Number of ChatGPT Users (July 2025)
OpenAI’s ChatGPT took off in record-breaking fashion.
The artificial intelligence chatbot picked up millions of users in a very short space of time.
Today, ChatGPT is the generic name for several large language models from OpenAI, including GPT-3.5, GPT-4o, and GPT-4.5.
In this up-to-date article, we’ll explore just how many users ChatGPT currently has and other relevant data about the fast-growing AI platform.
Top ChatGPT User Statistics
- In just 5 days, ChatGPT surpassed 1 million users.
- ChatGPT.com gets approximately 4.61 billion visits per month
- Users send 2.5 billion prompts each day
- Around 62% of ChatGPT's social media traffic comes via YouTube.
- Around 15% of ChatGPT's users are American.
- More than 45% of ChatGPT users are under the age of 25.
- OpenAI hopes to reach 1 billion users by the end of 2025.
How Many ChatGPT Users Are There?
Based on July 2025 data from Semrush, ChatGPT ranks #5 in the world's most visited websites.
Meanwhile, OpenAI.com ranks #29, receiving well over 1 billion monthly visits.
- According to Brad Lightcap, OpenAI's Chief Operating Officer, ChatGPT had 400 million weekly users in February 2025.
- Mary Meeker's AI report confirmed that it had reached 800 million weekly users by April 2025.
- In July 2025, Sam Altman confirmed that users send 2.5 billion prompts each day.
OpenAI plans to hit 1 billion ChatGPT users by the end of 2025.
| Month | Weekly Users |
| November 2022 | 1 million |
| January 2023 | 30 million |
| November 2023 | 100 million |
| December 2024 | 300 million |
| February 2025 | 400 million |
| March 2025 | 800 million |
| April 2025 | 800 million |
| May 2025 | 800 million |
Sources: Reuters, Semrush, CNBC, The Verge, Techerati, DigitalInformationWorld, Bond, Axios
ChatGPT User Demographics
64.32% of ChatGPT users are male, and 35.68% are female.
More than 45% of its users are under the age of 25.
Sources: Semrush
ChatGPT's Initial Growth
According to OpenAI, ChatGPT acquired 1 million users just 5 days after launching in November 2022. This made it the fastest-growing application in history until Threads took that crown in July 2023.
By comparison, it took Instagram approximately 2.5 months to reach 1 million downloads. And Netflix had to wait around 3.5 years to reach 1 million users.
Here’s a breakdown of the approximate time taken to reach 1 million users for various online services:
|
Online Service |
Launch Year |
Time Taken to Reach 1 Million Users |
|
Threads |
2023 |
1 hour |
|
ChatGPT |
2022 |
5 days |
|
Instagram*** |
2010 |
2.5 months |
|
Spotify |
2008 |
5 months |
|
Dropbox |
2008 |
7 months |
|
|
2004 |
10 months |
|
Foursquare*** |
2009 |
13 months |
|
|
2006 |
2 years |
|
Airbnb** |
2008 |
2.5 years |
|
Kickstarter* |
2009 |
2.5 years |
|
Netflix |
1999 |
3.5 years |
* 1 million backers ** 1 million nights booked *** 1 million downloads
Incredibly, it’s estimated that ChatGPT then went on to hit 100 million monthly active users in January 2023, two months after launch.
To put that into perspective, TikTok took 9 months to reach 100 million users. And Instagram took 2.5 years.
To sum up: ChatGPT reached 1 million users in 5 days, and 100 million users in two months. It's among the fastest-growing services of all time, hitting major user milestones far more quickly than TikTok, Instagram, and Facebook.
ChatGPT User Growth
ChatGPT's traffic and usage have skyrocketed since its launch.
Want to Spy on Your Competition?
Explore competitors’ website traffic stats, discover growth points, and expand your market share.
Here's how ChatGPT monthly visits progressed over time:
| Month | Number of Visits | Change Over Previous Period | Change Over Previous Period (%) |
| December 2022 | 264.7 million | - | - |
| January 2023 | 683.2 million | ↑ 418.5 million | ↑ 158.10% |
| February 2023 | 1.3 billion | ↑ 616.8 million | ↑ 90.28% |
| March 2023 | 1.9 billion | ↑ 600 million | ↑ 46.15% |
| April 2023 | 2.3 billion | ↑ 400 million | ↑ 21.05% |
| April 2024 | 2.8 billion | ↑ 500 million | ↑ 21.74% |
| November 2024 | 4.8 billion | ↑ 2 billion | ↑ 71.43% |
| December 2024 | 4.8 billion | - | - |
| January 2025 | 4.7 billion | ↓ 0.1 billion | ↓ 2.08% |
| July 2025 | 5.2 billion | ↑ 0.5 billion | ↑ 10.64% |
Source: Semrush
ChatGPT User Stats
According to Semrush figures in June 2025:
- ChatGPT.com is visited approximately 5.24 billion times each month
- ChatGPT.com has a bounce rate of 40.01%.
