This is the most popular AI app - and you might be surprised by the runner-up

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ZDNET's cardinal takeaways

  • ChatGPT and Gemini are the apical 2 gen AI platforms.
  • Grok's users person increased, portion DeepSeek's are down. 
  • Vibe coding continues to beryllium a steadily increasing usage of gen AI.

Consumer generative AI products similar OpenAI's ChatGPT and Google's Gemini proceed to alteration our regular integer lives. These are the web products and mobile apps making the biggest impact.

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Venture superior steadfast Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) published a survey tracking the astir fashionable gen AI apps and what we usage them for. ChatGPT and Gemini instrumentality the archetypal and 2nd spots connected the list, respectively, for astir unsocial monthly visits connected the web and astir monthly progressive users connected mobile (though it did not specify nonstop numbers -- ZDNET has requested them from a16z). The remainder of the database suggests shifts successful planetary gen AI superpowers and wherefore consumers question circumstantial platforms.

After ChatGPT and Gemini, Deepseek, Grok, Character AI, Perplexity, and Claude inhabit the adjacent spots for web traffic. AI Gallery, Doubao, Microsoft Edge, Remini, and Baidu AI Search capable the consequent apical mobile gen AI apps. Canva does not look connected the list, contempt coming successful astatine fig 2 aft ChatGPT successful April.

What consumers usage AI for 

According to a16z, which has invested successful a bulk of the companies listed, these 14 platforms tin pass however consumers are utilizing gen AI. The survey narrows user behaviour down to 7 categories: wide assistance (ChatGPT, Perplexity, Poe); companionship (Character AI); representation procreation (Midjourney, Leonardo); representation and video editing (Veed, Cutout Pro); dependable procreation (Eleven Labs); productivity tools (Photoroom, Gamma, Quillbot); and exemplary hosting (Civitai, HuggingFace). The study did not specify percentages for each category. 

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The survey noted that mobile app stores cracking down connected ChatGPT copycat apps are making mode for caller gen AI apps to summation much popularity, including AI Gallery, Wink, YouCut, and Grok. The survey besides suggests that the gen AI web ecosystem is stabilizing -- meaning Google is separating retired its AI domains (Gemini, AI Studio, Google Labs, and NotebookLM) -- which allows for clearer tracking of its properties' traffic, monthly progressive users, and usage cases. That means products similar Grok, Quark, Qwen3, and Lovable are seeing postulation increases.

ChatGPT competitors are catching up 

Google unsocial has 4 products connected the a16z list, including Gemini, NotebookLM, Google Labs, and Google AI Studio. Despite ChatGPT's dominance successful the wide LLM adjunct category, the survey notes that Google, Grok, and Meta are closing the gap. 

Grok saw an astir 40% summation successful monthly progressive users aft the release of Grok 4 successful July 2025. DeepSeek experienced a important 22% drop-off successful monthly progressive users. 

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The survey besides explores the summation successful utilizing gen AI for vibe coding, which entails developers utilizing ample connection models to make code, focusing much connected the application's "vibe" alternatively than the code's intricacies. The survey noted that though this signifier is successful its infancy, aboriginal information suggests that these platforms, specified arsenic Lovable, Replit, and Supabase, person loyal idiosyncratic bases.

In the 5 a16z "Top 100 gen AI user apps" studies published truthful far, 14 platforms person ever appeared successful the apical 50 web platforms: ChatGPT, Character AI, Civitai, Leonardo AI, ElevenLabs, Gamma, Hugging Face, Veed, Midjourney, Perplexity, Photoroom, Poe, QuillBot, and Cutout Pro. 

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