by Sujan Sarkar

AI has been an omnipresent theme over the past year, pushing boundaries and redefining several industries in a short space of time. 

An astounding number of over 24 billion visits were generated from September 2022 to August 2023 by just the top 50 AI tools, with an average monthly growth of 236.3 million visits.

Out of this massive number, ChatGPT alone accounted for 14 billion traffic, covering a massive 60% of the traffic analyzed. 

This eye-opening AI industry analysis statistic sets the tone for what lies ahead as we explore the intricate layers of the AI industry’s digital behavior.

Methodology of our Study

Using SEMrush, a renowned tool in the SEO industry, we studied over 3,000 AI tools by scraping data from various directories that list AI tools. From these, we isolated the top 50 most visited tools, which reflect over 80% of the AI industry’s traffic, over the studied period (September 2022 to August 2023). 

This study aims to delve deep into the AI industry’s behavior, analyzing traffic patterns, demographics, trends, and consumer behavior. 

Key Takeaways

• The top 50 AI tools attracted over 24 billion visits between September 2022 and August 2023.
• ChatGPT led with 14 billion visits, making up over 60% of the analyzed traffic.
• The AI industry saw an average of 2 billion visits monthly over the past year, with a surge to 3.3 billion in the last 6 months.
• The 50 AI tools analyzed experienced a 10.7x growth rate, with an average monthly increase of 236.3 million visits.
• ChatGPT, Character AI, and Google Bard experienced net traffic growth of 1.8 billion, 463.4 million, and 68 million visits, respectively.
• Craiyon, MidJourney, and Quillbot faced the largest traffic declines during the period.
• The US contributed 5.5 billion visits, equating to 22.62% of the total traffic, whereas European countries together accounted for 3.9 billion visits.
• AI chatbot tools were the most popular, garnering 19.1 billion visits.
• Over 63% of AI tool users accessed via mobile devices.
• Gender data reveals a disparity: 69.5% are male users, compared to 30.5% are female users.

50 Most Visited AI Tools Over The Last 12 Months

In our comprehensive exploration of the AI industry, we spotlighted 50 tools that have gained the most significant visits globally. 

Collectively accounting for over 24 billion traffic, these tools highlight the global community’s growing affinity for AI-driven solutions.

Here’s an overview of the 25 most visited AI tools from September 2022 to August 2023.

Tool Name	Tool Category	Total Visits (Sep 22 – Aug 23)	% of Industry Total	Months Considered	Avg Monthly Visits	Total New Visits (Sep 22 – Aug 23)	Total Visits Loss (Sep 22 – Aug 23)	Net Visits – Gain or Loss (Sep 22 – Aug 23)	Avg Visits Gain or Loss /month
chat.openai.com	AI Chatbot	14.6B	60.17%	10	1.5B	2.5B	-779.8M	1.8B	195.1M
character.ai	AI Chatbot	3.8B	15.77%	12	318.8M	913.8M	-450.4M	463.4M	42.1M
quillbot.com	AI Writing	1.1B	4.68%	12	94.6M	79.M	-84.M	-5.1M	-461.4K
midjourney.com	Image Generator	500.4M	2.06%	12	41.7M	51.6M	-60.3M	-8.7M	-787.7K
huggingface.co	Data Science	316.6M	1.31%	12	26.4M	24.2M	-20.7M	3.5M	316.4K
bard.google.com	AI Chatbot	241.6M	1.00%	7	34.5M	68.M	0.00	68.M	11.3M
novelai.net	AI Writing	238.7M	0.98%	12	19.9M	40.M	-29.9M	10.1M	918.9K
capcut.com	Video Generator	203.8M	0.84%	12	17.M	27.7M	-13.2M	14.6M	1.3M
janitorai.com	AI Chatbot	192.4M	0.79%	4	48.1M	84.1M	-35.3M	48.8M	16.3M
civitai.com	Image Generator	177.2M	0.73%	10	17.7M	30.5M	-7.2M	23.3M	2.6M
vocalremover.org	Voice & Music	165.5M	0.68%	12	13.8M	15.4M	-10.4M	5.M	452.K
you.com	AI Chatbot	140.3M	0.58%	12	11.7M	24.M	-14.4M	9.7M	877.4K
perplexity.ai	AI Chatbot	134.3M	0.55%	9	14.9M	25.5M	-182.K	25.3M	3.2M
cutout.pro	Background Removal	133.5M	0.55%	12	11.1M	18.M	-4.M	14.M	1.3M
craiyon.com	Image Generator	128.1M	0.53%	12	10.7M	3.2M	-19.2M	-15.9M	-1.4M
hotpot.ai	Design	125.3M	0.52%	12	10.4M	10.6M	-8.4M	2.2M	204.5K
copy.ai	AI Writing	109.3M	0.45%	12	9.1M	7.2M	-8.M	-861.3K	-78.3K
leonardo.ai	Image Generator	101.6M	0.42%	9	11.3M	23.1M	-5.7M	17.5M	2.2M
jasper.ai	AI Writing	94.9M	0.39%	12	7.9M	7.M	-8.3M	-1.3M	-115.1K
deepai.org	Image Generator	89.1M	0.37%	12	7.4M	11.2M	-2.8M	8.5M	769.2K
elevenlabs.io	Voice & Music	88.6M	0.37%	11	8.1M	21.1M	-5.2M	15.9M	1.6M
tome.app	Design	88.4M	0.36%	12	7.4M	14.5M	-8.2M	6.3M	571.3K
stablediffusionweb.com	Image Generator	85.1M	0.35%	12	7.1M	14.1M	-8.M	6.M	549.2K
writesonic.com	AI Writing	80.7M	0.33%	12	6.7M	11.9M	-8.7M	3.2M	289.3K
playgroundai.com	Image Generator	79.3M	0.33%	12	6.6M	14.8M	-5.3M	9.4M	857.5K
eightfold.ai	Recruiter	77.2M	0.32%	12	6.4M	6.8M	-4.M	2.8M	255.7K

