ChatGPT Holds 81% of AI Chatbot Traffic as Rivals Fail to Close the Gap

ChatGPT now accounts for more than 81% of worldwide traffic to the six major AI chatbots, according to new research from Graphite, a research and growth marketing firm, and no competitor has captured even 10% of the market.

The study, led by Graphite CEO Ethan Smith, analyzed worldwide web and mobile-app traffic to major AI services using Similarweb data. Its findings challenge the widespread perception, reinforced earlier this year, that OpenAI's dominance was slipping as Google's Gemini and Anthropic's Claude gained serious momentum.

The market share figures are stark:

• ChatGPT: 81.4% of visits in July–September 2026
• Claude: 6.8%
• Gemini: 5.0%
• DeepSeek: 4.0%
• Grok: 1.9%
• Perplexity: 0.9%

Is ChatGPT's growth actually over?

The research also pushes back on the narrative that ChatGPT's explosive growth has stalled. After surging through the first half of 2025, usage largely plateaued for seven months. Growth then resumed this year: monthly visits climbed nearly 20% to a record 61.35 billion in September, according to Graphite's analysis.

This aligns with separate reporting last week by Katie Notopoulos, who found ChatGPT now has 1.2 billion weekly users.

Claude recorded extraordinary growth over the past year, and Gemini expanded quickly as well. But those gains started from much smaller bases. The data suggests that while OpenAI's rivals are growing rapidly, they have not come close to dislodging ChatGPT from its commanding position.

What is happening to referral traffic?

ChatGPT is not only attracting visitors. It is increasingly sending people to other websites. Worldwide referral traffic from AI services jumped 92% over the past year, and ChatGPT is responsible for 60% of those visits, according to Graphite.

That shift matters for anyone whose audience arrives through search. AI services are becoming a distribution channel in their own right, and ChatGPT is the dominant gateway within it — a position comparable to a single retailer controlling most of a shopping district's foot traffic.

How is AI changing Google Search?

The study also quantifies how AI is reshaping Google's traditional search business. Google's AI Overviews, which place AI-generated answers directly in search results, now appear in 62% of US searches.

Google's AI Mode, which allows users to have more conversational interactions with Search, is growing quickly. In August, it attracted 491 million US web visits.

Where does AI usage actually happen?

Perhaps the most counterintuitive finding concerns geography. Despite America's leadership in developing the technology, the US accounts for just 8.8% of worldwide AI traffic, according to Graphite's study. More than 90% of usage happens elsewhere, underscoring how global the AI boom has become.

The overall market is still expanding. Monthly visits to major AI services reached 76 billion worldwide, up 37% from a year earlier. The message from the data is clear: the AI market continues to grow rapidly, and ChatGPT remains overwhelmingly dominant — and as rivals scale from smaller bases, the next quarterly measurement of these traffic shares will show whether compounding growth can begin to erode an 81% lead.