Data shows ChatGPT traffic falling for the third month in a row as there are signs of an end to the decline
OpenAI’s ChatGPT, the wildly popular artificial intelligence chatbot that launched in November, saw monthly website visits decline for the third straight month in August, although there are signs the decline is coming to an end, according to analytics firm Similarweb.
Global desktop and mobile website visits to the ChatGPT website fell 3.2 percent to 1.43 billion in August, after declining about 10 percent in each of the previous two months. Visitor time spent on the site has also decreased each month since March, from an average of 8.7 minutes on-site to 7 minutes on-site in August.
But global unique visitors in August rose from 180 million to 180.5 million.
The return to school in September could improve traffic and usage of ChatGPT, and some schools have started to embrace it. US ChatGPT traffic increased slightly in August as American schools reopened.
“Students seeking homework help appear to be part of the story: The site’s share of younger users fell over the summer and is now recovering,” said David F. Carr of Similarweb, who regularly tracks ChatGPT and its competitors.
ChatGPT sparked rapid adoption of generative AI in everyday tasks from editing to coding, reaching 100 million monthly active users in January, two months after its launch. Generative AI technology uses past data to create new content, for example to write essays or poems.
Before Metas Threads launched, it was the fastest-growing consumer application of all time and is now one of the top 30 websites in the world.
A few ChatGPT competitors were introduced this year, including Google’s Bard chatbot. Microsoft’s search engine Bing also provides a chatbot powered by OpenAI free of charge.
OpenAI also released the ChatGPT app on the iOS system in May, which could drive some traffic to its website. ChatGPT is free to use, but there is also a premium subscription available for $20 (approximately Rs. 1,665) per month.
Apart from ChatGPT, OpenAI makes money by directly selling access to its AI models to developers and enterprises, as well as through a partnership with Microsoft, which has invested over $10 billion (approximately ₹83,15,000 crore) in the company.
© Thomson Reuters 2023
