Google and Grok Are Narrowing the Gap with ChatGPT, Says a16z’s Latest AI Report
Rivals of ChatGPT, such as Google’s Gemini, xAI’s Grok, and, to a limited extent, Meta AI, are closing the gap on OpenAI’s renowned AI chatbot, as noted in a recent consumer AI landscape report by venture firm Andreessen Horowitz.
This fifth edition of the report showcases two and a half years of data that highlight evolving trends in consumer AI product usage.
For the fifth time in a row, 14 companies are recognized among the top AI products: ChatGPT, Perplexity, Poe, Character AI, Midjourney, Leonardo, Veed, Cutout, Eleven Labs, Photoroom, Gamma, Quillbot, Civitai, and HuggingFace.
These companies represent diverse ways consumers are interacting with AI, covering areas like general assistance, companionship, image and video editing, voice generation, productivity, and model hosting.
Remarkably, five companies have appeared in all but the inaugural report: Claude, DeepAI, JanitorAI, Pixelcut, and Suno, showcasing applications related to general AI use, companionship, image editing, and music generation.
For the first time in this series, Google improved its ranking, climbing four positions in the list of leading generative AI web products, with entries like Gemini, AI Studio, NotebookLM, and Google Labs, all now having separate domains for tracking their individual growth.
Andreessen Horowitz stated that the report utilizes data from independent market intelligence sources, such as Similarweb for web products and Sensor Tower for mobile app analytics.
Importantly, Gemini has now secured the second spot among mobile apps, closing in on ChatGPT, which remains in the lead but has about twice as many monthly active users. Furthermore, Gemini shows strong usage on Android, where nearly 90% of its active users are based. On the web, Gemini ranks second to ChatGPT, attracting around 12% of ChatGPT’s traffic.
AI Studio, aimed at developers working with Gemini models, has achieved the 10th position on the AI web products list, with NotebookLM following closely at No. 13. Google Labs, which serves as a platform for various AI trials (including Flow, Project Mariner, and Doppl), ranked at No. 39.
The report additionally highlights that Meta AI and Grok are also vying for the top-prized app, ChatGPT.
Grok has positioned itself fourth on the web and 23rd on mobile, showcasing rapid expansion—evident since Grok transitioned from a non-standalone app at the end of 2024 (initially launched on X) to a mobile platform boasting over 20 million monthly active users. Grok experienced a nearly 40% surge in users after the launch of Grok 4 in July 2025.
However, Meta’s AI assistant remains at the 46th position on the web, unchanged since March, and has failed to make it onto the top mobile AI apps list. This stagnation is likely attributed to reports of Meta AI publicly sharing user posts without consent.
DeepSeek and Claude have both faced stagnation on mobile, with DeepSeek dropping 22% from its peak. The decline for DeepSeek on the web was even steeper, exceeding 40% since February 2025. Conversely, Perplexity and Claude are continuing to exhibit growth.
Other Chinese AI creators have also joined the top 20 list on the web, including Quark—Alibaba’s AI assistant (No. 9 on the web and No. 47 on mobile), Doubao—ByteDance’s general LLM product (No. 12 on the web and No. 4 on mobile), and Kimi, a chatbot from Moonshot AI (No. 17). All these platforms primarily attract traffic from their local Chinese user base.
Moreover, seven other companies on the web list originated in China but have expanded their AI technologies globally: DeepSeek, Hailuo, Kling, SeaArt, Cutout Pro, Manus, and Monica.
On mobile, out of the top 50 apps, 22 are from China, yet only three cater predominantly to the domestic market. Leading players include Meitu (offering apps like Photo & Video Editor, BeautyPlus, BeautyCam, Wink, and Airbrush), ByteDance (with Doubao and Cici), Gauth, and Hypic.
Newly emerging startups like Lovable and Replit made their first appearance on the main list this time, having been absent in the previous iteration of Andreessen Horowitz’s report in March. Notably, websites created using Replit and Lovable without custom domains contribute to the traffic recorded under replit.app and lovable.app.
Andreessen Horowitz also noted AI applications on the brink of entering the main list, including PixAI, bolt, Blackbox AI, Clipchamp, and Getliner for the web; as well as Talkie, Seekee, Photo AI, AI Mirror, and Arvin for mobile.
The firm emphasized that the mobile list in this month’s report has welcomed more newcomers (14) than in any previous reports, as app stores have taken action against ChatGPT imitators, allowing more original applications to gain traction.
