Google Gemini and Elon Musk’s Grok Are Gaining on ChatGPT

For more than a year, OpenAI’s ChatGPT has been the undisputed heavyweight of consumer generative AI.

But according to the latest “Top 100 Gen AI Consumer Apps” report from venture capital giant Andreessen Horowitz, which analyzes two-and-a-half years of AI usage data, the challengers are finally starting to close the gap. Google’s Gemini and Elon Musk’s Grok are climbing the charts, signaling that rivals are coming for OpenAI’s crown.

That said, the Gen AI ecosystem is showing signs of stabilization. The web list saw 11 newcomers compared to 17 in March 2025, indicating less churn. The mobile app market, however, saw 14 new entries, partly due to app stores cracking down on “ChatGPT copycats,” making room for more original apps.

The report also seems to be somewhat at odds with a June SimilarWeb analysis that showed that OpenAI’s GPT was eating the web, with some 5.5 billion visits a month.

The big takeaways

That could be explained, of course, by how rapidly the AI landscape is shifting. Google has been making significant moves, with four products entering the web list for the first time. Gemini, its general LLM assistant, now ranks second on the web, capturing about 12% of ChatGPT’s web visits.

Other notable Google products include AI Studio (developer-oriented, top 10 web) and NotebookLM (#13 web), which has seen steady growth. On mobile, Gemini is also #2, with strong Android usage (nearly 90% of its MAUs).

While ChatGPT still leads among general LLM assistants, Google, xAI, and Meta are closing the gap.

X’s Grok jumped from no mobile app in late 2024 to 20 million MAUs, ranking #4 on web and #23 on mobile. This surge was fueled by the release of Grok 4—with improved reasoning, real-time search, and tool integration—and the introduction of AI companion avatars. Meta AI, however, has seen more subdued growth, ranking #46 on the web list and missing the mobile cutoff. DeepSeek and Claude have seen mobile usage flatten, while Perplexity continues to grow.

The AI world, of course, includes significantly more users than those who use the dominant platforms in the west. Chinese AI apps are gaining significant traction globally. Three China-serving companies—Quark (#9 web, #47 mobile), Doubao (#12 web, #4 mobile), and Kimi (#17 web)—are in the web top 20, largely due to China being the largest market and restrictions on non-Chinese LLMs.

Additionally, a substantial portion of the web list and 22 of the top 50 mobile apps—especially in photo/video editing, with Meitu contributing five entries—are developed in China and are now “exported” globally. Chinese video models, in particular, show an advantage, potentially due to more research focus and fewer IP regulations.

“Vibe coding” platforms are generating strong user engagement and revenue retention. Lovable and Replit debuted on the main list, while Bolt, previously a newcomer, is now on the “Brink List.” These platforms are also boosting traffic for other AI products and infrastructure providers like Supabase.

The report, now in its fifth edition, continues to anoint “All-Stars.” Fourteen companies have consistently appeared in all five editions of the web top 50, earning them “All-Star” status. These include general assistance (ChatGPT, Perplexity, Poe), companionship (Character AI), image generation (Midjourney, Leonardo), editing (Veed, Cutout), voice generation (Eleven Labs), productivity (Photoroom, Gamma, Quillbot), and model hosting (Civitai, HuggingFace). These All-Stars primarily hail from the U.S., UK, Australia, China, and France.

And finally, to track momentum at the edges, Andreessen Horowitz now publishes a “Brink List”—the five web and five mobile apps closest to breaking in. From the previous cycle, three “almosts” actually made it: Lovable (#22 web), PolyBuzz, and Pixverse. The message is clear: Today’s near-misses can be tomorrow’s breakouts.

The bottom line

ChatGPT still leads—but Gemini and Grok’s rise proves the fight is no longer one-sided. As Andreessen Horowitz’s top 100 shows, the consumer AI ecosystem is growing up, but it hasn’t stopped mutating. The giants may be closing the gap, but the next big breakout could still come from the “brink.”