Image model launches are driving growth in AI mobile apps, generating 6.5 times more downloads than existing model updates, according to a new report from app intelligence provider AppFigures.
This is a change from the early days, when the launch of new models supporting conversational experiences led to greater demand along with new features such as voice chat interfaces.
For example, ChatGPT and Gemini have each added tens of millions of new downloads since launching their respective image models, AppFigures said.
For Google Gemini, the launch of the Nano Banana image model led to an additional 22 million downloads in just 28 days following the launch of the Gemini 2.5 Flash image model last August. The launch led to a more than four-fold increase in app downloads over the period, data showed.
Meanwhile, since ChatGPT launched the GPT-4o image model in March last year, the number of installations has increased by more than 12 million in 28 days. This has about 4.5 times more downloads than the GPT-4o, GPT-4.5, and GPT-5 model releases, AppFigures noted.
Other model launches followed a similar trend, but on a smaller scale. Meta AI introduced its AI video feed Vibes, adding approximately 2.6 million additional downloads in the first 28 days of its launch in September 2025. (Yes, technically this is a video model, but ultimately it’s about visual content, not just text.)
However, the report warns that additional downloads do not always translate into increased mobile revenue.
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Instead, releasing a new image model gives people a reason to install the app and try out the improved image creation features. This doesn’t necessarily mean they will convert to paying subscribers. For example, AppFigures noted that even though Nano Banana had a larger surge in downloads than the launch of ChatGPT’s 4o image model, it only generated an estimated total consumer spend of $181,000 in the 28 days after launch.
Meta AI’s Vibes launch also led to additional downloads, but no meaningful revenue.
Of the three, only ChatGPT converted the increased attention into real dollars.
OpenAI’s 4o image generation model has driven approximately $70 million in total consumer spending in the 28 days since launch compared to its previous baseline, AppFigures said.
The company also analyzed DeepSeek, but it did not fit the pattern.
DeepSeek R1 has garnered 28 million downloads since its launch in January 2025, but it wasn’t your typical model comparison event. This was a groundbreaking moment for DeepSeek, which went from a relatively unknown company to an overnight sensation as the tech industry learned of the techniques used to train AI models at a fraction of the cost of its competitors. This example highlights how curiosity can drive downloads. However, in this case, attention was not linked to the image model.
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