The Most Used AI Chatbots in 2025: Global Usage, Trends, and Platform Comparisons of ChatGPT, Gemini, Copilot, and Claude

Overview

General-purpose AI chatbots have seen explosive global adoption in the past few weeks, led by platforms like OpenAI’s ChatGPT, Google’s Gemini (Bard), Microsoft’s AI Copilot (Bing Chat), and Anthropic’s Claude.

These systems serve broad user needs – from answering questions and drafting content to coding help – and each has amassed a substantial user base. Below we compare their usage statistics, engagement levels, media popularity, and recent developments, focusing on up-to-date data from 2024–2025.

Usage Statistics: User Base and Volume

ChatGPT (OpenAI): ChatGPT remains the most widely used AI chatbot by a large margin. As of May 2025 it averaged about 122.6 million daily active users, with nearly 800 million weekly users. This reflects a sharp growth from ~100 million weekly users in late 2023 to 400 million by early 2025, and then a surprise jump to ~800 million after new feature rollouts (per OpenAI’s CEO at TED 2025). The ChatGPT website is now one of the highest-traffic sites on the internet (reportedly the 5th most visited globally). In March 2025 alone, ChatGPT saw 4.5 billion site visits, up from 3.9 billion in February. On average it is fielding over 1 billion queries per day – an enormous volume that underscores its integration into daily routines. Notably, ChatGPT was the fastest-growing app in history at launch (reaching 100 million users in 2 months), and by early 2025 it’s reportedly used by 92 % of Fortune 100 companies and 23 % of U.S. adults, indicating widespread mainstream adoption.

Google Gemini (Bard): Google’s conversational AI (launched as Bard, now under the Gemini model branding) also commands a large user base, though still trailing ChatGPT. Google has not disclosed official user counts, but web-traffic metrics suggest hundreds of millions of interactions. In January 2025, Bard (Gemini) received an estimated 267.6 million visits (a ~2.4 % increase from the previous month). By February 2025, monthly visits grew to roughly 284 million. These figures indicate a sizable user community (likely tens of millions of active users), even if not yet on ChatGPT’s scale. For context, Bard’s usage corresponds to about 13–14 % of the generative-AI chatbot market by late 2024. Its reach is global – available in 230 + countries and 40 + languages – and it quickly expanded after launch in mid-2023. Bard’s user growth has been steady, and Google anticipates crossing 1 billion total users eventually, though current active user counts are lower. It’s clear that Bard/Gemini, while popular, is still catching up to the runaway lead of ChatGPT in sheer usage.

Microsoft Copilot (Bing Chat): Microsoft’s general-purpose chatbot is integrated into Bing (as the “AI Copilot” chat mode) and across the Microsoft ecosystem. This gives it a broad base of potential users. Shortly after introducing AI chat, Bing surpassed 100 million daily active users (in March 2023). Usage has continued to climb – by April 2024, Microsoft reported 140 million daily active users on Bing, crediting the AI “Copilot” integration for a ~40 million user jump over the year. Many of these users are engaging with the Bing Chat feature for search and assistance. Microsoft’s search share remains smaller than Google’s, but AI has boosted Bing’s relevance. Roughly 500 million monthly users visit Bing now, and a significant subset regularly use the chat mode. By 2025, “Copilot” (Bing Chat) accounts for about 14 % of the AI-chatbot market in usage share. In absolute terms, its user count is on the same order as ChatGPT’s daily users (hundreds of millions), showcasing Microsoft’s success in driving adoption via Windows and Office integrations.

Anthropic Claude: Anthropic’s Claude chatbot is also general-purpose, though its user base is the smallest of the big four. Claude’s usage is primarily through API partners and enterprise platforms (e.g., Slack’s GPT assistant and AWS Bedrock) rather than a mass consumer website, so public stats are limited. Estimates suggest Claude holds about 2–3 % of the generative-AI chatbot market by usage. This implies on the order of only a few million active users, far below the others. Nonetheless, Claude gained recognition for its technical capabilities – notably allowing 100,000-token context windows (around 75 k words) which launched in mid-2023. It has seen uptake in business settings and developer communities, and usage is growing (Anthropic reported a 16 % quarterly user growth in late 2024). In summary, Claude is influential but niche compared to ChatGPT, Bard, or Bing, given its more limited public availability.