- Each visitor views an average of 4.5 pages per visit
- Each user spends an average of 12 minutes and 9 seconds on the site.
Here’s how ChatGPT compares to other popular websites in terms of monthly visits and user interaction:
|
Website |
Total Visits |
Bounce Rate |
Pages per Visit |
Average Visit Duration |
Insights |
|
ChatGPT |
5.24 billion |
40.01% |
4.5 |
12 mins 09 secs | |
|
|
96.55 billion |
38.33% |
5.18 |
12 mins 52 secs | |
|
YouTube |
42.83 billion |
31.91% |
8.57 |
23 mins 56 secs | |
|
|
9.17 billion |
49.38% |
7.43 |
16 mins 36 secs | |
|
|
5.29 billion |
51.88% |
8.97 |
13 mins 35 secs | |
|
X |
3.57 billion |
48.88% |
8.42 |
17 mins 00 sec | |
|
Baidu |
672.76 million |
29.59% |
5.8 |
12 mins 08 secs | |
|
Wikipedia |
4.32 billion |
59.41% |
2.89 |
9 mins 08 secs | |
|
Yahoo |
2.9 billion |
49.00% |
3.8 |
11 mins 11 sec | |
|
|
2.51 billion |
60.18% |
5.93 |
39 mins 08 secs | |
|
Amazon |
2.56 billion |
42.46% |
6.59 |
11 mins 33 secs |
Figures above are accurate as of July 21, 2025.
Source: Semrush
ChatGPT Traffic
Top Marketing Channels
Over 4 in 5 (81.38%) ChatGPT visits are direct.
Referral traffic is the second-most popular way to access ChatGPT (8.48% of traffic).
Here’s a breakdown of the most popular ChatGPT marketing channels:
|
Rank |
Marketing Channel |
Proportion of Traffic |
|
1 |
Direct |
81.38% |
|
2 |
Referral |
8.48% |
|
3 |
Organic Search |
7.68% |
|
4 |
Paid Search |
1.27% |
|
5 |
Organic Social |
1.14% |
|
6 |
Display Ads |
0.03% |
|
7 |
Paid Social |
0.02% |
|
8 |
|
>0.01% |
You can see a full journey breakdown of ChatGPT traffic with Semrush's traffic analytics.
Social Media Traffic
In terms of social media traffic, YouTube is responsible for almost 2 in 5 visits (39.81%).
Here’s how other social media networks stack up:
|
Rank |
Social Network |
Proportion of Social Traffic |
|
1 |
YouTube |
39.81% |
|
2 |
|
18.98% |
|
3 |
|
7.38% |
|
4 |
|
5.15% |
|
5 |
|
4.52% |
|
- |
Others (combined) |
24.15% |
Top Keyword Traffic
The most commonly searched keyword is "chatgpt" with 30.21% of the searches per month.
This is followed by "chat gpt" with 20.27% of monthly searches.
Here's a breakdown of the most commonly used keywords that users use to find ChatGPT.
|
Rank |
Keyword |
Monthly Traffic |
|
1 | chatgpt | 30.21% |
|
2 | chat gpt | 20.27% |
|
3 | chat gbt | 7.98% |
|
4 | chat got | 4.36% |
|
5 | gpt | 3.00% |
Source: Semrush
ChatGPT Search
When OpenAI launched ChatGPT search, there was speculation that it could eat into Google's market share.
According to the latest SEO statistics, that has not happened yet.
But ChatGPT searches are increasing. And traffic from AI search engines is projected to overtake traffic from organic search in 2028.
It was estimated that ChatGPT received 37.5 million searches per day in 2024, while Google received 14 billion.
Between 2023-2024, the number of Google searches increased by 21.6%, and its market share remains above 90%.
SEO tracking tools are an essential tool when understanding search traffic from ChatGPT.
Source: SparkToro
Semrush AI Optimization offers insights into:
- Brand sentiment in ChatGPT responses
- Visibility in diferent LLMs
- Share of Voice
This offers brands a new way to make sure they appear in AI search recommendations. Increasing brand mentions and visibility in ChatGPT search is only going to become more important.
