OpenAI’s generative AI app ChatGPT has seen monthly traffic decline for the first time since its launch.

According to analytics firm Similarweb, global desktop and mobile traffic to the ChatGPT website decreased by 9.7 per cent between May and June, with unique visitors to the site down by 5.7 per cent. Time spent on the site by its users was also down by 8.5 per cent.

Similarweb had previously noted in May that ChatGPT's skyrocketing traffic growth was beginning to level out.

The dip represents the first hurdle for the leading large language model (LLM) platform, with the app experiencing an explosive launch to 100 million monthly active users in January, two months after its launch. ChatGPT now records over 1.5 billion monthly visits and has become one of the top 20 websites in the world – far surpassing Microsoft’s Bing search engine which uses OpenAI tech.

In a blog post analysing the slump, Similarweb's David Carr writes that other AI chatbot platforms such as character.ai have also seen a drop in engagement which serves as a “sign that the novelty has worn off for AI chat.”

Carr however also notes that OpenAI is unlikely to be too distraught at the drop in traffic, as ChatGPT “primarily serves as a loss leader generating sales leads for OpenAI, which makes its technology available for other companies to embed in their applications.”

It has been estimated that Microsoft-backed OpenAI spends around $700,000 per day to operate ChatGPT, while Open AI chief exec Sam Altman has described the operating costs as “eye-watering.”

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