ChatGPT Faces Rising Competition From Claude, Gemini and Perplexity in 2025: Cloudflare Report

 The global generative AI market became significantly more competitive in 2025, with OpenAI’s ChatGPT retaining its position as the most widely used AI platform while facing growing pressure from rivals such as Anthropic’s Claude, Google’s Gemini and Perplexity, according to Cloudflare’s Radar year-end review.

ChatGPT Faces Rising Competition From Claude, Gemini and Perplexity in 2025: Cloudflare Report

ChatGPT, which helped bring generative AI into the mainstream following its late-2022 launch, remained the top-ranked generative AI service for the second consecutive year. However, Cloudflare’s data shows that several all-purpose AI competitors gained strong momentum throughout 2025.

Claude and Gemini Challenge ChatGPT’s Lead

Anthropic’s Claude delivered one of the strongest performances of the year. The platform climbed from the lower end of the top ten early in 2025 to second place on most weekdays during July and August, reflecting its increasing adoption in enterprise and workplace environments.

Google’s Gemini followed a similar growth path. Starting the year outside the top ten, Gemini steadily gained usage and overtook Claude in mid-September, maintaining the second position on most days through the remainder of the year. Despite this momentum, Gemini finished fourth in Cloudflare’s weighted year-end rankings.

Perplexity, Grok and DeepSeek Gain Ground

Perplexity AI emerged as another major challenger, moving into third place from September onward as demand for AI-powered search and research tools increased.

Elon Musk’s xAI Grok entered the top 20 generative AI services in February and quickly climbed to ninth place by the end of the month. Meanwhile, Chinese chatbot and open-source model developer DeepSeek made a rapid debut, jumping from outside the top 20 to third place in early February before stabilising between sixth and tenth for the rest of the year.

Weekday vs Weekend AI Usage Trends

Cloudflare identified clear usage patterns across platforms. ChatGPT and Claude dominated weekday traffic, highlighting their role in professional and enterprise workflows. In contrast, Grok, Perplexity and DeepSeek performed more strongly on weekends, suggesting higher use among casual and consumer audiences.

Coding Assistants and Regional AI Growth

Among AI coding tools, GitHub Copilot improved its ranking to sixth place in 2025, while Windsurf AI (formerly Codeium) declined as general-purpose AI chatbots gained popularity.

Cloudflare also noted the growing international reach of ByteDance’s Doubao (also known as Dola or Cici), which ranked among the top generative AI services in multiple regions outside China, including Australia, the UK and several African markets.

ChatGPT Climbs Overall Internet Rankings

Beyond the AI category, ChatGPT continued its rise across the broader internet ecosystem, reaching number 33 in Cloudflare’s overall internet services ranking in late November. This placed ChatGPT ahead of platforms such as Reddit and Pinterest, highlighting the rapid expansion of generative AI in everyday online activity.

The State of Generative AI in 2025

Cloudflare’s findings underline a key trend for 2025: while ChatGPT remains the market leader, competition in generative AI is intensifying at an unprecedented pace. As enterprise adoption grows and consumer use diversifies, the AI landscape is becoming more dynamic, fragmented and competitive than ever before.