Unique Research · Industry insight · April 10, 2024
February traffic milestones for ChatGPT in the U.S., Custom GPTs as a paid funnel, Gemini’s post-Bard lift, and how Copilot / Perplexity / Claude still trail on the open web — with mobile app MAU as a second signal.
1. A new U.S. milestone for ChatGPT — and Gemini’s UV jump
The market for AI-driven sites and apps keeps reshaping itself. Consumer chat platforms such as OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Google’s Gemini (formerly Bard) remain the main on-ramp for the public to try and understand the tech. Image generators and other surfaces — including OpenAI’s Custom GPTs — are becoming a larger share of the whole stack.
Web traffic is not the full story: OpenAI and Anthropic (Claude) also care deeply about licensing models into other companies’ products. Still, web metrics and app engagement remain useful proxies for interest in AI.
2. February user snapshot
ChatGPT’s February visits in the United States hit a new high — 208.8M visits — of which Custom GPTs contributed about 10M visits, available only to paid users. Rivals such as Perplexity and Claude are growing, but their open-web traffic remains relatively small.
3. Scale gap vs. ChatGPT (and Bing)
Including Microsoft Bing (search + AI chat), global web-traffic ordering still puts ChatGPT far ahead of Perplexity and Claude. Perplexity has drawn headlines on a new financing round with reported valuation at $1B, yet it still sits relatively low on traffic boards.
ChatGPT’s early-2023 explosion has since given way to month-to-month swings. In February, global visits were up 62% YoY but only +1% MoM. The 1.6B global visits still trail the May 2023 peak of 1.8B.
Inside the U.S., though, ChatGPT set a new peak: 208.8M visits (+87% YoY, +15% MoM).
4. Custom GPTs’ impact on OpenAI
OpenAI has been adding an app-store-like layer of attraction around ChatGPT. Domestically in the U.S., Custom GPTs brought the ChatGPT site more than 10M visits — spanning OpenAI tools such as DALL·E image generation and many third-party GPTs. Because Custom GPTs are paid-only, they are a meaningful revenue surface for OpenAI.
5. After Bard → Gemini
Gemini has replaced Bard as Google’s primary AI-chat brand while Google keeps testing more AI features inside core Search. The shift is more than a rename: it marks a newer generation of models. Google had to pull an image-generation feature after backlash over over-corrective, “woke” depictions of historically white moments (e.g. the U.S. Declaration of Independence signing); an adjusted image generator was expected to return soon.
Even so, Gemini drew more attention. Similarweb estimates put Gemini’s February unique visitors at 51.7M — above what Bard had previously reached.
6. Copilot, Perplexity, and Claude
The Copilot site is part of Microsoft’s broader push to embed Copilot-branded AI across Office and into developer/designer tools. As a standalone site, Copilot is beginning to stand out among lower-ranked peers such as Perplexity (perplexity.ai) and Anthropic’s Claude (claude.ai).
7. Mobile apps: ChatGPT +5% MoM; Bing MAU +~20% YoY
ChatGPT’s mobile-app registered users reached 6.7M in February (+5% MoM) — a year earlier OpenAI had not yet shipped the mobile app. Microsoft’s AI push appears to have helped Bing’s mobile apps: combined U.S. iOS + Android MAU hit 13M in February (~+20% YoY, though −8.6% MoM). Character.AI’s U.S. app use was roughly flat at 3.1M. The new Microsoft Copilot app cleared just over 1M U.S. MAU; Perplexity’s app sat around 266k users.
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