AI Industry: Traffic Growth Over the Last 12 Months

Over the last 12 months, the AI industry has been one of the most significant tech developments we’ve seen in a long time. During the starting month of our study, September 2022, the tools we analyzed generated 241.8 million visits. 

As you can see in the graph, the total traffic of all 50 tools saw a 10.7x growth rate over the studied period. 

But during the final month, August 2023, these tools generated a staggering 2.8 billion visits.

To put that into perspective, it’s a 2.6 billion traffic increase from the starting month to the end of our study. 

This equals an average 236.3M monthly visit increase over the studied 12 months. 

But where did it all start? 

The jump really kicked off last November – when ChatGPT became the fastest-ever platform to reach 1 million users (in just 5 days). 

After the initial boom, the hype kept on climbing all the way until May 2023, when monthly visits peaked at around 4.1 billion. That’s the first time we saw a pullback of 1.2 billion in the industry’s traffic. 

The average traffic throughout the period was 2 billion per month. 

But interestingly, if we only look at the last 6 months, the average traffic was 3.3 billion per month. 

It’s been very rare for an emerging tech trend like AI to generate this much interest. 

And even after the pullback and decline of 1.2 billion visits, interest is still huge – with the total industry interest hovering at around 10.7x growth from the previous year. 

To put this into perspective, VCs and investors could have picked almost any of the larger horses in the AI race and safely made a 3-10x in just one year (assuming interest reflects in finances and user base). 

What Caused The Pullback and 1.2 Billion Traffic Loss? 

One area that we wanted to investigate is the 1.2 billion traffic loss and pullback the AI industry saw after the 4.1 billion visits peak, highlighted in our previous graph. 

There have been numerous reports on Yahoo Finance and Nasdaq asking whether the AI bubble is already popping. Much of them came just after the later stages of our study, from June to August 2023. 

However, it’s difficult to pinpoint which market stage we are in because the AI tech trend differs from what we’ve seen before. 

Some potential explanations include: 

1. Regulatory Changes: Governments could implement stringent regulations that affect how AI companies operate, potentially stifling innovation or user engagement. For instance, stricter data privacy laws might restrict data collection, impacting AI services that rely on user data.
2. Economic Burnout: The industry may have burned out some hype around many tools. While the interest overall is still huge, around 10.7x the previous year, the period of hype where everyone is just checking out tools may have calmed down a little. 
3. Shifts in Consumer Preferences: Trends and public opinion can change rapidly, and a shift in user trust or interest due to ethical concerns or a preference for non-AI solutions could impact traffic.
4. Adoption of Mobile Apps: AI companies may have developed mobile apps, leading users to access services directly on their phones instead of web browsers. This shift can cause web traffic to decline even if overall user engagement remains high or grows as activity moves from traditional websites to mobile platforms.

