LLM and AI Chatbot Statistics (2025) - Who Is Winning the AI Race?

We analyzed the traffic for top LLMs and AI chat assistants.

And here’s what we found.

Key Takeaways

#1. ChatGPT is the undisputed market leader

ChatGPT is so far ahead, it’s almost unfair to call it a race (for now).

Out of all the LLM and AI assistant traffic, ChatGPT captures 82.7% of it.

If there ever was a doubt about who is dominating this AI race, this should put the case to rest.

The closest competitors, DeepSeek and Gemini, trail far behind with 5.9% and 4.8% of the market share, respectively.

#2. DeepSeek is, surprisingly, the challenger

Based on worldwide traffic numbers, DeepSeek surprisingly ranks second in this AI chatbot race.

Of course, most of its traffic comes from China. We will come to the geo-distribution of these players in some time.

But what’s interesting is how quickly it’s climbed the ranks, surpassing players Gemini and Perplexity, even if it’s in pure traffic volume.

#3. Grok and Gemini are the fastest % growers

While ChatGPT remains the clear leader, other LLMs are gaining ground.

Based on purely growth rate over the last six months, Grok and Gemini look to be the faster-growing players.

Grok exploded from 1M to 111M visits over the past six months, a 10,000% increase. Gemini grew by 192% during the same period.

Of course, the high growth numbers are mainly because of the small base effect. Still, it’s interesting to know who is seeing that growth surge.

Grok’s massive traffic surge is likely from their integration with X (formerly Twitter). Bundling AI with a social media netrowk, clearly seems to working.

Gemini might have also benefited from its integration with Google Search and Android.

Although the growth percentage doesn’t look that impressive (+25%) compared to other players, ChatGPT gained 911M traffic from its Jan 2025 figures. Reinforcing its market leader position.

To put this in context, the 911M traffic growth is higher than all the other LLM traffic growth combined!

Whoever said growth % is the metric to look at should look at these figures.

#4. Perplexity and Claude – laggards or niche players?

Perplexity (+141M, 2.5%) and Claude (+114M, 2.1%) aren’t growing as fast as other players.

But they both have unique positioning as research-heavy, tech-savvy, and enterprise usage LLMs. High-value niches.

Only time will tell if they are the slow-growth laggards or strong niche players.

#5. Regional Insights

Here are the top three traffic sources for each LLM or AI chatbot.

LLM / Chatbot	🥇 Top Country	🥈 2nd Country	🥉 3rd Country
ChatGPT	🇺🇸 USA	🇮🇳 India	🇧🇷 Brazil
DeepSeek	🇨🇳 China	🇷🇺 Russia	🇺🇸 USA
Gemini	🇺🇸 USA	🇮🇳 India	🇮🇩 Indonesia
Perplexity	🇺🇸 USA	🇮🇳 India	🇩🇪 Germany
Claude	🇺🇸 USA	🇮🇳 India	🇯🇵 Japan
Grok	🇺🇸 USA	🇮🇳 India	🇻🇳 Vietnam

Few patterns that stand out:

• USA is the #1 traffic source for almost all the AI models. Given that they are the innovation hubs where most of these LLMs were developed, it comes as no surprise.
• India is the second-largest traffic source for AI platforms. The large population, widespread English usage, and early tech adoption have made them a solid second player.
• China has a firewall, which means their in-house DeepSeek fills the vacuum for their large user base.
• DeepSeek’s top three traffic sources are from China, Russia, and the US. The nexus makes for an interesting geopolitical mix.

---

Have something to say? Join the discussion on LinkedIn or subscribe to stay tuned: