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ZDNET’s key takeaways
- ChatGPT and Gemini are the top two gen AI platforms.
- Grok’s users have increased, while DeepSeek’s are down.
- Vibe coding continues to be a steadily growing use of gen AI.
Consumer generative AI products like OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Google’s Gemini continue to transform our daily digital lives. These are the web products and mobile apps making the biggest impact.
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Venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) published a study tracking the most popular gen AI apps and what we use them for. ChatGPT and Gemini take the first and second spots on the list, respectively, for most unique monthly visits on the web and most monthly active users on mobile (though it did not specify exact numbers — ZDNET has requested them from a16z). The rest of the list suggests shifts in global gen AI superpowers and why consumers seek specific platforms.
After ChatGPT and Gemini, Deepseek, Grok, Character AI, Perplexity, and Claude occupy the next spots for web traffic. AI Gallery, Doubao, Microsoft Edge, Remini, and Baidu AI Search fill the subsequent top mobile gen AI apps.
Canva does not appear on the list, despite coming in at number two after ChatGPT in April. The report notes that “products that have added significant generative AI features but are not AI native, such as Canva and Notion, are not included.”
What consumers use AI for
According to a16z, which has invested in a majority of the companies listed, these 14 platforms can inform how consumers are using gen AI. The study narrows consumer behavior down to seven categories: general assistance (ChatGPT, Perplexity, Poe); companionship (Character AI); image generation (Midjourney, Leonardo); image and video editing (Veed, Cutout Pro); voice generation (Eleven Labs); productivity tools (Photoroom, Gamma, Quillbot); and model hosting (Civitai, HuggingFace). The report did not specify percentages for each category.
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The study noted that mobile app stores cracking down on ChatGPT copycat apps are making way for novel gen AI apps to gain more popularity, including AI Gallery, Wink, YouCut, and Grok. The study also suggests that the gen AI web ecosystem is stabilizing — meaning Google is separating out its AI domains (Gemini, AI Studio, Google Labs, and NotebookLM) — which allows for clearer tracking of its properties’ traffic, monthly active users, and use cases. That means products like Grok, Quark, Qwen3, and Lovable are seeing traffic increases.
ChatGPT competitors are catching up
Google alone has four products on the a16z list, including Gemini, NotebookLM, Google Labs, and Google AI Studio. Despite ChatGPT’s dominance in the general LLM assistant category, the study notes that Google, Grok, and Meta are closing the gap.
Grok saw an almost 40% increase in monthly active users after the release of Grok 4 in July 2025. DeepSeek experienced a significant 22% drop-off in monthly active users.
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The study also explores the increase in using gen AI for vibe coding, which entails developers using large language models to generate code, focusing more on the application’s “vibe” rather than the code’s intricacies. The study noted that although this practice is in its infancy, early data suggests that these platforms, such as Lovable, Replit, and Supabase, have loyal user bases.
In the five a16z “Top 100 gen AI consumer apps” studies published so far, 14 platforms have always appeared in the top 50 web platforms: ChatGPT, Character AI, Civitai, Leonardo AI, ElevenLabs, Gamma, Hugging Face, Veed, Midjourney, Perplexity, Photoroom, Poe, QuillBot, and Cutout Pro.
