ChatGPT’s mobile app appears to be entering a new phase of maturity after more than a year of explosive growth, as new data suggests that its download momentum and user engagement are beginning to flatten.
According to analytics firm Apptopia, global download growth of the app has slowed sharply since April, and daily active user (DAU) trends are now leveling off, signaling that OpenAI’s most popular product may have reached its early adoption peak.
Apptopia’s analysis shows that the percentage change in new global downloads began tapering off in the second quarter of the year, with October on pace to record an 8.1% month-over-month decline in new downloads. While millions of people continue to install the app each day, the data highlights a slowdown in growth rate rather than a fall in total numbers — a key distinction that nonetheless suggests the initial viral surge is cooling.
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The stagnation in download growth coincides with declines in several engagement metrics. In the United States, Apptopia found that the average time spent per DAU has dropped by 22.5% since July, while average sessions per DAU are down by 20.7%. This means users are not only spending less time in the ChatGPT app but also opening it fewer times per day.
However, there’s a nuance to the shift: user churn in the U.S. has stabilized, suggesting that while casual experimenters are leaving, the app is now retaining a loyal base of regular users who incorporate ChatGPT into their routines for productivity, research, or creative tasks.
Apptopia analysts interpret these findings as a sign that ChatGPT has transitioned out of its “experimentation phase” — a period when millions of users downloaded the app simply to test its capabilities — and into a more normalized phase of sustained, functional use.
That transition is not necessarily bad news for OpenAI. In fact, it mirrors the trajectory of many viral apps that initially surge on novelty before finding a stable, long-term user base. But for OpenAI, it underscores the challenge of maintaining engagement as the product matures.
Part of the slowdown, analysts suggest, may stem from increased competition and changes in user perception of ChatGPT’s AI behavior. Following an April update intended to make the chatbot’s responses less sycophantic, and the August release of GPT-5 — a model described as more factual but less personable — some users have reported the app feels more transactional and less “conversational” than before.
That tonal shift, coupled with competition from Google’s rapidly expanding Gemini ecosystem, may have chipped away at the app’s stickiness. Gemini’s recent surge in downloads, especially following the release of Google’s AI image model Nano Banana in September, has vaulted it to the top of app charts in several countries, drawing attention from users seeking alternative AI experiences.
Still, Apptopia cautions against attributing the full decline in ChatGPT’s engagement to Gemini’s rise. The downward trend in average session time and frequency began months before Google’s latest AI push, suggesting deeper behavioral changes among users.
The firm points out that if only the average time per DAU were falling, it could imply users were simply becoming more efficient with their prompts. But the simultaneous drop in both time spent and session frequency suggests that people are using ChatGPT less intensively overall.
Many note that this pattern — a surge in early engagement followed by normalization — is common in the lifecycle of transformative technologies. In its first months, ChatGPT was a global curiosity, drawing hundreds of millions of users who tested its capabilities across everything from writing poems to generating code. But as the novelty fades, sustained growth now depends on continual product innovation, integration, and value creation.
For OpenAI, that means shifting from viral growth to user retention. The company has already begun deepening partnerships that extend ChatGPT’s utility beyond text generation — including deals with Walmart and India’s National Payments Corporation to enable in-app shopping and AI-powered payments via UPI. These integrations are part of a broader strategy to embed ChatGPT into everyday commerce and productivity ecosystems, potentially reigniting user engagement through functionality rather than novelty.
Nevertheless, the report suggests that OpenAI can no longer rely on organic growth alone to expand its user base. To sustain momentum, it will likely need to increase marketing investment, roll out new features, and perhaps expand the personalization capabilities that once made ChatGPT feel more conversational and engaging.
With an estimated 800 million users worldwide — more than 10% of the global adult population — ChatGPT remains by far the world’s most widely used AI application. Yet the Apptopia data underscores that even technological revolutions must evolve beyond their hype cycle. The challenge for OpenAI now is to ensure that ChatGPT’s next phase is defined not by slowing growth, but by deeper integration into the everyday fabric of digital life.