Topline<\/p>\n
Grok, the AI chatbot developed by billionaire Elon Musk\u2019s xAI, surpassed Chinese competitor DeepSeek in website traffic in January to become the world\u2019s third-biggest chatbot, according to data from Similarweb, though it still lags far behind ChatGPT and Gemini. <\/p>\n
Grok web visits have surged in recent months. (Photo Illustration by Samuel Boivin\/NurPhoto via Getty Images)<\/p>\n
NurPhoto via Getty ImagesKey Facts<\/p>\n
Grok earned an estimated 314 million website visits worldwide in January, according to data from Similarweb, a big increase from the month before when it logged 271.2 million visits, marking its fourth consecutive month of growth.<\/p>\n
Chinese AI chatbot DeepSeek fell behind Grok last month, logging 298.3 million website visits in January, a decrease from December when it recorded 328.9 million visits.<\/p>\n
Grok\u2019s increased activity appears to be driven by a surge in new users, according to Similarweb<\/a> data, which found slightly more than half, 53.8%, of its unique visitors in January were new\u2014the highest ratio of new to returning users among all major chatbots.<\/p>\n OpenAI\u2019s ChatGPT is still the clear AI chatbot leader, recording 5.7 billion website visits in January, while Google Gemini placed second with 2.1 billion visits, according to Similarweb.<\/p>\n Anthropic\u2019s Claude was the fifth most-visited AI chatbot in January, according to Similarweb, reaching a high of 202.9 million visits.<\/p>\n Similarweb noted its website visit estimates for Grok only account for the standalone Grok website and do not account for usage of Grok embedded within X.<\/p>\n Grok surpassed DeepSeek in worldwide web visits, according to Similarweb’s January data.<\/p>\n SimilarwebWhat To Watch For<\/p>\n Whether any AI chatbots can catch up with ChatGPT. Usage of Gemini has surged in recent months as ChatGPT\u2019s growth appears to have cooled, according to Similarweb data. ChatGPT had the same amount of website visits\u20145.7 billion\u2014in July 2025 and January 2026, according to Similarweb, while usage of Gemini grew threefold over that six-month timeframe, jumping from just under 700 million visits to 2.1 billion. Gemini was also the fastest-growing chatbot in January, Similarweb said, surging more than 19% in month-over-month growth. ChatGPT reached a peak of 6.2 billion website visits in October before slightly decreasing.<\/p>\n Tangent<\/p>\n Musk\u2019s X also slightly grew in website visits between December and January, according to Similarweb, rising 2.7% to 4.54 billion visits. X ranked as the sixth most-visited website in the world in January, behind Google, YouTube, Facebook, Instagram and ChatGPT. X, though, has faced a challenge from Mark Zuckerberg\u2019s Threads on mobile devices, Similarweb previously told Forbes. In January, the Meta-owned Threads widened its lead over X, recording 143.2 million daily active users on mobile devices worldwide in the first two weeks of the year, more than X\u2019s 126.2 million daily active users over the same period. <\/p>\n Why Are Key Staffers Leaving Xai?<\/p>\n xAI lost two co-founders earlier this week. Researcher Jimmy Ba announced Tuesday he would leave xAI, and although he did not specify a reason for his departure, the Financial Times<\/a> reported Ba left amid tensions on the technical team over demands to improve its AI model\u2019s performance. Co-founder Tony Wu said in a post<\/a> on X on Monday he had resigned from xAI, saying it is \u201ctime for my next chapter.\u201d Several other founding members departed the company in recent months, leaving it with about half of its co-founders. The Financial Times reported some staff had complained Musk was making unreasonable demands on them to catch up to competitors like OpenAI, also noting staff have faced backlash over sexually explicit deepfakes created by Grok technology, which sparked regulatory investigations<\/a> in Europe. <\/p>\n Forbes Valuation<\/p>\n Musk is worth $852.8 billion as of Wednesday afternoon, according to Forbes<\/a> estimates, making him the wealthiest person in the world and the first person<\/a> to surpass $800 billion in net worth. He derives much of his wealth from his stakes in Tesla and SpaceX, both of which he co-founded. Forbes estimated earlier this month SpaceX\u2019s acquisition of xAI added about $84 billion to Musk\u2019s fortune. <\/p>\n Further Reading<\/p>\n