ChatGPT Usage Stats 2025: What It Means for AI SEO / GEO

ChatGPT's remarkable growth continues to reshape how users discover information online. By early 2025, independent market data cited by TechCrunch shows ChatGPT at roughly 400 million weekly active users and ranked No. 1 among GenAI apps by web visits (via Similarweb). This signals a fundamental shift in discovery—one your business can't ignore.

ChatGPT's Rapid Growth: Key Numbers (2025)

~400 million weekly active users (Feb 2025), per a16z/Similarweb data reported by TechCrunch.
Mobile usage up 5–15 % MoM over the past year, with ~175M weekly users on mobile.
Leader by unique monthly visits among GenAI apps on web and mobile (Similarweb via TechCrunch).

These stats highlight a crucial reality: AI assistants are becoming a primary method of discovery and information retrieval, reshaping digital marketing and SEO strategies.

Why ChatGPT’s Growth Matters for AI SEO / GEO (Generative AI Optimization)

Traditional SEO relies heavily on Google search rankings. But AI assistants like ChatGPT, Microsoft Copilot, and Perplexity increasingly serve direct answers from indexed content without users ever clicking through.

This shift poses a challenge: if AI answers user questions directly, traditional search rankings lose impact unless your content is optimized for AI discovery and citation.

Key Insight: AI SEO / GEO (Generative AI Optimization) ensures your content is discoverable, understandable, and citable by assistants—so you still get surfaced even when there’s no click.

Optimizing for AI: A Necessity, Not a Luxury

Optimizing for AI visibility—what we call AI SEO / GEO (Generative AI Optimization)—ensures your content is consistently surfaced by assistants.

Key strategies include:

Instant Indexing: Ensuring immediate discoverability via IndexNow.
Structured Content: Clear headings, direct answers, and structured information architecture.
Authority & Accuracy: Factual content from credible sources that AI systems trust and cite.

Pro move: lastmod + IndexNow

Pair daily-accurate lastmod values in your XML sitemap with IndexNow pings for fast recrawls. See our guide on why this matters for AI: Bing: lastmod Tag & IndexNow for AI Search Indexing.

ShowUpInAI: Your Shortcut to AI Visibility

ShowUpInAI automates the hard parts of AI SEO / GEO across all your domains.

ShowUpInAI empowers you with:

Daily automated scans to detect meaningful content updates.
Instant IndexNow submissions to accelerate crawling for ChatGPT, Copilot, and Perplexity visibility.
AI View to see how assistants interpret your pages.

Ready to Dominate AI Discoverability?

Automate IndexNow and make your content AI-ready across all your domains.

Start Your Free Trial

What To Do Now

AI-driven discovery is already here, and businesses adapting now have a clear advantage. Use this checklist to move fast:

Implement IndexNow

Generate a key, host the key file, and send pings on add/update/delete. Or let ShowUpInAI automate this across all your sites.

Fix your sitemap `lastmod`

Update only on substantive content changes. Avoid stamping today’s date on every URL.

Structure answers clearly

Use H2/H3s, bullets, and concise summaries so assistants can extract answers and cite you.

Monitor crawling

Track Bing recrawl patterns and performance. If you rely on manual workflows, add retries and alerts.

If you want a low-effort path, tools like ShowUpInAI handle IndexNow, monitoring, and submission automatically—especially helpful for agencies managing many domains.

Position your content for AI discovery now. Tomorrow’s visibility depends on today’s optimization.

Ready to Get Discovered by AI Users?

Try ShowUpInAI free and see how fast you can start showing up in ChatGPT, Copilot, and Perplexity through automated AI SEO / GEO.