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The introduction of OpenAI's new AI model has prompted a boom in web traffic to ChatGPT.
Last week, OpenAI announced GPT-4o, a more robust AI model for free and paid users. Since then, traffic to the ChatGPT.com domain has surged, exceeding 100 million visits per day, according to traffic analysis provider Similarweb.
On May 13, traffic to ChatGPT reached 96.3 million visits before surpassing 100 million visits over the next two days, Similarweb said in a blog post.
(SimilarWeb)To put things in perspective, ChatGPT previously set a monthly high of 1.8 billion visits in May 2023. If current traffic trends continue, ChatGPT should shatter that record with 2.3 billion visits.
"In the seven days leading up to May 17, web traffic for chatgpt.com was up 27.7% versus the previous week, and traffic to the openai.com corporate domain was up 25%," Similarweb says. "Over that same period, the daily active user count for the ChatGPT mobile app was up 11.5%, based on combined iOS and Android users in the US."
Interest in ChatGPT appeared to peak a year ago before hitting a summer slump in 2023, possibly because many kids were out of school. However, the new traffic estimates from Similarweb suggest ChatGPT still has plenty of room to grow, despite increasing competition from other chatbots such as Google’s Gemini.
The traffic surge also comes after OpenAI migrated the chatbot’s original domain from chat.openai.com to chatgpt.com, making it easier for people to discover. In addition, users no longer need to sign in with an OpenAI account to use the chatbot.
Despite the increasing user traffic, there are signs that many Americans are unaware of ChatGPT. In March, Pew Research published survey results that found only 23% of US adults had ever used ChatGPT.