Google and ChatGPT remain the most popular services on the internet in 2025, according to Cloudflare’s latest “Year in Review” report. The San Francisco-based connectivity cloud company revealed that global internet traffic grew by 19 percent this year, highlighting the continued expansion of digital activity worldwide.
The report noted that internet usage growth was uneven throughout the year. Traffic remained largely flat during the first half of 2025 but surged sharply from August onward. This trend aligns with real-world patterns, including students returning to schools and universities and businesses accelerating operations toward the end of the year.
Cloudflare also found that artificial intelligence-driven activity is playing a growing role in shaping the modern web. AI bots now account for 4.2 percent of all HTML requests globally, marking a significant shift in how online content is accessed and indexed.
Cloudflare Says Google and ChatGPT Dominate Internet Traffic
The Cloudflare report titled “2025 Year in Review” offers detailed insights into global internet usage patterns. One of the most striking findings was that Google continues to dominate the web as the most visited domain worldwide.
Google Search remains the single largest referrer of human web traffic, reinforcing its central role in online discovery. Beyond search, Google’s broader ecosystem — including Chrome, Android, YouTube, and Googlebot — continues to shape how users and machines interact with the internet.
Cloudflare data shows that Googlebot remains the most active crawler online by a wide margin. This reflects how search indexing and AI-powered information retrieval are becoming increasingly interconnected.
Following Google, Facebook, Apple, Microsoft, and Instagram completed the top five most popular internet services. These platforms represent a blend of search, social networking, operating systems, and cloud-based services.
The remaining spots in the top ten were occupied by AWS, YouTube, TikTok, Amazon, and WhatsApp, highlighting the growing importance of cloud infrastructure, short-form video, e-commerce, and messaging platforms.
ChatGPT Leads the Generative AI Boom
In the rapidly expanding generative AI segment, ChatGPT continued to hold the top position in 2025. Cloudflare ranked Anthropic’s Claude as the second most popular AI platform, followed by Perplexity, Google’s Gemini, and Character.AI.
The report revealed that user-driven AI bot crawling — activity triggered by text prompts — grew by nearly 15 times during the year. This surge reflects how AI tools are increasingly being used for research, writing, coding, and everyday problem-solving.
However, this rapid adoption has raised concerns for publishers. Unlike traditional search engines, many AI platforms provide answers directly within their interfaces, reducing the need for users to visit original content sources.
AI Crawling and Publisher Monetisation Challenges
Cloudflare’s analysis of crawl-to-refer ratios highlights the growing imbalance between AI crawling activity and actual referral traffic to websites.
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Anthropic recorded the highest crawl-to-refer ratio among major platforms, reaching an estimated 500,000:1. This means that for every half-million times Anthropic’s crawler accessed a website, only one human visit followed through referral.
Such extreme ratios suggest that users are consuming answers without engaging with cited sources, raising concerns about long-term monetisation for content creators.
Perplexity performed relatively better, with crawl-to-refer ratios ranging between 100:1 and 700:1 throughout the year. DuckDuckGo emerged as the strongest performer overall, maintaining a near-balanced ratio of 1:1 to 1.5:1.
Google’s crawl-to-refer ratio fluctuated during 2025. It began the year at around 3:1, peaked at nearly 30:1 in April, and ended the year below 10:1, indicating that Google Search still drives meaningful traffic to publishers.
Mobile Devices Continue to Dominate Internet Usage
The report also highlighted the continued dominance of mobile devices. In 2025, Android devices accounted for approximately 65 percent of total global internet traffic.
This trend underscores the importance of mobile-first design and performance. For many users, smartphones are now the primary gateway to search engines, social media, AI platforms, and online shopping.
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As mobile usage grows alongside AI-driven traffic, websites must balance speed, usability, and content quality to remain competitive in search and discovery.
What Cloudflare’s Findings Mean Going Forward
Cloudflare’s 2025 data paints a clear picture of a rapidly evolving internet. While Google and ChatGPT remain the most popular services, the way users access information is changing.
AI bots now represent a measurable portion of web traffic, challenging traditional models of content discovery and monetisation. At the same time, mobile devices continue to shape user behaviour worldwide.
For publishers, maintaining visibility on Google remains essential, but adapting to AI-driven discovery is increasingly important. For users, convenience and instant answers are becoming the new norm.
As internet traffic continues to grow, Cloudflare’s insights suggest that the future web will be defined by automation, AI assistance, and an ongoing struggle to balance innovation with sustainability.
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By The Morning News Informer — Updated 16 December 2025
