ChatGPT Mobile App Growth Slows, User Engagement Declines
Growth in downloads and daily active users for the ChatGPT mobile application appears to have peaked, according to new data released today, potentially signaling a shift in the AI chatbot’s trajectory.
App intelligence firm Apptopia estimates that the rate of new user acquisition, measured as a percentage change in global downloads, began to slow after April. While the app continues to see millions of daily downloads, the month-over-month percentage change in global downloads is currently on pace to be down 8.1% for October. Further analysis reveals a 22.5% drop in average time spent per daily active user in the U.S. since July, alongside a 20.7% decrease in average sessions per daily active user. This suggests users are interacting with the app less frequently and for shorter durations.
Interestingly, user churn in the U.S. has stabilized, indicating the app is retaining its core user base, but attracting fewer new, casual users. The slowdown in engagement predates the rise of competing AI models like Google’s Gemini, suggesting factors beyond competition are at play. OpenAI introduced updates in April and August, aiming to reduce the chatbot’s tendency to be overly agreeable and to adjust the personality of its AI model, which may have influenced user behavior. The evolving landscape of AI chatbots is impacting how consumers interact with these technologies; understanding these shifts is crucial for developers.
Apptopia suggests the initial “experimentation phase” with ChatGPT may be concluding, with usage now settling into more routine patterns. To reignite growth, OpenAI may need to invest in marketing or introduce new features, similar to strategies employed by other established mobile applications. OpenAI did not respond to a request for comment regarding these findings.
The company is expected to continue monitoring these trends and adapt its strategy to maintain user engagement and attract new users in the increasingly competitive AI market.
ChatGPT’s mobile app growth may have hit its peak, according to a new analysis of download trends and daily active users provided by the third-party app intelligence Apptopia. Its estimates indicate that new user growth, measured by percentage changes in new global downloads, slowed after April.
The firm looked at the global daily active user (DAU) growth and found that the numbers have begun to even out over the past month or so.
Although October is only half over, the firm says it’s on pace to be down 8.1% in terms of a month-over-month percentage change in global downloads.
To be clear, this is a look at download growth, not total downloads. In terms of sheer number of new installs, ChatGPT’s mobile app is still doing well, with millions of downloads per day.
However, seeing the download growth stall can suggest that an app’s overall pace of growth is slowing. In ChatGPT’s case, increased competition and changes to its AI model’s characteristics could be to blame.
Diving in deeper, other metrics indicate that average time spent per DAU in the U.S., specifically, has dropped 22.5% since July, and average sessions per DAU in the U.S. are also down by 20.7%.
This indicates that U.S. users are spending less time in ChatGPT’s app and are opening it fewer times per day. User churn in the U.S. has also dropped and stabilized during this time, indicating that the app is now retaining its core users and seeing fewer who just drop by briefly to experiment, then abandon the app.
OpenAI did not respond to a request for comment.
Beyond simply reaching its peak, there are other factors that could have played a role here. That includes not only competition from Google’s Gemini, but also user engagement changes following an April update that was designed to make the chatbot’s AI model less sycophantic. This continued with the August release of GPT-5, which was said to be less personable, as well.
However, Apptopia notes that ChatGPT’s average time spent per DAU and average sessions per DAU metrics were trending downward before the sharp rise of its competitor, Google’s Gemini, which shot up to the top charts in September thanks to the release of Google’s new AI image model, Nano Banana.
So while Gemini’s growth may have influenced some of the more recent drops in ChatGPT’s core metrics, it doesn’t explain the overall trend, the firm says.
Plus, Apptopia points out that if only average time spent per DAU was dropping, but not average sessions per DAU, it could have suggested that people were getting more efficient with their ChatGPT queries. But since both are on the decline, that’s not the case.
Instead, Apptopia says it’s possible that the experimentation phase with the ChatGPT app is over, and now it’s becoming a part of users’ daily routines. People are likely using the app when they need it or remember to use it, as compared with the increased use it saw when it was still new.
For OpenAI, that means the company will have to invest in app marketing or release new features for it to boost some of these core metrics again, just as other established mobile apps have to do. It can no longer rely on novelty alone to provide growth.
