The start of 2025 saw major shifts in user engagement across leading artificial intelligence (AI) tools, highlighting changing interests and online behaviour.
According to January data, OpenAI’s ChatGPT maintained its dominance, recording 4.7 billion monthly site visits—well ahead of any competitor. Despite a slight dip compared to previous months, ChatGPT remains the world’s most widely used AI platform.
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No other AI tool crossed the one billion mark in January. Canva, which integrates OpenAI’s model into its design and image editing features, ranked second with 887 million visits.
Notably, China’s DeepSeek witnessed a surge in popularity, ranking fourth with 268 million visits. This represents a 2,026% increase, driven by the open-source release of its reasoning model in January.
Meanwhile, Chinese tech giant Baidu announced in March the launch of two versions of its new foundational model, Ernie, positioned as a lower-cost alternative to DeepSeek R1.
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As competition intensifies, the global appetite for AI tools remains strong. Last year alone, a third of global venture capital (VC) funding was directed toward AI startups, underscoring the sector’s rapid expansion and the race among tech companies to capture market share.
The top 15 AI tools ranked by monthly site visits, as of January 2025, using data from Aitools.xyz.
1. ChatGPT
- Category: Chat
- Monthly Visits: 4.7 billion
- Change: -2.1%
ChatGPT remained the most visited AI platform globally, despite a slight drop in visits. Its popularity continues to be driven by widespread use for writing, coding, and productivity tasks.
2. Canva
- Category: Image
- Monthly Visits: 887 million
- Change: -9.4%
Canva retained its place as the top design-focused AI tool, although it experienced a noticeable dip in traffic compared to December.
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3. Google Translate
- Category: Translation
- Monthly Visits: 595 million
- Change: -7.7%
The tool continues to serve millions seeking quick and automated translations, despite the monthly decline.
4. DeepSeek
- Category: Chat
- Monthly Visits: 268 million
- Change: +2026.0%
DeepSeek witnessed a massive surge in traffic, marking its strongest monthly growth among the top 15 tools. It emerged as a fast-rising platform in the generative AI space.
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5. Character.AI
- Category: Chat
- Monthly Visits: 226 million
- Change: +1.9%
Character.AI, known for interactive and role-play chatbots, showed modest growth as users continue to explore conversational AI.
6. JanitorAI
- Category: Chat
- Monthly Visits: 200 million
- Change: +24.0%
JanitorAI recorded strong growth, suggesting an increase in demand for customisable chatbot experiences.
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7. Perplexity
- Category: Search
- Monthly Visits: 133 million
- Change: -3.6%
Perplexity’s AI-powered search engine retained user interest, although visits dropped slightly from December levels.
8. Gemini
- Category: Chat
- Monthly Visits: 118 million
- Change: -9.2%
Despite being a newer entrant, Gemini remained in the top ten, though it experienced a decline in visits.
9. Remove.bg
- Category: Image
- Monthly Visits: 112 million
- Change: -3.3%
This tool, used to remove backgrounds from images, continued to be widely used across creative and professional tasks.
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10. Claude
- Category: Chat
- Monthly Visits: 105 million
- Change: -1.1%
Claude maintained its spot as a significant player in the generative AI sector, showing minor traffic loss.
11. Microsoft Copilot
- Category: Chat
- Monthly Visits: 101 million
- Change: -17.1%
Copilot saw one of the sharpest drops in visits this month, possibly indicating a shift in user preferences or competing tools.
12. Duolingo
- Category: Education
- Monthly Visits: 96 million
- Change: +1.8%
Duolingo’s AI features helped keep it relevant among language learners, leading to a slight uptick in engagement.
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13. DeepL Translate
- Category: Translation
- Monthly Visits: 90 million
- Change: +9.6%
DeepL Translate gained more users this month, closing in on Google Translate’s dominant position.
14. Grammarly
- Category: Writing
- Monthly Visits: 89 million
- Change: -9.3%
Grammarly remained one of the most used writing assistants, even as visits declined slightly.
15. QuillBot
- Category: Writing
- Monthly Visits: 57 million
- Change: -10.8%
QuillBot closed the top 15 list, showing a drop in visits, possibly due to seasonal shifts or increased competition.
Chisom Michael
Chisom Michael is a data analyst (audience engagement) and writer at BusinessDay, with diverse experience in the media industry. He holds a BSc in Industrial Physics from Imo State University and an MEng in Computer Science and Technology from Liaoning Univerisity of Technology China. He specialises in listicle writing, profiles and leveraging his skills in audience engagement analysis and data-driven insights to create compelling content that resonates with readers.
