The most downloaded Productivity & Tools apps in 2025

ChatGPT, published by OpenAI, was the most downloaded Productivity & Tools app in 2025, accumulating 845.2M downloads, according to AppTweak’s Market Intelligence data. This performance highlights a significant market shift, with AI-powered assistants dominating user acquisition and reshaping the category. While established utilities from major publishers like Google and Microsoft remain in the top 10, their growth has largely stalled or turned negative, indicating a transition toward new, AI-native functionalities.

Among the top 500 apps in the Productivity & Tools category, the rise of AI is a defining characteristic of 2025. The top five AI-centric apps alone generated 1.4B downloads, accounting for 11.5% of all downloads in the dataset. This trend points to a clear change in user demand, where intelligent automation and conversational interfaces are becoming core expectations.

Key takeaways

• AI-powered apps dominate the top of the charts. Five of the top 10 most downloaded Productivity & Tools apps feature an AI DNA, including leader ChatGPT (845.2M downloads) and Google Gemini (305.2M downloads). These top five AI apps collectively represent 11.5% of all downloads among the top 500 apps in the category, signaling a major shift in market demand.
• The market is heavily concentrated in the United States. Publishers headquartered in the United States are responsible for eight of the top 10 apps, demonstrating a significant geographic consolidation of market power at the top of the Productivity & Tools category.
• Legacy utility apps are facing growth challenges. While still generating high volume, established apps like Google Chrome (-7.1%) and Gmail (-19.6%) experienced negative year-over-year download growth. This contrasts sharply with the hyper-growth of AI newcomers, suggesting a market in transition.
• AI is becoming an embedded workflow feature, not just a chatbot. The most successful Productivity & Tools apps are integrating AI as contextual, inline actions—such as summarizing text or structuring notes—rather than forcing users into a separate chat interface.
• Productivity is moving to OS-level surfaces. Leading apps are reducing friction by making core functions accessible directly from the lock screen, widgets, and one-tap shortcuts, turning them into instant utilities rather than destinations.

About the data set

This data was derived from AppTweak’s Market Intelligence. The dataset covers the top 500 apps in the Productivity & Tools category from January 2025 to December 2025 and reflects worldwide performance across both the App Store & Google Play. The ranking is created by combining each app’s estimated downloads from both stores and ordering them from highest to lowest.

• Data source: AppTweak Market Intelligence
• Coverage: App Store and Google Play
• Metrics: App downloads
• Time period: January 2025 – December 2025
• Category: Productivity & Tools, defined by AppTweak’s AppDNA taxonomy
• Geography: Global
• Last updated: January 2026

Category definition of Productivity & Tools apps (AppTweak AppDNA taxonomy):

AppTweak defines the Productivity & Tools category as apps that make a specific process or task more organized or efficient, enable the user to solve a problem or complete a specific task, or assist the user in accessing, managing, or generating information. This category also includes general device utilities and tools that support everyday workflows.

Segment definitions:

• AI (Artificial Intelligence): AI-powered utilities, including assistants, chatbots, and other intelligent tools.
• File manager: Apps for scanning, viewing, editing, and managing files.
• Browser: Mobile apps that serve as mobile web browsers.
• Password manager: Apps that help you manage your passwords and authentication credentials.
• Email: Apps to send and manage emails.

Feel free to dig into your app category’s download and revenue estimates now in AppTweak’s Market Intelligence.

What are the most downloaded Productivity & Tools apps of 2025?

The following ranking showcases the leading Productivity & Tools apps by global downloads in 2025, highlighting the dominance of AI assistants and the continued relevance of essential utilities.

This table lists the top 10 Productivity & Tools apps ordered by total downloads, including app name, publisher, HQ, app downloads, and year-over-year growth.

Source: AppTweak Market Intelligence | App Store & Google Play | January 2025 – December 2025 | Global.

Notable apps at a glance

• ChatGPT – Rank #1, 845.2M downloads, AI (Artificial Intelligence)
• Google Gemini – Rank #2, 305.2M downloads, AI (Artificial Intelligence)
• DeepSeek – AI Assistant – Rank #3, 110.5M downloads, AI (Artificial Intelligence)
• Perplexity – Ask Anything – Rank #5, 89.1M downloads, AI (Artificial Intelligence)
• Google Chrome – Rank #6, 88.4M downloads, browser
• Grok • Smartest AI Advisor – Rank #7, 87.7M downloads, AI (Artificial Intelligence)
• Adobe Acrobat Reader: Edit PDF – Rank #10, 75.7M downloads, file manager

3 key learnings from the top 10 Productivity & Tools apps

A closer look at the download data for the top 10 Productivity & Tools apps reveals several important patterns for marketers and product teams. These learnings highlight a category being reshaped by AI innovation and shifting user priorities.

1. AI assistants dominate the download charts

The Productivity & Tools category is now led by AI-native applications, which occupy five of the top 10 spots. ChatGPT is the clear market leader with 845.2M downloads, more than doubling the 305.2M downloads of its closest competitor, Google Gemini. New entrants also made a strong impact, with DeepSeek – AI Assistant securing the #3 spot with 110.5M downloads and Grok • Smartest AI Advisor ranking #7 with 87.7M downloads in their debut year. Taken together, this intense demand for AI assistants underscores a fundamental shift in what users expect from productivity apps.