ChatGPT Subscriptions and Revenue
ChatGPT is free to use.
It has 10 million paying subscribers (Plus, Team, and Pro) and an additional 1 million commercial plan users.
From its paid subscriptions, the company makes $2.7 billion per year. This is forecasted to reach $4 billion by the end of 2025.
Source: Moomoo
ChatGPT by Region
No one country has more ChatGPT users than the US (16.18%).
Second-placed India (8.71%) has just over half as many ChatGPT users.
Together, the top five countries make up around 37% of all ChatGPT users.
Here’s the breakdown of ChatGPT users by region:
|
Rank |
Country |
Proportion of ChatGPT Users |
|
1 |
US |
16.18% |
|
2 |
India |
8.71% |
|
3 | Brazil | 5.28% |
|
4 | Germany | 4.04% |
|
5 | Japan | 2.9% |
|
- |
Others (combined) |
62.89% |
Source: Semrush
ChatGPT by Age
According to YouGov, 17% of 30 to 44-year-olds have used ChatGPT.
Similarly, 15% of 18 to 29-year-olds have used ChatGPT to generate text.
Around 1 in 10 (9%) of 45 to 64-year-olds and 5% of 65+ year-olds use ChatGPT.
However, far more people are aware of ChatGPT:
|
Level of ChatGPT Awareness |
Age | |||
|
18 to 29 |
30 to 44 |
45 to 64 |
65+ | |
|
I’ve used it myself to generate text |
15% |
17% |
9% |
5% |
|
I’ve seen text generated for someone else, but haven’t used it myself |
48% |
46% |
27% |
30% |
|
I’ve never used or never seen anyone else use it |
20% |
31% |
55% |
59% |
|
Not sure |
17% |
6% |
8% |
6% |
Looking at AI more generally, people aged 18-29 are actually among the most skeptical of the technology. Original Exploding Topics research found that among this age group, 83.89% wanted to see a pause or reduction in the amount of online content made with AI tools including ChatGPT.
Sources: YouGov, Exploding Topics
OpenAI Model History
OpenAI launched Generative Pre-trained Transformer 1 (GPT-1) in June 2018.
The first model, called "ChatGPT", was launched in November 2022.
Here's a breakdown of key OpenAI models:
| Model | Release Date | Context Window | Max Output Tokens | Knowledge Cutoff | Input | Output | Reasoning |
| GPT-4.5 | 2025 | 128,000 | 16,384 | Oct 2023 | Text, Image | Text | No |
| GPT-o3-mini | 2024 | 200,000 | 100,000 | Oct 2023 | Text | Text | Yes |
| GPT-o1-mini | 2024 | 128,000 | 65,536 | Oct 2023 | Text | Text | Yes |
| GPT-o1 | 2024 | 200,000 | 100,000 | Oct 2023 | Text, Image | Text | Yes |
| GPT-4o-audio | 2024 | 128,000 | 16,384 | Oct 2023 | Text, audio | Text, audio | No |
| GPT-4o-mini | 2024 | 128,000 | 16,384 | Oct 2023 | Text, Image | Text | No |
| GPT-4o | 2024 | 128,000 | 16,384 | Oct 2023 | Text, Image | Text | No |
| GPT-4 | 2023 | 8,192 | 8,192 | Dec 2023 | Text | Text | No |
Source: OpenAI, Wikipedia, OpenAI
Future of ChatGPT
ChatGPT’s overnight success has blown previous user growth figures out of the water.
Based on current data, the AI chatbot’s success looks set to continue:
- OpenAI is working on GPT-5, which is due to be released in 2025
- GPT-5 is expected to combine multiple OpenAI models into one
- Users on the free ChatGPT subscription will get unlimited access to GPT-5 when it's available
- OpenAI is rumored to be considering a new paid tier that will cost $2,000 per month
- It's working on its next open-weights model
For more ChatGPT statistics, take a look at:
Stop Guessing, Start Growing 🚀
Use real-time topic data to create content that resonates and brings results.
Exploding Topics is owned by Semrush. Our mission is to provide accurate data and expert insights on emerging trends. Unless otherwise noted, this page’s content was written by either an employee or a paid contractor of Semrush Inc.
Share
Newsletter Signup
By clicking “Subscribe” you agree to Semrush Privacy Policy and consent to Semrush using your contact data for newsletter purposes
Written By
Fabio is a research associate at Exploding Topics. Since 2021, Fabio has researched, written, and edited articles for the Explo... Read more