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By Roseleen Nzioka
Nairobi, Kenya: ChatGPT reigns supreme among the 40 most popular Generative AI tools globally, according to web traffic data from a World Bank policy research working paper.
The research paper titled “Who on Earth is Using Generative AI?” by Yan Liu and He Wang states that while some chatbots and video generation tools share overlapping features, each tool is categorized by its primary function.
OpenAI’s ChatGPT dominates the generative AI market, accounting for 82.5 percent of the total web traffic among the 40 generative AI tools analyzed in the study. ChatGPT recorded over 200 million active monthly users by August 2024, a figure that has gone up to 800 million users in 2025.
Other popular generative AI chatbots include Claude, Perplexity, Gemini, and the image creation tool Midjourney.
According to the World Bank, the generative AI market is expected to grow from 1.5 billion dollars in 2021 to 6.5 billion dollars by 2026 – a compound annual growth rate of 34.9 percent, while other data sources project a revenue of US$ 11 billion by the end of this year.
Website traffic data from various sources shows that ChatGPT had 4.5 billion visits in March 2025, over 100 million daily users, and processes over 1 billion queries per day, affirming its top position as a Generative AI tool.
In just a few years, ChatGPT has evolved from a research project at a Silicon Valley startup to a household name around the world. Developed by OpenAI, the chatbot has become one of the most widely adopted tools in artificial intelligence, empowering users to write, code, learn, and communicate in entirely new ways.
ChatGPT’s origins trace back to the release of the original Generative Pre-trained Transformer, or GPT, in 2018. That early version was designed to predict text by analyzing vast amounts of internet data. It was followed by GPT-2 in 2019, so advanced that OpenAI initially withheld its full release due to concerns about potential misuse.
The real turning point came in 2020 with GPT-3, a 175-billion-parameter language model capable of answering questions, writing stories, generating code, and imitating a wide range of human writing styles. It marked the first time the public began to genuinely envision the power of large language models.
ChatGPT’s breakout moment occurred in November 2022 when OpenAI fine-tuned GPT-3.5 and released ChatGPT, a conversational AI optimized for human-like dialogue. It quickly went viral, attracting over one million users in its first five days, setting a record for the fastest-growing consumer app in history.
“People used it for everything—from school essays to writing poetry, answering emails, and even helping with homework,” said Mira Z. Shah, a language AI researcher. “It was simple, free, and shockingly capable.”
By early 2023, ChatGPT had surpassed 100 million users, making AI-assisted communication a mainstream reality.
In March 2023, OpenAI launched GPT-4, an even more advanced model capable of improved reasoning, handling complex prompts, and interpreting images alongside text. It was rolled out to paid subscribers via the ChatGPT Plus plan.
In 2024, a more efficient variant known as GPT-4-turbo became the default, enabling features like persistent memory, custom chatbots (“Custom GPTs”), and integrated tools for web browsing, coding, and image analysis.
By 2025, ChatGPT had transformed from a clever chatbot into a comprehensive productivity assistant used in offices, classrooms, and even hospitals.
Timeline of Innovation
2018 GPT-1 introduced
2019 GPT-2 gains attention
2020 GPT-3 released
2022 ChatGPT debuts to the public
2023 GPT-4 and tool integrations
2024 Memory, multimodal input added
2025: ChatGPT mainstreamed across sectors
While the rise of ChatGPT has brought unprecedented convenience, it also raises critical concerns. Experts warn of issues such as misinformation, academic dishonesty, data privacy, and the future of employment in AI-assisted industries.
In response, OpenAI has implemented measures such as user feedback systems, restricted outputs, and ongoing research into AI safety and alignment.
ChatGPT is now a staple in millions of lives, used to brainstorm ideas, draft legal documents, translate languages, and even offer emotional support. But its development is far from over.
As OpenAI and its competitors push the boundaries of what’s possible, one thing is clear: the way we communicate, create, and compute has changed forever.
While acknowledging the need for strict ethical guardrails, the World Bank sees generative AI as a tool that can be leveraged to solve international development challenges, be applied in healthcare, manufacturing, media, and entertainment, and suggests it could augment the productivity of jobs in Latin America and the Caribbean.
