The Top 100 Most Used AI Apps in 2025

Episode Summary

Executive Summary: A16Z’s fifth Consumer AI Top 100 ranking shows consumer AI usage is stabilizing around enduring categories like chat, companionship, and creative tools, while new breakout areas such as vibe coding and Google’s expanding AI products gain traction. The list emphasizes real usage over revenue, highlighting global consumer adoption patterns, Chinese AI ecosystems, and emerging prosumer/network effects in AI products.

Main Topics: What the Consumer AI Top 100 measures (Priority: 5/5): Olivia Moore explains the biannual ranking methodology: the list tracks actual consumer usage across web and mobile, not revenue, using monthly visits and monthly active users to identify the most-used AI-native products worldwide. Ecosystem stabilization and fewer new entrants (Priority: 4/5): Compared with earlier chaotic editions, the latest list has fewer new names, suggesting the consumer AI market is maturing. The web list added 11 new names versus 17 six months earlier, while mobile remains more volatile due to app store policy changes. Companionship remains a dominant use case (Priority: 5/5): AI companionship continues to be one of the strongest consumer categories, with several recurring leaders and multiple new entrants. This suggests sustained demand for relationship-oriented AI products. Google’s consumer AI surge (Priority: 5/5): Google appeared across multiple properties for the first time in the ranking, including Gemini, AI Studio, Notebook LM, and Google Labs. This indicates broader consumer and developer adoption of Google’s AI ecosystem. Chinese AI products as a major force (Priority: 5/5): The discussion breaks Chinese AI companies into three patterns: products used primarily inside China, China-based startups exported globally, and Chinese-developed products used both domestically and abroad. China is especially strong in image and video AI. Vibe coding as an emerging breakout (Priority: 5/5): Bolt, Lovable, and Replit represent a new consumer/prosumer category centered on AI-assisted software creation. Strong retention and revenue metrics suggest these tools may be moving beyond novelty into durable utility. Network effects, prosumer adoption, and future categories (Priority: 4/5): The hosts argue that AI products can develop network effects through user-generated assets, communities, templates, and bottoms-up enterprise adoption. They expect growth in productivity, health, finance, education, and social AI products.

Key Arguments: The ranking is more useful because it measures usage, not revenue, revealing what consumers actually adopt even when they pay nothing. The consumer AI market has stabilized: fewer names rotate in and out of the list than in the earliest chaotic versions. Companionship products remain highly durable and continue to dominate a large section of consumer AI usage. Google’s AI ecosystem is broader than many expected; Gemini, AI Studio, Notebook LM, and Google Labs all gained meaningful usage. Chinese AI companies are important both inside China and globally, especially in image/video generation and model distribution. Vibe coding is a real breakout category, with strong revenue retention and signs of both individual and enterprise adoption. Consumer AI products may have network effects beyond model improvement, including user communities, libraries, templates, and self-serve enterprise expansion. Future growth is likely in accuracy-sensitive verticals like productivity, health, education, finance, and social AI as models improve.

Data Points: List cadence: Every 6 months - A16Z updates the Consumer AI Top 100 twice a year. Edition count: 5th time doing the list - This is the fifth Consumer AI Top 100 ranking. Web ranking source: Monthly visits globally - Web list ranks products by global monthly website traffic. Mobile ranking source: Monthly active users - Mobile list ranks products by monthly active users. New names on web list: 11 - The latest web list added 11 new AI-native companies. New names on prior web list: 17 - Six months earlier, the web list had 17 new names. Gemini web traffic share vs ChatGPT: ~10% - Gemini has about 10% of ChatGPT’s web traffic. Gemini mobile traffic share vs ChatGPT: ~50% - Gemini’s mobile app traffic is about half of ChatGPT’s mobile traffic. Google properties on web list: 4 - Four unique Google products made the web list. Notebook LM rank: 13 - Notebook LM debuted at number 13 on the web list. Google Labs rank: 39 - Google Labs appeared at number 39 on the web list. Google Labs traffic spike from VO3: 15% - Traffic to Google Labs rose 15% in the month VO3 launched. Companionship new entrants: 3 - Juicy Chat, Joy, and R Dream were new companionship names on the list. Companionship incumbents named: 7+ - Character, Janitor, Spicy Chat, Polybuzz, Crush On, ADOT, and Candy AI were cited as recurring names. Web rank for Grok: 4 - Grok debuted at number 4 on the web list. All-stars count: 14 - Fourteen companies have appeared on every one of the five lists. China domestic companies in top 20 web: 3 - Quark, Doubao, and Kimmy each ranked in the top 20 on web, mostly driven by China-only usage. Manus traffic ranking by country: Brazil #1, US #2 - Manus shows strong cross-border adoption, with Brazil as its top traffic source. Revenue retention for vibe coding: 100%+ in first 3 months - Leading vibe coding platforms showed revenue retention at or above 100% in the first three months. AI products with repeated appearances: 14 all-stars - These companies have made the list in every edition so far.

Pivotal Quotes: "What real consumers are actually using in AI." — Olivia Moore: Explaining the purpose of the Consumer AI Top 100 list and why usage data matters. "Companionship continues to just dominate." — Olivia Moore: Describing the persistence of AI companionship products as a major consumer use case. "I think the UI and the product experience matters just as much as the model." — Olivia Moore: Arguing that consumer AI winners are not only model-driven but also depend on product design and workflow.

Implications: Consumer AI is maturing from chaotic experimentation into durable categories with repeat winners. Expect more prosumer tools, better vertical products, and continued strength in companionship, creativity, and global AI ecosystems—especially as model quality improves.