ChatGPT traffic experiences decline for third consecutive month: Report

Global website traffic to the ChatGPT website totalled 1.43 billion visits and witnessed a 3.2 per cent decline

According to a report by analytics firm Similarweb, ChatGPT OpenAI's highly popular artificial intelligence (AI) tool saw a third consecutive monthly decrease in website traffic during August.

There are also indications that this decline could be stabilising, according to Reuters.

Global website traffic to the ChatGPT website, including both desktop and mobile visits, totalled 1.43 billion visits and witnessed a 3.2 per cent decline. This comes after a roughly 10 per cent decrease in traffic for the two preceding months.

Also, the average duration of time visitors spent on the website has come down since March, from an average of 8.7 minutes per visit to 7 minutes per visit by August.

There was a slight bump in the number of unique visitors to ChatGPT's website globally, increasing from 180 million users to 180.5 million users to 7 minutes per visit by August.

Analysts see the resumption of schools for the new academic year in September to have a positive effect on ChatGPT's website traffic. Some schools have already begun to use ChatGPT as a tool. This development is reflected in the slight increase in ChatGPT traffic in the US during August, coinciding with the reopening of American schools.

David F Carr of Similarweb stated that the percentage of younger users of ChatGPT fell over the summer and is now beginning to rise. Students seeking homework help seem to be part of the story.

OpenAI tried to broaden its reach by launching the ChatGPT app on the iOS platform in May, which may have potentially deflected some traffic away from its website. ChatGPT is free to users and offers a premium subscription option priced at $20 per month.

ChatGPT is based on an earlier large language model, or LLM, called GPT-3.5. ChatGPT became the fastest-growing app in history, reaching 100 million users just two months after its launch, before being overtaken by Meta-owned Threads.

(With inputs from agencies)