It’s likely a mix of all of the above and other reasons, too. ChatGPT launched its app on IOS in May and Android app in July. 

This was around when ChatGPT’s pullback happened, which likely affected the rest of the industry as well. 

It’s also improbable for a tech trend to rise nonstop without any pullbacks. So, while we can always seek areas of improvement and innovation, it’s unlikely the AI bubble has popped already, based on our analysis. 

Top 10 AI Traffic Gainers: Net Growth Analysis

The AI landscape is evolving at a rapid pace, with tools gaining and losing traction based on a multitude of factors. 

This chart showcases the top gainers regarding net traffic volume increase from September 2022 to August 2023.

Most importantly, this does not purely reflect the most visited tools but emphasizes the net change in traffic. 

Notably absent from this list are Quillbot and Midjourney, which, although the 3rd and 4th most visited tools, experienced a drop in traffic by 5.1M and 8.7M, respectively. 

Let’s delve deeper into each of these top gainers.

1. ChatGPT (Net Growth: 1.8B Visits) 

To no surprise, ChatGPT wins the first spot when it comes to the top gainers during the period of our study.  As an industry leader, it’s no surprise that after it jumped to 1 million users last November, it continued to grow rapidly. 

However, it did decline with the rest of the industry during the pullback, losing over 779M traffic from June 23 to Aug 23. But this could also partly be explained by its mobile app launch, which we discussed earlier. 

Take a deeper look at the numbers below: 

• Launched: Nov 2022
• Number of Months Considered: 10 months
• Total Traffic (Nov 22 – Aug 23): 14,589,516,239 (14.6B)
• Average Monthly Traffic: 1.5B
• Net Growth in Traffic: 1.8B
• Average Monthly Traffic Growth: 195.1M

P.S.: Don’t forget to check the beautiful infographic with ChatGPT statistics over the last 1 year at the bottom of the article. 

2. Character AI (Net Growth: 463.4M Visits) 

Character AI takes the second spot on our list of top 10 gainers. This tool is designed to help users create characters and speak to them to get real human-like responses.

As you can imagine, this tool got massive interest and attention from the celebrity and gaming world, as it generated an average of 318 million visits per month. 

Take a deeper look at the numbers below: 

• Launched: Sep 2022
• Number of Months Considered: 12 months
• Total Traffic (Sep 22 – Aug 23): 3,825,841,380 (3.8B)
• Average Monthly Traffic: 318.8M
• Net Growth in Traffic: 463.4M
• Average Monthly Traffic Growth: 42.1M

3. Google Bard (Net Growth: 68M Visits) 

Google’s Bard takes the third spot on our top AI traffic gainers list, which also does not come as a surprise with tech giant Google being behind it. 

However, it only launched on March 21st, 2023. 

Even after, it was limited to only launching into certain geographical regions. 

Despite its late launch and geographical restrictions, the rapid growth led to it having the 3rd most gainers in net traffic on our list. 

It generated over 241.6 million visits over the period, averaging around 34.5 million visits per month.

Take a look at the numbers below: 

• Launched: Mar 2023
• Number of Months Considered: 6 months
• Total Traffic (Mar 22 – Aug 23): 241,557,861 (241.6M)
• Average Monthly Traffic: 34.5M
• Net Growth in Traffic: 68M
• Average Monthly Traffic Growth: 11.3M

4. Janitor AI (Net Growth: 48.8M visits) 

Janitor AI stands out in the world of conversational AI platforms, uniquely designed to engage in not-safe-for-work (NSFW) interactions.  It also enables users to create their own NSFW chatbots.

Although the amount of traffic and interest this tool generated may come as slightly surprising, it can potentially be attributed to its unique positioning and ability to let users create their own character. 

But what makes its rise even more crazy is that SEMrush did not have any traffic data on Janitor AI before May 2023, which was also when their Twitter account was created. 

While we couldn’t find an exact launch date, this shows the rapid pace at which this chatbot grew.  