Comparison of Key Metrics: The table below summarizes the scale of these top chatbots:

Chatbot (Developer)	Active Users / Traffic	Engagement & Share
ChatGPT (OpenAI)	~122.6 million daily users (May 2025); ~800 million weekly users; ~4.5 billion monthly visits (Mar 2025)	~13.9 min avg. session duration (global); ~1 billion queries per day; ~59 % market share
Google Gemini (Bard)	(Daily users N/A); ~267–284 million monthly visits (early 2025)	~4.5 min avg. session duration; ~13–14 % market share
Microsoft Copilot (Bing Chat)	~140 million daily users (Apr 2024) (Bing overall)	(Session data N/A); ~14.4 % market share
Claude (Anthropic)	(No public user count) (est. a few million active users)	(Session N/A); ~2.8 % market share

(Sources: traffic from SimilarWeb/analytics reports; market share from First Page Sage.)

As shown, ChatGPT dominates in usage by any measure – boasting hundreds of millions of users and billions of interactions, roughly four to five times the scale of its nearest rivals. Bard/Gemini and Bing Copilot each command a significant user base in the hundreds of millions of monthly uses, while Anthropic’s Claude remains smaller but present. In aggregate, more than 987 million people worldwide use AI chatbots (across all platforms) as of 2025, a stunning figure that speaks to how rapidly these tools have become part of everyday life.

User Engagement and Retention

Not only are people using these chatbots, they are highly engaged when they do. ChatGPT in particular sees lengthy interactions – users worldwide spend an average of about 14 minutes per session on the platform. (This peaked at ~14:55 in late 2023.) Such session lengths are far above typical web services, indicating users often have multi-turn conversations or perform complex tasks in one visit. By comparison, sessions on Google’s Bard tend to be shorter; the average Bard user spends around 4 minutes 29 seconds per visit and views ~3 pages per session. This difference suggests ChatGPT is used for more in-depth or prolonged tasks (writing code, essays, etc.), whereas Bard is often used for quicker queries or as an adjunct to search. Engagement on Bing Chat falls somewhere in between – Microsoft hasn’t released detailed session times, but internal metrics show strong retention of users once they begin using AI features in search. Notably, Bing users’ total engagement has increased since the introduction of chat, even if each query is shorter than a ChatGPT session (often a single Q&A versus a back-and-forth dialogue).

Retention of users, especially paying subscribers, is also high. OpenAI reports that ChatGPT’s subscription users stick around – it retained 89 % of paying ChatGPT Plus customers after one quarter, and ~74 % continued their subscriptions beyond nine months. This is well above the industry norm (many AI apps retain only ~20–40 % of paying users after a few months). The strong retention reflects that users find ongoing value in ChatGPT’s capabilities and improvements. In the broader user base, surveys found usage actually grew among consumers over time – e.g., 23 % of U.S. adults had used ChatGPT by Feb 2024, up from 18 % in mid-2023. This contradicts any notion that chatbot usage was just a passing fad; instead, new users continue to try these tools and many become regular users. Students and professionals are especially engaged – about 60 % of college students in one poll said they use ChatGPT regularly, and developers rank among top adopters (nearly 79 % of software developers have tried it).

Other platforms see decent but lower retention and engagement. Google has not shared Bard retention stats, but anecdotal evidence suggests many users experiment with it but might not rely on it daily as much as they do with ChatGPT or integrated assistants. One proxy for engagement is mobile-app usage: the ChatGPT mobile app, for example, has grown 5–15 % in users each month and contributes to overall usage growth, whereas Google only released a standalone Bard/Gemini app in mid-2024. We can also compare query volumes: ChatGPT’s ~1 billion queries/day dwarf the question volumes handled by Bard or Bing’s chat. (For instance, at launch Bing Chat saw about 45 million chats per day – large, but still under 5 % of ChatGPT’s volume.)

In summary, user engagement is very high for these AI chatbots, with ChatGPT leading in depth of usage. Its ability to maintain context across chats and produce detailed responses encourages longer interactions. Meanwhile, integration-based bots like Copilot/Bing benefit from habitual use (every search could invoke the AI), driving up daily actives even if each session is brief. All major chatbots are maintaining strong user retention as they improve, suggesting they have become a fixture in users’ toolkits rather than a one-time novelty.

Popularity Trends in Media and Public Discourse

Ever since the debut of ChatGPT in late 2022, AI chatbots have dominated tech media and public conversation. ChatGPT in particular achieved an unprecedented level of name recognition – it was frequently in headlines and even described as an “AI inflection point” in 2023. By early 2025, data shows that public interest in “ChatGPT” vastly outshines other chatbots: global Google search volume for “ChatGPT” is roughly 20 times higher than for its nearest competitor. (In January 2025, ChatGPT had ~210 million worldwide search queries, whereas Google Gemini (Bard) was the second most-searched with around 10 million.) This suggests ChatGPT remains the byword for AI chatbots in the public mind, much like how “Google” became synonymous with search. The term “ChatGPT” has entered common usage and was even banned or scrutinized in some schools and workplaces due to concerns about cheating and misinformation – further fueling media coverage.

