Musk's Grok Sinks to 5th as Monthly Users Drop 12%; Claude Surges 44% in AI Race Shakeup
Elon Musk's xAI-developed generative AI "Grok" saw its user numbers plummet between March and April 2026, with the gap against major competitors widening rapidly. According to the latest data from web analytics firm Similarweb, Grok's global average daily active users (DAU) on mobile apps fell 12.5% from 13.9 million in March to 12.2 million in April. In the U.S. market, the decline was even steeper, dropping 15.6% from 1.4 million to 1.1 million over the same period.
As a result, Grok fell from 2nd place globally in mobile app rankings as of January — behind only ChatGPT — to 5th place by April, successively overtaken by Anthropic's "Claude," Google's "Gemini," and China-based "DeepSeek."
Meanwhile, competitors posted remarkable gains. Claude's average daily active users surged 44% from 16 million in March to 23 million in April. Gemini also grew roughly 19%, from 12.4 million to 14.8 million. On web visits, the contrast was equally stark: Grok fell 11.6% globally (from 10.5 million to 9.3 million) and 11% in the U.S. (from 2.3 million to 2.1 million), while Claude rose 39% and Gemini rose 10%.
ChatGPT's stronghold remains unshaken. Its mobile app average daily active users reached 244.9 million in April — more than ten times that of second-place Claude at 23 million. Web visits stood at 183.7 million, roughly double Gemini's scale.
Grok's year-on-year growth rates themselves remain positive — web visits up 42.4% and mobile app up 83.5%. However, compared to the order-of-magnitude surges from Claude (web up 761%, app up 1,205%) and Gemini (web up 575%, app up 676%), the momentum gap is glaring.
Major AI Chatbot Monthly Usage Trends (March → April 2026)
| Service | Metric | March | April | Month-on-Month |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Grok | Mobile DAU (Global) | 13.9M | 12.2M | -12.5% |
| Grok | Mobile DAU (U.S.) | 1.4M | 1.1M | -15.6% |
| Grok | Web Visits (Global) | 10.5M | 9.3M | -11.6% |
| Claude | Mobile DAU (Global) | 16.0M | 23.0M | +44% |
| Claude | Web Visits (Global) | 19.8M | 27.5M | +39% |
| Gemini | Mobile DAU (Global) | 12.4M | 14.8M | +19% |
| Gemini | Web Visits (Global) | 83.7M | 92.1M | +10% |
| ChatGPT | Mobile DAU (Global) | — | 244.9M | — |
Note: DAU = Average Daily Active Users. Data sourced from Similarweb. March data for ChatGPT not provided.
Multiple compounding factors appear behind Grok's user exodus. On user community platform Reddit, frustration is evident over the paywalling of many additional features, including image and video generation. Grok currently offers subscription plans at $10 and $30 per month, with the free version reportedly subject to usage limits.
More serious still is internal turmoil at developer xAI. According to an April report from U.S. business magazine Fast Company, over 80 staff members, including several co-founders, have left the company in recent months. The Financial Times reported in February that Musk repeatedly made "unreasonable demands" regarding technical improvements as he tried to catch up with competitors, contributing to the departures. Additionally, Grok faces regulatory and congressional scrutiny over reports that it generated sexually explicit images of women and children.
Across the AI industry, the axis of competition is rapidly shifting from user numbers to revenue generation. According to research firm Counterpoint Research's Q1 2026 data, Anthropic captured 31.4% of global large language model (LLM) revenue share, overtaking OpenAI's 29% for the first time. On annual recurring revenue (ARR), Anthropic also leads at $30 billion versus OpenAI's $24–25 billion.
OpenAI launched its latest model "GPT-5.5" and the accompanying developer tool "Codex" in May, with some developers reportedly consuming 40 million tokens per minute — keeping the company firmly in the technological spotlight. However, an investigative report by The Wall Street Journal revealed that OpenAI missed revenue targets for multiple months in early 2026. With infrastructure contracts exceeding $1.4 trillion, some projections estimate losses of $14 billion in 2026 and cash burn ballooning to $57 billion in 2027.
Amid all this, Musk continues his legal battle against OpenAI CEO Sam Altman. In the lawsuit alleging OpenAI violated its founding mission as a nonprofit, Musk took the witness stand last week, calling his $38 million investment in the company "foolish" and asserting, "Without me, OpenAI wouldn't exist."
Musk's personal fortune was estimated at $789.2 billion as of May 5, 2026 U.S. time (approximately ¥118 trillion), making him the first person in history to surpass a net worth of $800 billion earlier in 2026. The source of that wealth lies in his Tesla and SpaceX equity. Grok's comeback now stands as the next litmus test for this vast empire.
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