From Claude to DeepSeek: Tracking the Top Competitors of ChatGPT Today!

Is ChatGPT destined to remain untouchable indefinitely, or are we finally witnessing the rise of other competitors, with over 10,000 tools now deployed in the market? This is the question OneLittleWeb seeks to answer in a detailed study released in early August. From August 2024 to July 2025, the agency, which specializes in link building and SEO, analyzed data from Semrush, Muckrack, and App Stores to create a “list of the best AI chatbots based on real performance metrics,” according to Sujan Sarkar, the report’s author.

Eight metrics were examined, such as visibility, growth, reputation, and user experience, to score each tool. The goal? To identify which tools are advancing, which are stagnant, and which are declining. “We were able to look beyond mere popularity. We examined user engagement levels, the rapid growth of these tools, and their market positioning,” continues Sujan Sarkar. While ChatGPT remains competitive across most metrics studied (see image), some alternatives are beginning to encroach on its territory.

ChatGPT: The Unrivalled Leader in Generative AI

Let’s end the suspense right away: even at the top, ChatGPT continues to grow rapidly and outpaces its competitors by a significant margin. “ChatGPT is not just a well-known name; it has become a habit,” states OneLittleWeb, attributing this to its deep integration within OpenAI’s ecosystem and various Microsoft products. The figures are self-evident: over the period studied, ChatGPT amassed over 46.5 billion visits, far ahead of DeepSeek (2.7 billion), its closest competitor. In just the last six months, from May to July 2025, it attracted 5.01 billion users each month, setting a historical record.

Moreover, it remains the most frequently mentioned conversational agent in the media (2.4 million mentions), which fuels a “virtuous cycle of recognition and adoption,” according to the agency, and it has the most reviews on the App Stores (26.2 million). Despite its dominant position, its growth still reached 107% during the period. It accounts for 48.36% of the total traffic of the 10,500 AI tools studied by the agency, while remaining effective in terms of user engagement. On average, a session on ChatGPT lasts 15 minutes and 25 seconds.

From Claude to DeepSeek: Examining ChatGPT’s Competitors

Beyond ChatGPT, OneLittleWeb highlights other chatbots it considers among the most competitive, including Grok, Gemini, Claude, and DeepSeek. Here is how each one stands in the marketplace.

The Rapid Rise of Grok

Developed by xAI, a company founded by Elon Musk, Grok “came late to the market but has experienced faster growth than any other chatbot,” notes OneLittleWeb. Due to its integration with X and the visibility of its founder, which is a double-edged sword, Grok has shown a growth of 13,434% over the past year, ensuring a “dominant presence in the news.” It garnered 686 million visits between August 2024 and July 2025, accounting for 1.17% of the total AI tool traffic. “Among all the chatbots analyzed in this study, Grok has shown the most spectacular progression,” concludes the agency.

Gemini on the Prowl

With a market share of 1.74%, 1.6 billion annual visits, and an average of 246.2 million visits per month over the semester, Gemini lags behind the milestones set by ChatGPT, despite the sprawling power of its creating company. However, it remains one of the fastest-growing AI chatbots in the industry, according to OneLittleWeb. Particularly due to its integration into products of the Google ecosystem, which “gives it a distribution advantage that independent chatbots cannot match.” Its Achilles heel: a limited ability to retain users, with an average session duration of 11 minutes and 13 seconds.

Claude and the Bet on Quality

The main weakness of Gemini is Claude’s strength: along with Grok, they are the only ones to exceed in user time spent. With an average of 16 minutes and 44 seconds per session, Claude, known for its unique features like the Artefacts, stands as the king of retention. Yet, it does not explode the counters: it only totals “only” 1.15 billion visits between August and July 2025, was mentioned one million times in the media, and has only 118,000 reviews on the App Stores. However, according to OneLittleWeb, its strengths should enable it to secure a lasting place in the ecosystem: “The growth trajectory of Claude illustrates a stable rise, driven by word of mouth and user satisfaction rather than viral marketing.”

The Decline of DeepSeek

The case of DeepSeek well illustrates the role of media coverage in acquiring and retaining users. Thrust into the spotlight in January 2025, particularly for its ability to produce results comparable to ChatGPT at a significantly lower cost, DeepSeek reached its zenith in February 2025, with 520 million visits, before gradually declining. “This is a classic hype cycle: rapid rise, peak of attention, then gradual decline as the novelty wears off,” analyzes OneLittleWeb. Thanks to its explosive start, the Chinese-origin conversational agent was still able to maintain an average monthly visit of 228.5 million. And it reached 2.7 billion visits over the year, making it the second most used chatbot during the period. But will it be able to repeat the feat in 2026?

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