That said, Google’s Bard/Gemini has also been in the spotlight, especially during its launch and subsequent upgrades. Bard’s launch misstep in February 2023 – where it gave an incorrect answer in a demo about the James Webb Space Telescope – was widely reported and even caused a $100 billion drop in Alphabet’s market value in a single day. This incident underscored the intense media scrutiny on AI chatbot accuracy. Since then, Google has been keen to highlight Bard/Gemini’s improvements at events like Google I/O. Media coverage often frames it as Google’s answer to ChatGPT, tracking whether it can catch up. In countries where Google dominates search, Bard’s integration into search results (the “AI overviews” in Search Generative Experience) has also been a talking point, although those features rolled out gradually. Public discussions around Bard tend to focus on its real-time information access (a strength) versus the sometimes more creative or verbose answers of ChatGPT.

Microsoft’s Copilot (Bing Chat) garnered significant media and public attention when it launched (early 2023) as it signaled a new competitive front in search. Microsoft’s CEO proclaimed “the AI era of search” and even stated that every 1 % of search market share gained was worth $2 billion in ad revenue, highlighting Bing Chat’s strategic importance. While Bing remains far behind Google in overall usage, the integration of GPT-4 into Bing gave Microsoft a flurry of positive press and millions of new sign-ups (over 1 million people joined the Bing Chat waitlist in 48 hours). Over the past year, media narratives often compare Bing’s AI results to Google’s, sometimes noting Bing’s more provocative conversational style (especially early on, when some Bing chat sessions went awry and made headlines). Overall, Microsoft has managed to position “Copilot” as a broader brand for AI assistance (spanning Office, Windows, and more), which is frequently discussed in business press as a potential revolution in productivity software. However, in pure public buzz, “Bing Chat” or “Microsoft Copilot” searches and mentions remain modest – roughly 5–6 million global search queries for Copilot vs. hundreds of millions for ChatGPT. Microsoft’s AI is thus highly used but a bit more behind-the-scenes, piggybacking on Bing and Office rather than being a cultural phenomenon on its own.

Anthropic Claude, being less consumer-facing, has had more limited media coverage by name. It’s often mentioned in the context of AI safety and as a notable rival backed by notable investments (such as Google’s early funding and more recently Amazon’s partnership). Tech media picked up on Claude’s unique features (like the 100 k token context window allowing analysis of very long documents) and its positioning as a more “aligned” or safe AI model. In late 2023 and 2024, Claude gained popularity in discussions on AI ethics and enterprise use. The name “Claude 2” trended briefly in mid-2023 when it became publicly accessible. Still, Claude does not enjoy nearly the public name recognition that ChatGPT or Bard do. Instead, Anthropic made headlines for its big-dollar partnerships – for example, Amazon’s $4 billion investment in Anthropic (announced in late 2024) was widely reported, signaling that Claude will be a core offering on AWS. This reinforced Claude’s image in the media as a rising contender (often dubbed “OpenAI’s biggest rival” by outlets like CNBC) and spurred public interest in how it might power business applications.

In summary, ChatGPT remains the centerpiece of public discourse on AI chatbots – it’s the name most people recognize and is often shorthand for the technology. Google’s and Microsoft’s offerings have certainly been covered, especially in tech media and at launch events, but haven’t reached the same pop-culture status (few people say “I’ll Bard that” vs. “I’ll ask ChatGPT”). Nonetheless, as these tools integrate deeper into products we use daily, the distinction may blur. Media coverage in 2024–2025 increasingly speaks of “AI assistants” generally, noting the competition between ChatGPT, Bard (Gemini), Bing Copilot, Claude, and others (like new entrants X (Twitter) AI’s Grok or Meta’s Llama-based chats). Overall public sentiment has evolved from initial amazement to a mix of excitement and cautious debate (over issues like accuracy, bias, and regulation), ensuring that AI chatbots stay in the news.

