so big percentage gains still leave them far behind.

Where the traffic comes from

Graphite looked at web and app traffic to major AI services, using data from Similarweb, a company that measures website traffic. Overall, monthly visits to major AI services reached 76 billion worldwide, up 37% from a year earlier.

One surprise is geography. The US accounts for just 8.8% of worldwide AI traffic. That means more than 90% of use happens elsewhere.

Why it matters for businesses

AI tools are not only answering questions. They are also sending people to other websites. Worldwide referral traffic from AI services, meaning visits that arrive by clicking a link inside an AI answer, jumped 92% over the past year. ChatGPT was responsible for 60% of those visits.

Google search is changing as well. Its AI Overviews, which put AI-written answers at the top of search results, now appear in 62% of US searches. Its AI Mode, a more conversational way to use Search, drew 491 million US web visits in August.

What to do

• Check your website analytics for visits that come from ChatGPT and other AI tools.
• Look at how your business shows up when you ask a chatbot about your products or services.
• Keep your website accurate and clear, since AI tools may point people to it.

What is not known

The study counts visits, not how useful each chatbot is or how many people pay for it. It also covers only the major AI services Graphite chose to track. Whether Gemini or Claude can close the gap from their smaller starting points is not answered by this data.