Character.ai Traffic, Engagement, and Adoption Statistics 2025

Character.AI Overview

Character.ai was founded in 2021 by former Google AI engineers Noam Shazeer and Daniel De Freitas, and is headquartered in California. The platform lets users talk to millions of user created “characters,” including fictional personas, historical figures and chatbots designed for companionship, learning or roleplay.​

The platform lets users chat with AI characters based on fictional personas, historical figures, celebrities, or fully original personalities created by the community. In practice, it behaves more like a social playground than a classic “assistant,” with users treating characters as companions, role play partners, or creative writing helpers.​

Key Insight Summary

• Character.AI has been downloaded more than 40 million times, showing strong global adoption of AI-powered conversational tools.
• Users spend about 2 hours on the platform on average, highlighting deep engagement.
• More than 18 million unique chatbots have been created, reflecting strong user-driven experimentation and customization.
• According to Semrush, Character.AI reached a global rank of 264 in October 2025, marking steady visibility.
• Its U.S. rank stood at 237, indicating positive upward movement in a highly competitive market.
• Within the AI category, the platform secured a strong rank of 9, showing high relevance among AI-focused services.
• Total monthly visits reached 144.03 million, signaling consistent user activity.
• The bounce rate remained at 33.2%, while total page views exceeded 3.142 billion in the past 30 days.
• User engagement surpassed 2 billion chat minutes per month, with individuals spending about 75 minutes daily in conversations.
• ChatGPT led global downloads with 28%, while Character.AI followed at 9%, showing continued competitive positioning.
• Character.AI captured 57.5% of the chatbot market, reflecting strong dominance in user-generated conversational AI.
• The United States contributed 34.89% of total traffic, followed by Brazil at 11.08% and Indonesia at 6.03%, demonstrating broad international reach.

Traffic Sources

• YouTube leads with 68.64%, showing that most referral traffic or audience engagement comes from video-driven communities.
• Discord contributes 5.62%, reflecting growing interest from interactive and discussion-based user groups.
• Facebook accounts for 4.68%, indicating stable engagement from traditional social media channels.
• Pinterest provides 3.58%, supported by users exploring visual content and discovery-based journeys.
• X (Twitter) holds 3.54%, showing continued relevance for real-time updates and conversation-driven referrals.
• Other sources collectively represent 13.93%, highlighting a diverse set of smaller channels contributing to overall traffic.

Recent Developments

• June 2025: Google completed the acquisition of Character.ai in a deal valued at about 2.7 billion dollars, with the transaction structured around technology licensing and a reverse acquihire model.​
• August 2025: Character.ai expanded its consumer experience around entertainment AI, focusing on long form stories, roleplay, and creator led content formats rather than general purpose assistants.​
• November 24, 2025 : Open ended chat for under 18 users was officially turned off on Character.ai, completing the transition that had been signaled in October announcements and support center updates.​

Top Marketing Channels

• Direct traffic leads with 64.62%, showing that most users intentionally return to Character.AI without relying on external discovery channels.
• Organic search contributes 26.01%, making it the second-largest source and highlighting strong search visibility.
• Social media generates 7.25% of traffic, supported by active sharing and community-driven engagement.
• Referrals account for 1.34%, reflecting a smaller but steady flow from partner sites and external mentions.
• Paid search delivers 0.75%, indicating minimal dependence on paid acquisition.
• Email campaigns contribute only 0.01%, showing very limited use of email as a traffic driver.
• Display ads account for 0.03%, confirming that digital advertising plays a negligible role in overall user acquisition.

Conclusion

Character.ai has established a strong and resilient position within the consumer AI ecosystem, supported by high user engagement and a distinctive focus on personalized conversational experiences. The platform’s performance has been reinforced by long session durations, strong direct traffic share, and consistent discovery through social channels, which together indicate sustained user interest. Its emphasis on customizable AI characters continues to differentiate the service in a market that is increasingly crowded with productivity focused chatbots