Notable Updates and Developments (Recent Weeks)

Each of the leading chatbots has seen significant updates, new features, and partnerships in recent months, as the pace of development remains very rapid:

• ChatGPT (OpenAI): OpenAI continually upgraded ChatGPT through 2023 and 2024. A major recent leap was the addition of multimodal capabilities – ChatGPT can now see images and use voice input/output. In late 2023, OpenAI rolled out the ability for ChatGPT to accept image uploads and generate spoken responses, allowing users to have voice conversations and send pictures to the bot. This update (powered by a vision-enabled GPT-4 and new speech models) greatly expanded ChatGPT’s versatility, enabling tasks like analyzing photographs or talking users through problems. Around the same time, OpenAI introduced ChatGPT plugins and a Code Interpreter (now called Advanced Data Analysis) which let ChatGPT run code and work with user-provided files. These features (initially in beta for Plus users) turned ChatGPT into a more interactive assistant capable of browsing, math, and data visualization. OpenAI also launched ChatGPT Enterprise in mid/late 2024, offering higher security, longer context windows, and faster performance for organizations. This helped drive business adoption (over 1 million Enterprise and team users by late 2024). In terms of model updates, OpenAI’s latest model GPT-4 (released March 2023) remains the backbone of ChatGPT’s premium tier; an enhanced GPT-4 (often called GPT-4 Turbo) was introduced in late 2023 with 128 k token context support for enterprise. There is ongoing buzz about GPT-5, but as of early 2025 no such model is released – instead OpenAI has been fine-tuning GPT-4 and GPT-3.5 for better performance. Finally, OpenAI’s partnership with Microsoft remains a key development: Microsoft’s Azure cloud hosts ChatGPT, and ChatGPT is being embedded in Windows and Office via Copilot. The OpenAI–Microsoft ecosystem has effectively entwined, exemplified by Bing Chat using OpenAI models and, conversely, ChatGPT gaining web-browsing via Bing. This symbiosis and continuous improvement cycle have kept ChatGPT at the cutting edge.

• Google Gemini (Bard): Google has pivoted Bard to its new Gemini family of foundation models. In December 2023, Google announced Gemini – a next-generation multimodal AI – and shortly after incorporated a version of it (Gemini Pro) into Bard. This rebranding signaled that Bard would be continually upgraded as Gemini evolves. Indeed, in February 2024, Google unified Bard and its “Duet AI” features under the Gemini umbrella and launched a new Bard mobile app. Over 2024, Google rolled out Gemini 1.5 models: Gemini 1.5 Pro (an upgraded model with a huge context window up to 1 million tokens) and Gemini 1.5 Flash (a faster lightweight model) were announced at Google I/O 2024. These boosted Bard’s reasoning and coding abilities. By late 2024, Bard could handle images in prompts and generate images in responses (by integrating Google’s Imagen/DALL-E models), bringing it closer to parity with ChatGPT’s vision feature. In May 2025, Google I/O unveiled Gemini 2.5, including a new “Gemini 2.5 Pro” mode with enhanced reasoning called Deep Think. Google also introduced an “AI Ultra” subscription plan for power users to access the most advanced Gemini modes. Beyond model upgrades, Google has deeply integrated Bard/Gemini across its ecosystem: it can now pull information from Gmail, Drive, and other Google services for personalized assistance (with user permission), and it’s built into Android (accessible via Google Assistant and the Google search app). Bard’s live connectivity to the web (including real-time data and Google Search results) remains a key feature differentiator. In short, Google’s recent developments focus on making Bard (Gemini) more powerful and ubiquitous – turning it into a true “assistant” across search, mobile, and workplace apps, backed by continual model improvements and the vast Google knowledge graph.

