Image AI models now drive app growth, beating chatbot upgrades
Image-generating AI models are driving significant download growth for mobile apps, outpacing traditional model updates and chatbot enhancements. Apps like ChatGPT, Gemini, and Meta AI saw substantial increases in downloads following the release of new visual AI capabilities. However, increased downloads do not consistently translate into higher revenue, with only ChatGPT showing a strong link between user growth and consumer spending.
- ▪Image model releases generated 6.5x more downloads than traditional model updates, according to Appfigures.
- ▪Google’s Gemini gained over 22 million additional downloads after launching its Nano Banana image model, increasing download volume by more than 4x.
- ▪ChatGPT’s GPT-4o image model led to over 12 million incremental installs and an estimated $70 million in gross consumer spending in 28 days.
- ▪Meta AI’s video model Vibes added 2.6 million downloads but did not generate meaningful revenue.
- ▪DeepSeek’s R1 model drove 28 million downloads in January 2025, but its surge was due to broader industry interest rather than image-generation features.
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Image model releases are driving growth for AI mobile apps, generating 6.5x more downloads than traditional model updates, according to a new report from app intelligence provider Appfigures. This marks a shift from earlier days, when the release of new models powering the conversational experiences drove more demand, alongside the new features like a voice chat interface. For instance, ChatGPT and Gemini each added tens of millions of new downloads after releasing their respective image models, Appfigures found. For Google’s Gemini, the release of its image model Nano Banana drove an additional 22+ million downloads in the 28 days following the introduction of the Gemini 2.5 Flash image model last August.
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