Generative AI, once a curious and somewhat intimidating new technology, has now become an everyday staple for many people. In the rapidly evolving landscape of artificial intelligence, ChatGPT has emerged as a groundbreaking force, reshaping how we interact with technology. Since its launch in November 2022, this AI-powered chatbot has experienced unprecedented growth, captivating users worldwide.
Though there are other major AI platforms, ChatGPT is far and away the most popular tool, as can be seen in the below table (from a previous blog post).
Userbase % = Number of unique users who visited website / number of unique users in our panel) * 100
In July 2024, ChatGPT launched the beta version of SearchGPT, a new product that combines traditional search features with generative AI, including citations that link to external websites. This put it in direct competition with other search engines such as Google and Perplexity. On 31 October 2024, SearchGPT was released to paid ChatGPT members, and finally released to free ChatGPT users on 31 December 2024.
In this article we will examine the usage of ChatGPT/SearchGPT over 2024 and into the early weeks of 2025, looking at how the tool’s popularity has developed over time, how it stacks up against other AI tools, and whether it is a serious competitor for search giant Google.
This article will cover
- Top domains referred from SearchGPT
- Top categories within the top domains
- Userbase comparison of ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Google
- Average number of sessions on ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Google
- Stickiness of ChatGPT vs. Google
- Explore GPTs: average chatbot usage per user per month
Our user panel covers browser activity across desktop and mobile in the USA from 1 December 2023 – 16 January 2025.
ChatGPT from 2024 to 2025
In the first two weeks (1 – 14 Jan) of 2024, the percentage of users using ChatGPT was 6.95%. During the same period in 2025, this increased to 14.68% (a 7.73% increase).
(ChatGPT Userbase% = Number of unique users using ChatGPT / Number of unique users in our panel * 100)
This increase aligns with the consistent growth in sessions per user and stickiness observed throughout 2024 (more on that below). This correlation suggests that improved user retention and engagement may have directly contributed to the expanding user base.
Top domain destinations from SearchGPT
The table below shows the domains to which SearchGPT directed the most traffic.
Top 20 domains referred from ChatGPT (31 Oct 2024 – 16 Jan 2025)
From October 31 2024, to January 16 2025, Amazon.com was the most frequently visited domain referred from SearchGPT, accounting for 9.13% of all traffic. However, when looking at domain types (see table below), news-related domains collectively received 21.42% of the traffic.
Of the 12.65% of e-commerce traffic from SearchGPT, Amazon.com accounted for 9.13%, representing approximately three-quarters of the total e-commerce traffic.
Top Amazon destination categories
Of Amazon’s 9.13% share of traffic from SearchGPT, the categories that were most popular are shown in this table:
Top Amazon categories referred from ChatGPT (31 Oct 2024 – 16 Jan 2025)
Half of the Amazon traffic from SearchGPT (50.03%) is concentrated within the top four categories:
- Electronics – 22.93%
- Home & Kitchen – 11.81%
- Books – 7.74%
- Tools & Home Improvement – 7.55%
This distribution suggests that ChatGPT users are primarily interested in the electronics and home improvement sectors. For more on popular Amazon categories, check out our whitepaper on Amazon in-app vs. browser user behavior.
Top YouTube destination categories
YouTube, the third most popular domain destination from SearchGPT with 6.59% of the traffic share, also has distinct categories. These were the top categories visited from SearchGPT:
Top YouTube categories referred from ChatGPT (31 Oct 2024 – 16 Jan 2025)
For more on YouTube, check out our blog on web vs. app usage.
ChatGPT, Google, and Perplexity
Next, we compared ChatGPT with other major search engines, Google and Perplexity from 31 October 2024 to 16 January 2025.
N.B. ChatGPT in the following charts includes SearchGPT, as SearchGPT is part of ChatGPT.
Userbase
As can be observed in the graph below, Google still retains a lion’s share of the userbase, with ChatGPT coming in second, but still positioned much closer to Perplexity.
