A new report by OpenAI Ireland Limited shows that in Europe, approximately 41.3 million average monthly recipients were active on ChatGPT search after OpenAI launched deep search for the last six months ending March 31, 2025. This indicates a massive growth from 11.2 million users in the last six-month period. OpenAI shared these statistics to comply with Europe’s Digital Service Act (DSA) and maintain transparency over digital platforms.

According to DSA, monthly active respondents are those people who interact with the platform, whether by listening, viewing, or submitting information for a given period of time. Europe wants to ensure the safety and transparency of major digital platforms with the help of these guidelines.

Will ChatGPT Achieve “Very Large” Status?

With the continuous growth of ChatGPT search, it will soon fall under the DSA’s designation of “very large” digital platform. But first, it has to reach the threshold of 45 million users. If ChatGPT comes under this classification, it will have to follow some strict obligations, including:

  • Enabling users to opt-out to share their profiling and recommendations.
  • Disclosing internal data to researchers and regulators.
  • Conducting external audits

If it is unable to meet these standards, it will be fined up to 6% of its global turnover and may also face a temporary suspension of its operations in Europe.

ChatGPT Search Is Now Challenging Google

ChatGPT search, since its release, has started challenging search engine giants like Google. According to a poll in September 2024, 8% of users preferred ChatGPT search over Google. But still according to the industry estimates, Google is handling 373 times more searches.

Accuracy Concerns For AI-Powered Search

Even though AI-powered search tools are getting popular, there are still some reliability concerns. Studies show that:

  • 67% of ChatGPT results were inaccurate
  • Errors in handling news content, even from publishers having a licensed agreement with Open AI

These findings suggest that AI is facing challenges in giving authentic information as compared to other search engines.