AI Apps are a $2B Opportunity and Thin Wrappers Make More Than You Think
This is a single insight from This Week in Apps - Big Opportunities for AI Apps. Check out the full article for more insights.
I get asked all the time if there's still money in AI, and my response is always an immediate funny look because AI apps are making more money than ever before!
And this has nothing to do with any of the DeepSeek news.
In fact, our latest AI industry report shows AI apps generating more than $2B in 2025 - and that's a conservative estimate.
Where's all that money going?
For the report, we analyzed thousands of AI-first apps, meaning apps that didn't just bolt AI on, and categorized them into one of 12 categories. It took a good amount of time, but gave ys a reliable dataset of AI app categories that we can analyze and track.
Looking at the top 1,000 apps by revenue, our report shows that General Assistants (aka. thin wrappers) are the biggest winners so far. Since 2023, the category earned $726M from the App Store and Google Play. This total represents what users paid (aka gross revenue).
It's important to note that our General Assistants category does not include ChatGPT, Claude, and other first-party models with an app. We put those into the Core Models category. This revenue comes entirely from third-party apps that ride those technologies.
ChatGPT drove the Core models category, which is the smallest because it includes the actual models, to $541M in gross revenue, according to our estimates. I expect this category to continue growing in 2025, but this isn't where the opportunity is for developers.
Graphics Generators, which were all the rage before ChatGPT took over, along with Photo & Video Editors, saw $210M. A far cry from thin wrappers, which should make you think, "is my app doing too much?". It just might.
The Utilities category rounds out the top with $69M in gross revenue. Not a lot in comparison to the rest, but has been growing fast in 2024.
Demand for AI apps is skyrocketing and I don't expect it to stop in 2025. If January is any indication, AI will rise even faster this year. Check out the trends for yourself on page 10 of the report.
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All figures included in this report are estimated. Unless specified otherwise, estimated revenue is always net, meaning it's the amount the developer earned after Apple and Google took their fee.
