ChatGPT Holds 81.4% of AI Chatbot Traffic as Growth Returns

By Priya Raman

ChatGPT accounted for 81.4% of worldwide traffic to six major AI chatbots from July through September 2026, according to Graphite, leaving every rival below 10%.

What does the rebound look like?

After usage surged through the first half of 2025, ChatGPT largely plateaued for seven months. This year, monthly visits climbed nearly 20% to a record 61.35 billion in September 2026, according to Graphite's analysis. A comeback, with receipts.

Earlier in 2026, Google's Gemini and Anthropic's Claude had been widely viewed as serious threats to OpenAI, led by CEO Sam Altman. Graphite's July-September scorecard is quieter: Claude held 6.8%, while Gemini held 5.0%. The threat narrative outran the numbers.

Graphite, a research and growth marketing firm, examined worldwide web and mobile-app traffic to and from major AI services using Similarweb data. CEO Ethan Smith led the research. Graphite's central finding was direct: “ChatGPT now accounts for more than 81% of worldwide traffic to major AI chatbots.”

A separate measure points in the same direction: Katie Notopoulos reported last week that ChatGPT now has 1.2 billion weekly users. Different metric, same message. The scale is not in dispute.

How large is the traffic gap?

• ChatGPT: 81.4% of worldwide visits
• Claude: 6.8%
• Gemini: 5.0%
• DeepSeek: 4.0%
• Grok: 1.9%
• Perplexity: 0.9%

No competitor reached even 10%. Graphite recorded “extraordinary growth” for Claude over the past year, while Gemini expanded quickly; both gains came from much smaller starting points.

ChatGPT is also doing more than collecting visits: it is increasingly sending people to other websites. The traffic moat now extends beyond the chatbot window.

Is AI becoming a referral channel?

Worldwide referral traffic from AI services jumped 92% over the past year, with ChatGPT responsible for 60% of those visits. For marketing leaders, the practical point is straightforward: AI chat is both a destination and a source of traffic to other sites.

Google's AI Overviews, which provide AI-generated answers directly in search results, now appear in 62% of US searches. AI Mode, which supports more conversational interactions with Search, drew 491 million US web visits in August. Search is being reorganized around answers; referral data shows where audiences go next.

How global is the AI audience?

Despite the US's leadership in developing the technology, the country accounts for just 8.8% of worldwide AI traffic, according to Graphite, so more than 90% of usage happens elsewhere. Monthly visits to major AI services reached 76 billion worldwide, up 37% from a year earlier. Geography does not match the headlines.

A US-first media plan would miss most of that audience. That is the uncomfortable part.

What should marketers do with the data?

• Concentrate the reach calculation. ChatGPT accounts for 81.4% of the six-bot traffic pool, so “AI audience” is not a neat, even category.
• Treat referrals as a measurable channel. AI-service referrals rose 92% over the past year, and ChatGPT generated 60% of those visits.
• Build beyond the US. The country represents 8.8% of worldwide AI traffic, leaving more than 90% elsewhere.
• Audit search exposure. Google's AI Overviews appear in 62% of US searches, while AI Mode drew 491 million US web visits in August.

The broader market is still expanding: monthly visits to major AI services rose 37% year over year to 76 billion. ChatGPT has regained momentum without surrendering its lead. The comeback is measurable. The gap remains large.