The chart below shows a more detailed view of ChatGPT and Perplexity.
From the analysis of user data from October 31 2024 to January 16 2025, we found no evidence that ChatGPT significantly impacted the user base of Google or Perplexity. All three services exhibited similar usage trends throughout the period, suggesting that the introduction of SearchGPT did not cause notable shifts in the user behavior of these platforms.
Sessions
All three services showed growth in average number of sessions per user over the year of 2024:
Google: 11.47 → 14.12
ChatGPT: 0.43 → 1.27
Perplexity: 0.007 → 0.045
The following graph shows the average number of sessions per user month-on-month in 2024.
While Google experienced the highest absolute growth (+2.65 sessions), Perplexity demonstrated the largest percentage increase at +523.61%, with ChatGPT logging a +195.30% increase. This suggests that while Google continues to dominate in absolute user engagement, smaller services like Perplexity are rapidly gaining traction, potentially indicating growing interest in alternative solutions.
The chart below shows a more detailed view of average sessions for ChatGPT and Perplexity.
Stickiness factor
The “stickiness factor” measures user engagement and retention by evaluating how frequently users return to a tool. It is often quantified using the DAU/MAU ratio, which compares Daily Active Users (DAU) to Monthly Active Users (MAU).
A higher stickiness factor indicates that a significant portion of users engage with the tool regularly, reflecting its ability to integrate into users’ routines and maintain their interest over time.
Stickiness factor = Average monthly DAU/ MAU * 100%
ChatGPT’s stickiness factor increased throughout most of 2024, suggesting that ChatGPT has become more effective at retaining and engaging users over time.
Although the average stickiness of Google remains higher (25.35%) compared to ChatGPT’s (16.78%), ChatGPT’s stickiness grew at a faster rate, seeing an increase of +8.29%, compared to Google’s +6.56%.
An extra feature: Explore GPTs
On 10 January 2024, Explore GPT was launched by OpenAI, a tool that allows users to create their own custom GPTs.
As can be seen in the below chart, there was a notable spike in the average number of unique chatbots used per user per month in January.
As expected, this number decreased in February and then stabilized at around 2 chatbots per month. This suggests that while the feature release led to an initial surge in usage, the number of chatbots per user has now reached a consistent level, reflecting steady user engagement over time.
The addition of Explore GPTs did not seem to have a significant impact on the average userbase and average session numbers over 2024.
Summary and takeaways
It’s clear from the data that ChatGPT is on the rise and likely to continue to be in 2025. However, when it comes to search, as has been suggested in previous studies, nothing is about to topple Google any time soon.
- ChatGPT has seen year-on-year growth in users from 2024 to 2025.
- Amazon, YouTube, and Wikipedia were the top three domains referred from SearchGPT, with Amazon accounting for three-quarters of total e-commerce traffic. However, E-commerce came third in the top referred domain types, after News and Academic.
- Of the referred Amazon traffic, the top categories were Electronics, Home & Kitchen, and Books.
- Of the referred YouTube traffic, the top categories were Education, Entertainment, and Science & Technology.
- ChatGPT was ahead of Perplexity in terms of user base in the final two months of December 2024 and beginning of 2025, but Google is still far and away the biggest search engine.
- Google also reigns supreme in terms of average number of sessions per user in 2024, but Perplexity came out on top in terms of the largest percentage increase, at +523.61%.
- In terms of stickiness, Google remains on top, but throughout 2024 ChatGPT’s grew at a faster rate.
- Since its launch in January 2024, Explore GPT saw an initial spike in activity, then leveled out over the year to a consistent average of 2 chatbots used per month per user.
The data displayed in this report has been provided by Datos, A Semrush Company. The analysis is based on Datos’ US panel, representing a diverse and statistically significant sample of users, and covers the months of Dec 2023 – Jan 2025. For further information please visit Datos’s website and its Privacy Policy.