Take a look at the numbers below: 

• Launched: Around May 2023
• Number of Months Considered: 4 months
• Total Traffic (May 23 – Aug 23): 192,382,354 (192.4M)
• Average Monthly Traffic: 48.1M
• Net Growth in Traffic: 48.8M
• Average Monthly Traffic Growth: 16.3M

5. Perplexity AI (Net Growth: 25.3M Visits) 

Perplexity AI is an AI education app that makes it easy and fast to learn. It lets users format their questions into threads, so they can easily digest the information. It’s available as a web app, android app, and IOS app. 

Interestingly, the founders of Perplexity AI worked at Google AI and founded it in August 2022. 

Since then, it’s seen rapid growth, take a look below: 

• Launched: Aug 2022
• Number of Months Considered: 9 months
• Total Traffic (Dec 23 – Aug 23): 134,267,104 (134.3M)
• Average Monthly Traffic: 14.9M
• Net Growth in Traffic: 25.3M
• Average Monthly Traffic Growth: 3.2M

6. Civitai (Net Growth: 23.3M Visits) 

CivitAI, a creative haven for AI art enthusiasts, offers many premium Stable Diffusion models. It brands itself as the home of open-source generative AI. 

It launched in November 2022, 2 months after our data starting point. But being one of our top gainers with an average of 17.7M  monthly traffic – it quickly climbed its way to the Top 10. 

Take a look at the numbers below: 

• Launched: Nov 2022
• Number of Months Considered: 10 months
• Total Traffic (Nov 22 – Aug 23): 177,150,195 (177.2M)
• Average Monthly Traffic:  17.7M
• Net Growth in Traffic: 23.3M
• Average Monthly Traffic Growth: 2.6M

7. Leonardo AI (Net Growth: 17.5M Visits) 

Leonardo AI lets users create production-quality visual assets for their projects with speed and style consistently.

It has an IOS and Android app and has become extremely popular with creators worldwide. Over the last 12 months, it has gained over 17.5M visits with an average of 2.2M monthly growth in traffic. 

Take a look at the numbers below: 

• Launched: Dec 2022 (Approximately)
• Number of Months Considered: 9 months
• Total Traffic (Dec 22 – Aug 23): 101,590,093 (101.6M)
• Average Monthly Traffic:  11.3M
• Net Growth in Traffic: 17.5M
• Average Monthly Traffic Growth: 2.2M

8. ElevenLabs (Net Growth: 15.9M Visits) 

ElevenLabs presents cutting-edge Generative Voice AI, offering lifelike text-to-speech and voice cloning. It’s ideal for content creators, gamers, and publishers, which is part of the reason it’s become so popular. Over the 12-month period studied, it generated a staggering 88.8 million visits in total, with an average growth of  1.6 million visits per month. 

Take a full look below: 

• Launched: Oct 2022 (Approximately)
• Number of Months Considered: 11 months
• Total Traffic (Oct 22 – Aug 23): 88,594,696 (88.6M)
• Average Monthly Traffic:  8.1M
• Net Growth in Traffic: 15.9M
• Average Monthly Traffic Growth: 1.6M

9. Capcut (Net Growth: 14.6M Visits) 

CapCut is a versatile video editor offering comprehensive, user-friendly tools for online, desktop, and mobile editing. 

Features smart AI functions, extensive resources, collaborative options, and tailored solutions for social media, business, and personal projects. Over the period we studied, it generated 14.6 million visits and grew an average of 1.3 million visits per month. 

Take a look at the numbers below:

• Launched: April 2020
• Number of Months Considered: 12 months
• Total Traffic (Sep 22 – Aug 23): 203,800,554 (203.8M)
• Average Monthly Traffic: 17M
• Net Growth in Traffic: 14.6M 
• Average Monthly Traffic Growth: 1.3M

10. Cutout.pro (Net Growth: 14M Visits) 

Cutout.pro is an AI-powered visual design platform revolutionizing content creation with tools for removing unwanted elements, enhancing images/videos, and automating design tasks. Although the company was founded in 2018, it managed to innovate with AI-powered features, which led to a total growth of 14 million visits.

Take a full look below: 

• Launched: 2018 (Month Unknown)
• Number of Months Considered: 12 months
• Total Traffic (Sep 22 – Aug 23): 133,454,424 (133.5M)
• Average Monthly Traffic: 11.1M
• Net Growth in Traffic: 14M 
• Average Monthly Traffic Growth: 1.3M

Read more: https://writerbuddy.ai/blog/ai-industry-analysis