ChatGPT, the AI-powered chatbot from OpenAI, far outpaces all other AI chatbot apps on mobile devices by way of downloads and is a market leader by revenue, as well. Nonetheless, it’s surprisingly not the highest AI app by revenue — several photo AI apps and even other AI chatbots are literally making extra money than ChatGPT, despite the latter having develop into a household name for an AI chat experience.

Since its launch on mobile devices in May of this yr, ChatGPT’s downloads and revenue have continued to grow. In its first month, when the app was available on iOS only, it topped 3.9 million downloads, which grew to fifteen.1 million by June, based on an evaluation of the AI app market by Apptopia. Then, following a slight dip in July, ChatGPT grew again to top 23 million downloads as of September 2023.

As well as, ChatGPT’s usage on mobile devices has similarly grown from just over 1.34 million monthly energetic users in May to now 38.88 million as of September.

Maybe even more importantly, ChatGPT’s mobile app is outpacing much of the AI chatbot market by consumer spending, which grew from $352,929 throughout the month of its launch to achieve $1.98 million as of September and nearly $2.39 million as of October 24, where the present data set ends.

Nevertheless it’s not the highest app by revenue within the AI chatbot space. “Chat & Ask AI” and “ChatOn — AI Chat Bot Assistant” each pulled in extra money in September at nearly $3.38 million and $2.11 million, respectively. Other apps are also close on ChatGPT’s heels with “AI Chatbot — Nova” and “AI Chatbot: AI Chat Smith” pulling in nearly $1.44 million and $1.72 million in September, respectively.

As ChatGPT has quite a lot of competition for users’ time on mobile, there are actually at the least five AI chatbot apps which have topped 2 million downloads in September, including several generically named apps like “Chat & Ask AI,” “ChatOn — AI Chat Bot Assistant,” “AI Chatbot — Nova,” and “AI Chatbot: AI Chat Smith” with 2.44 million, 2.02 million, 3.1 million, and a pair of.9 million downloads, respectively. These apps look like capitalizing on App Store search engine optimisation — meaning they’re rating well for terms users might seek for, like “AI Chat” and the like. While that’s still far in need of ChatGPT’s 23 million last month, it does show a marketplace for AI apps that extends beyond OpenAI’s creation.

As well as, the a16z-backed chatbot startup Character.ai, which allows users to interact with and create their very own AI personas, is within the running with 2.39 million downloads as of September.

What’s more, many AI chatbot apps even have an energetic user base. For example, Poe, the chatbot app from the Q&A site Quora, had over 1.18 million monthly energetic users (MAUs) as of September, compared with ChatGPT’s nearly 39 million.

The generic apps have a following — meaning they’re not only buying downloads, they’re also retaining their users. “Chat & Ask AI” had 9.7 million MAUs in September, “ChatOn — AI Chat Bot Assistant” had 3.5 million MAUs, followed by “Genie — AI Chatbot AI Assistant” (2.3 million), “AI Chat — Chatbot AI Assistant” (2.17 million), “AI Chatbot — Nova” (8.55 million), and “AI Chatbot: AI Chat Smith” (8.48 million). Character.ai also had 5.92 million monthly energetic users that month.

Then there are the AI photo apps which use AI technologies for editing effects, or for personalized images of yourself.

Image Credits: Remini

Though operating in an adjoining space to ChatGPT, a few of these apps are giving the AI assistant a run for its money across metrics like downloads, usage and in-app purchase revenue.

With 23 million downloads in September, ChatGPT still leads the pack, but apps that go viral — like “Remini” — have come close- to ChatGPT’s installs. “Remini,” for instance, topped 16.17 million downloads last month, months after its AI headshots feature blew up on TikTok. “PicsArt AI Photo Editor” also had a solid September with nearly 16.05 million installs.

“Remini” also topped 6.2 million monthly users last month, while “FaceApp,” which incorporates some AI filters, had greater than 6.4 million. Other apps including “PicsArt” (4.27 million MAUs), “Wonder — AI Art Generator” (4.77 million MAUs) and “Facetune AI Photo/Video Editor” (5.22 million MAUs) were seeing high usage, too.

Quite a couple of AI photo apps are attracting greater revenue via in-app purchases, compared with ChatGPT, as well. There may very well be several aspects at play here, nonetheless. For starters, ChatGPT also sells its ChatGPT Plus premium subscription via the online, where many individuals use the chatbot assistant. AI photo apps, meanwhile, often acquire the majority of their revenue via users’ smartphones as they interact with the photos stored on users’ Camera Roll. Plus, many apps “go viral,” gaining them their quarter-hour of fame, which sometimes extends into longtime usage or ongoing subscriptions as users explore their other features.

While ChatGPT pulled in $1.98 million in mobile consumer spend as of September 2023, apps including “Remini,” “PicsArt,” “Wonder,” “BeautyPlus — AI Photo/Video Edit,” “FaceApp” and “Facetune: AI Photo/Video Editor” made more at roughly $6.22 million, $4.27 million, $2.08 million, $4.78 million, $6.42 million and $5.22 million, respectively.

Nonetheless, the recognition of AI photo apps could also be shorter-lived than ChatGPT, in some cases. For example, Lensa, which went viral last yr, had 23.44 million downloads in December 2002. That’s fallen to 413,814 monthly installs as of September 2023 and 739,000 monthly actives, down from nearly 24.9 million in December. It also pulled in $739,000 in mobile consumer spend last month, down from a high of over $24 million, Apptopia’s research finds. While the present numbers are still respectable, they do show there’s an inclination for users to modify between viral AI photo apps after a while as recent features are marketed and developed elsewhere.