2. New AI apps show explosive growth while legacy utilities decline

The data reveals a market of contrasts, where hyper-growth and decline coexist. AI-powered apps like Perplexity – Ask Anything (+483.0%) and Grok • Smartest AI Advisor (+594,736.8%) posted extraordinary year-over-year growth. In contrast, some of the most established utility apps saw their download momentum slow. Google’s browser and email clients, Google Chrome and Gmail, declined by -7.1% and -19.6%, respectively. This divergence suggests that while core utilities remain essential, the primary driver of new growth has moved decisively toward AI-driven solutions.

3. Publisher portfolios are powerful, but a single hit can lead the market

Portfolio strength is a key factor in the top 10, with Google publishing four of the top 10 apps. However, the data also shows that a single, breakout app can outperform an entire portfolio. OpenAI’s ChatGPT alone generated nearly three times the downloads of Google’s flagship AI app, Google Gemini. This dynamic illustrates that while an ecosystem of apps provides a strong foundation, a truly disruptive product can capture market leadership on its own, presenting both a challenge and an opportunity for developers in the space.

Key facts about the top 10 Productivity & Tools apps

• The category is heavily skewed toward AI-powered applications, with half of the top 10 apps belonging to this segment and accounting for a combined 1.4B downloads.
• Publisher headquarters are overwhelmingly concentrated in the United States, which is home to eight of the top 10 publishers, indicating strong geographic dominance in the category’s leadership.
• The top of the chart reflects a market in transition, where hyper-growth from new AI entrants coexists with the stagnation or decline of established utility apps like browsers and email clients.
• New apps can achieve massive scale quickly, with two apps released in 2025—DeepSeek – AI Assistant and Grok • Smartest AI Advisor—breaking into the top 10 in their first year.

2025 Market trends for Productivity & Tools apps

The 2025 download data reflects a Productivity & Tools category undergoing rapid transformation, driven by advancements in AI and evolving user expectations for convenience and privacy. Here are the key trends shaping the market.

1. AI shifts from a “chat screen” to embedded, workflow actions
   Across mainstream Productivity & Tools apps, AI is increasingly presented as small, contextual actions that appear inside existing flows. Instead of a separate, general-purpose chatbot, users are encountering features that rewrite paragraphs, summarize pages, or extract tasks from notes. This “capture → structure → output” loop, where messy input is transformed into a structured artifact, is becoming a core user experience. This trend is reflected in the feature sets of apps aiming to integrate AI seamlessly into daily tasks.
2. Productivity moves outward onto the lock screen and one-tap entry points
   A visible pattern in 2025 is the reduction of “time-to-first-action” by pushing core functions onto OS surfaces. Lock screen widgets, Control Center tiles, and one-tap shortcuts that jump directly into a specific mode (like scanning or starting a timer) are becoming more common. This changes user expectations, positioning the best tools as instant utilities rather than destinations that require browsing.
3. Monetization concentrates around premium outcomes, not just features
   The business model for Productivity & Tools apps is evolving. In 2025, monetization is leaning toward charging for the result a user wants—such as a polished output, advanced export format, or AI-assisted processing—rather than just unlocking basic features like storage or sync. This is visible in more personalized paywall timing and a mix of subscription access with one-time purchases for specific tasks.
4. Privacy becomes a differentiating product feature
   Privacy is no longer just a setting; it is increasingly positioned as a core workflow promise, especially for document creation and collaboration. This has led to more “private workspace” product structures where encryption and access control are central to the app’s value proposition. Broader ecosystem changes around data use and advertising identifiers are also influencing how free utility apps fund themselves, making privacy a key competitive differentiator.

Key facts about Productivity & Tools app market trends in 2025

• AI features are most commonly delivered as inline actions inside notes, docs, and scans, emphasizing quick cleanup and structured outputs over standalone chat.
• Leading tools increasingly support one-tap entry into a specific job-to-be-done via lock screen widgets and system-level controls.
• Paid tiers are more often tied to finishing workflows (like exporting or automation) than to basic usage, with more mixed monetization structures emerging.
• Privacy is increasingly built into the core product promise for collaboration and document tools, shaping how free utility apps sustain themselves.

Conclusion

The Productivity & Tools app market in 2025 is defined by the transformative impact of artificial intelligence. AI-native apps like ChatGPT, published by OpenAI, have captured the top of the charts and demonstrated explosive growth. The top five AI apps alone commanded 1.4B downloads, confirming a decisive shift in user demand toward intelligent, automated solutions.

While legacy utilities from publishers like Google and Microsoft maintain high download volumes, their slowing growth highlights a market in transition. Success in this new landscape is increasingly associated with hyper-growth from new entrants and the integration of AI into core workflows. For marketers and developers, the data provides a clear directive: understanding and leveraging AI is no longer optional but essential for capturing growth in the modern productivity space.

For deeper insights into these trends and to benchmark your own app’s performance, explore AppTweak’s Market Intelligence platform. You can start analyzing the data today with a Free Starter plan.

FAQs

Below we answer the top questions about the most downloaded Productivity & Tools apps.