• Microsoft Copilot (Bing & 365): Microsoft has aggressively expanded its Copilot branding to put AI into all its major products. The biggest development was the launch of Microsoft 365 Copilot in late 2023, which embeds an OpenAI GPT-4-based assistant into Office apps like Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, and Teams. This allows users to generate documents, summarize emails or meetings, analyze spreadsheets, etc., via natural language prompts within those apps. After months of testing with enterprise customers, 365 Copilot became generally available for businesses (at a $30/user add-on) around Q4 2023, and demand has been high. Microsoft reports that as of early 2025, “Copilot” is used by thousands of organizations and has driven increased usage of Office apps. In Windows 11, Microsoft introduced the Windows Copilot (in September 2023), a sidebar chatbot integrated into the operating system that can answer questions, change settings, and tie into third-party plugins – effectively bringing Bing Chat to the desktop. This was a notable update making AI assistance instantly accessible with a keystroke for hundreds of millions of Windows users. On the Bing side, Microsoft continually improved Bing Chat: it upgraded the underlying model to GPT-4 in spring 2023, added visual search and image generation (using DALL·E) into Bing Chat, and increased the conversation turn limits (from an initial cap of 5 turns to now 30+ turns per session, with 300 total chats per day for regular users). Microsoft also introduced different conversation tones (Precise, Balanced, Creative) to give users control over the style of responses. A recent update in early 2025 imposed some daily limits on unlicensed Copilot image generation (to manage costs), but generally Microsoft is moving toward unlimited usage for premium users. Another development: third-party plugin support – Bing Chat and Windows Copilot gained the ability to use some of the same plugins as ChatGPT (e.g., connecting to Expedia, OpenTable, etc.), thanks to an OpenAI-Microsoft plugin standard announced in mid-2023. Finally, Microsoft’s partnership with OpenAI deepened with a massive investment (reported $10 + billion) and extended exclusivity for OpenAI’s models on Azure. This has ensured that Microsoft always has access to the latest GPT upgrades for Copilot. Overall, Microsoft’s strategy in recent weeks has been refinement and distribution: fine-tuning the AI responses (reducing inaccuracies and weird outputs) and pushing Copilot into more products (recently announcing Copilot for Windows 10, Copilot in Bing Mobile, and even an AI assistant for cybersecurity in their Sentinel product). The result is an AI assistant presence across the Microsoft ecosystem, steadily improving through 2024–2025.

• Anthropic Claude: Claude has seen a series of upgrades focusing on model capability and safety. Claude 2 launched in July 2023 as a significant improvement, with the aforementioned 100 k token context window and better performance on coding and reasoning. Users could access Claude 2 via a new public beta website (claude.ai) and API, which increased its exposure. In late 2023, Anthropic rolled out Claude Pro (a subscription plan for heavier usage, similar to ChatGPT Plus) on their website, indicating growing interest from individual users. By early 2024, Anthropic had developed Claude Instant (a faster, cheaper but less powerful model) to compete with OpenAI’s GPT-3.5 for high-volume use cases. The latest generation, Claude 3, was mentioned in 2024 as part of Anthropic’s offerings on AWS. In March 2024, Anthropic and Amazon formalized a partnership: Amazon invested $4 billion in Anthropic and became its primary cloud partner. This deal ensures AWS customers access to Claude models via Amazon Bedrock, and it provides Anthropic the computing infrastructure to train even larger models. As a result, we can expect faster development of Claude’s capabilities (Anthropic has hinted at “Claude-Next,” aiming to be 10 × more capable than today’s AI). On the deployment side, Slack (owned by Salesforce) integrated Claude as part of Slack’s built-in AI features in 2023, and Quora’s Poe platform also offers Claude to end users. These partnerships increase Claude’s reach without Anthropic needing a massive consumer app. The focus of Claude’s recent updates has also been reinforcing safety – Anthropic, founded by ex-OpenAI researchers, emphasizes building a “constitutional AI” that refuses inappropriate requests. They regularly adjust Claude’s responses to minimize harmful or biased outputs, which has been noted in press coverage as a differentiator (Claude is often a bit more cautious or “polite” than raw ChatGPT). In summary, Claude’s notable developments are scaling up and teaming up: making a bigger, smarter model and aligning with industry giants (like Amazon and Salesforce) to carve out a space in the enterprise AI market.

Finally, it’s worth noting new entrants and their developments, even if they are not yet as widely used. For example, Elon Musk’s xAI launched “Grok” in late 2023 – a chatbot with a witty, somewhat rebellious persona available to X (Twitter) premium users. While Grok’s user base is limited, it represents the ever-expanding landscape of general-purpose chatbots. Likewise, Meta released open-source LLMs (LLaMA 2, etc.) and in late 2024 integrated AI characters into its social platforms (Instagram, WhatsApp) featuring celebrity personas. These moves by major tech firms underscore that the race in general-purpose AI chatbots is intensifying.

However, as of early 2025, ChatGPT, Google’s Gemini (Bard), Microsoft’s Copilot, and Anthropic’s Claude remain the most-used and prominent globally – with ChatGPT securely at #1 in both usage and public mindshare. Each continues to evolve at a lightning pace, so the competitive landscape is dynamic. Users can expect more features, more accuracy, and even wider integration of these AI assistants in the weeks and months to come, as the giants of tech invest heavily to serve the world’s growing appetite for AI-driven conversation and help.

Sources: Official usage disclosures and statistics from OpenAI, Google, and Microsoft; Reuters and CNBC reports on user milestones; aggregated analytics (SimilarWeb, etc.) on web traffic; market-share analyses; and recent press releases/blogs for feature updates. These provide a current snapshot of how the top AI chatbots stack up in usage and development as of May 2025.

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