ChatGPT Sees Weekly Users Double in Under 6 Months with New Releases

OpenAI's flagship AI chatbot, ChatGPT, has seen a robust resurgence in growth throughout the latter part of 2024, according to a recent report by venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz (a16z). The journey from 100 million weekly active users in November 2023 to 200 million in August 2024 took nine months, but the subsequent surge to 400 million users by February 2025 happened in just under six months. It's quite the leap, isn't it?

When ChatGPT first hit the scene in November 2022 as a research preview, it quickly became the fastest app to reach 100 million monthly active users, achieving this feat in a mere two months. Fast forward to November 2023, and it had already hit 100 million weekly active users, which then skyrocketed to 300 million by December 2024, and further to 400 million in February 2025.

According to a16z, the initial buzz around ChatGPT was largely fueled by curiosity. People were eager to give it a whirl, though not everyone was immediately sure how it would mesh with their daily routines.

However, the more recent growth spurt can be attributed to the rollout of new models and features. The launch of GPT-4o, with its multimodal capabilities, really got the ball rolling. Usage spiked from April to May 2024 following this release. Then, the introduction of Advanced Voice Mode led to another uptick from July to August 2024. The o1 model series also saw increased engagement from September to October 2024.

On the mobile front, ChatGPT's growth has been steady. Over the past year, the ChatGPT mobile app has seen user growth ranging from 5% to 15% each month. Currently, 175 million out of the total 400 million weekly active users are accessing the app on their mobile devices.

The report also delves into how competitors like DeepSeek have influenced the market. DeepSeek quickly climbed to the No. 2 spot globally within just 10 days and reached No. 2 on mobile by February, capturing 15% of ChatGPT's mobile user base. Interestingly, DeepSeek's mobile users are slightly more engaged than those of Perplexity and Claude, though they still trail behind ChatGPT in overall engagement.

The analysis also offers insights into tools for AI developers and coders, as well as rankings of the top AI apps by category and revenue, and the top generative AI apps across mobile and web. On the web, ChatGPT leads with the highest number of unique monthly visits, while on mobile, it boasts the most monthly active users, as per data from market intelligence provider Similarweb.