ChatGPT's traffic drops 9.7% in June, the first drop since the official introduction of the Generative AI tool

ChatGPT is the fastest-growing consumer app in history, with over 1.5 billion monthly visitors.

According to analytics firm Similarweb, ChatGPT, the immensely popular AI chatbot introduced in November, saw monthly traffic to its website and unique visitors fall for the first time ever in June.

Worldwide desktop and mobile traffic to the ChatGPT website fell 9.7 percent in June compared to May, while unique visitors fell 5.7 percent. According to the data, the amount of time visitors spent on the website decreased by 8.5 percent.

According to Similarweb's Senior Insights Manager David Carr, the chatbot's novelty is wearing off, while RBC Capital Markets analyst Rishi Jaluria stated that the data signals to increased demand for generative AI with real-time information.

A request for comment from OpenAI was not immediately responded to.

ChatGPT sparked a frenzy of generative AI use in daily tasks ranging from writing to coding, reaching 100 million monthly active users two months after its inception.

It is the fastest-growing consumer application ever, with over 1.5 billion monthly views, making it one of the top 20 websites in the planet.

ChatGPT, for example, has considerably outperformed Bing, Microsoft's search engine that employs OpenAI technology.

In recent months, a few ChatGPT rivals have emerged, notably Google's Bard chatbot. Bing, Microsoft's search engine, also offers customers a free chatbot powered by OpenAI.

"I believe there will be growing pains when you go from zero to 100 million users in such a short period of time." The extremely hefty infrastructure would lead to poorer precision. "It's a combination of having to change what the model is trained on and dealing with the potential regulatory implications," said Sarah Hindlian-Bowler, Macquarie's head of Technology Research Americas.

In May, OpenAI also developed the ChatGPT iOS app, which may detract from visits to its website. Some attribute the shift to the summer break for schools, when fewer children need homework assistance.

According to data.ai, the chatbot has over 17 million downloads on iOS as of July 4.

According to the analytics firm, downloads peaked on May 31 and have remained popular in the United States, averaging 530,000 downloads per week in the first six weeks of availability.

The current slowdown in growth may aid in cost control for ChatGPT, which requires extensive computer capacity to answer questions. The expense of running the services has been described as "eye-watering" by OpenAI CEO Sam Altman.

ChatGPT is free to use, but users can upgrade to a premium membership for $20 (approximately Rs. 1,600) each month to have access to OpenAI's more sophisticated model, GPT-4. According to the most recent YipitData figures, 1.5 million users have joined up for the subscription in the United States.

This year, OpenAI expects to earn $200 million (approximately Rs. 1,644 crore). Aside from ChatGPT, it generates revenue by directly providing API access to its AI models to developers and companies, as well as through a collaboration with Microsoft, which has invested over $10 billion in the firm.