ChatGPT traffic drops for 3rd straight month, records 1.43bn worldwide visits in August

Open AI’s wonder product, ChatGPT may have kickstarted the recent generative AI hype last year, but the energy seems to be dropping. According to findings from Similarweb, an analytics company, usage of the popular chatbot dropped for the third straight month. Monthly mobile website and desktop visits plunged to 1.43 billion in August.

Fortunately for Open AI, the Similarweb report indicates that the current decline in usage could change soon. Since launching last year, ChatGPT has been the go-to virtual buddy for every category of internet users ranging from schoolchildren to software developers. The super-intelligent chatbot can code, write academic research papers and lots more. Given its vast use cases, it is surprising that user traffic has slumped for three consecutive months. 

Aside from the reduction in the volume of monthly visits to ChatGPT, Similarweb further noted that the average time spent using the chatbot is decreasing. Since March this year, the average time of 8.7 minutes has dipped to 7 minutes in August. It is worth mentioning that while user traffic dropped by 10% in June and July, August witnessed a decrease of just 3%. 

SimilarWeb also noted in its report that the summer break was likely responsible for the decline in ChatGPT’s usage. Schools do not operate in the Summer, meaning that the large volume of schoolchildren who typically use the bot for assignments and projects during school season did not need it recently. That is predicted to change with the school season already upon us. 

“Students seeking homework help appears to be part of the story: the percentage of younger users of the website dropped over the summer and is now starting to bounce back,” David Carr of Similarweb explained.

Read also: ChatGPT launches Android version in the US, Brazil and India, other countries in view

ChatGPT still trumps the competition 

Despite recording a fall in user traffic, Open AI’s chatbot remains the major player. This is the reality even with competition from Microsoft’s Bing search engine and Google’s Bard. While ChatGPT witnessed 1.4 billion visits globally, Bing followed closely with 1.2 billion visits. 

However, monthly visits are not the only issue Open AI has had to deal with recently. Per a revelation made four weeks ago, it was discovered that it costs Open AI a whopping $700,000 to keep ChatGPT online daily. According to a report from Analytics India Magazine, the company is predicted to go bankrupt before 2024 ends if the trend continues.

Open AI has also been the subject of investigations regarding reports of data privacy violations. Additionally, users of GPT4, a ChatGPT variant with advanced functionalities, have complained about the bot’s performance. Compared to its previous learning capabilities, the aggrieved users claim GPT-4 is “lazier” and “dumber.”