# AI Breakout: September 2025

Published September 10, 2025 by Torii Research (Torii). Updated October 7, 2026. Canonical URL: https://www.toriihq.com/research/reports/ai-breakout-september-2025

ChatGPT and Claude AI hold the top two spots in September, while n8n is the month's biggest climber.

## What the data says

ChatGPT and Claude AI stay at #1 and #2, and Grammarly moves back up to #3, swapping places with Cursor AI.

n8n climbs 5 places to #15 a month after joining the ranking, and Granola gains 4 places to #11.

ollama returns to the ranking and ChatOn joins it, while Gemini Code Assist falls 3 places to #10.

Based on anonymized, aggregated usage data from August 1 to 31, 2025.

## At a glance

- Top 3: ChatGPT (#1), Claude AI (#2), Grammarly (#3).
- Biggest climbers: n8n, up 5 to #15; Granola, up 4 to #11; Grammarly, up 1 to #3.
- Biggest drops: Gemini Code Assist, down 3 to #10; ClickUp, down 3 to #14; Midjourney, down 3 to #19.

## What kinds of apps

AI-native apps: 90% (18 of the 20 apps). Share of this edition's apps by theme (one theme per app; definitions at https://www.toriihq.com/research/themes):

- AI assistants: 35% (7 apps: ChatGPT, Claude AI, OpenAI, Perplexity AI, NotebookLM, Grok, ChatOn)
- AI coding and building: 20% (4 apps: Cursor AI, Google AI Studio, Gemini Code Assist, ollama)
- AI content and media: 15% (3 apps: Grammarly, Midjourney, ElevenLabs)
- AI notes and voice: 10% (2 apps: Granola, Fireflies.ai)
- AI agents: 5% (1 app: n8n)
- Work suites and collaboration: 5% (1 app: ClickUp)
- Personal productivity: 5% (1 app: Notion Mail)
- Ops, HR, and finance: 5% (1 app: Zapier)

## Rankings

Ranked by usage among AI apps. Rank change compares with the previous published edition.

| Rank | App | Category | Theme | AI-native | Rank change | Shadow IT index | SOC 2 claimed | ISO 27001 claimed | GDPR claimed |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | ChatGPT | Productivity | AI assistants | Yes | Same | 33 | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| 2 | Claude AI | Productivity | AI assistants | Yes | Same | 56 | Yes | No | Yes |
| 3 | Grammarly | Productivity | AI content and media | Yes | +1 | 38 | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| 4 | Cursor AI | Developer Tools | AI coding and building | Yes | -1 | 38 | Yes | No | Yes |
| 5 | OpenAI | Productivity | AI assistants | Yes | +1 | 38 | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| 6 | Zapier | IT & Security | Ops, HR, and finance | No | -1 | 37 | Yes | No | Yes |
| 7 | Perplexity AI | Analytics & BI | AI assistants | Yes | +1 | 62 | No | No | No |
| 8 | NotebookLM | Productivity | AI assistants | Yes | +1 | 44 | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| 9 | Google AI Studio | Developer Tools | AI coding and building | Yes | +1 | 64 | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| 10 | Gemini Code Assist | Developer Tools | AI coding and building | Yes | -3 | 65 | No | Yes | No |
| 11 | Granola | Productivity | AI notes and voice | Yes | +4 | 58 | No | No | Yes |
| 12 | Fireflies.ai | Sales & Marketing | AI notes and voice | Yes | Same | 61 | Yes | No | Yes |
| 13 | Grok | Productivity | AI assistants | Yes | Same | 66 | No | No | Yes |
| 14 | ClickUp | Project Management | Work suites and collaboration | No | -3 | 48 | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| 15 | n8n | Operations | AI agents | Yes | +5 | 49 | No | No | Yes |
| 16 | ollama | Developer Tools | AI coding and building | Yes | New | 60 | No | No | No |
| 17 | Notion Mail | Productivity | Personal productivity | Yes | +1 | 63 | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| 18 | ChatOn | Productivity | AI assistants | Yes | New | 65 | No | No | No |
| 19 | Midjourney | Design | AI content and media | Yes | -3 | 58 | No | No | Yes |
| 20 | ElevenLabs | Operations | AI content and media | Yes | -1 | 54 | Yes | No | Yes |

## Bottom line

The most notable shift this month is n8n, up 5 places to #15 a month after joining the ranking. These reports are made possible by Torii, the SaaS Management Platform, which monitors SaaS usage in real time.

## Method

Anonymized, aggregated usage data from companies across industries and sizes, reported as percentages, ranks, and scores. No single organization is identifiable. Methodology: https://www.toriihq.com/research/methodology

## Changelog

- 2026-10-07, Clarification: Tidied the wording of the conclusion. The original included a sentence fragment. The finding is unchanged.
- 2026-10-07, Clarification: Standardized the data source description. Torii Research describes its data as anonymized, aggregated usage data, reported as percentages, ranks, and scores.
- 2026-10-07, Update: Added takeaways from this edition's data. This edition was first published with only a short introduction.
- 2026-10-07, Update: Moved from toriiresearch.com; title standardized. Torii Research now lives on toriihq.com. It was first published as "AI Breakout Report: September 2025" at toriiresearch.com/reports/ai-breakout-report-september-2025.

## How to cite

Torii Research. (2025, September 10). AI Breakout: September 2025 [Data set]. Torii. https://www.toriihq.com/research/reports/ai-breakout-september-2025

Data: https://www.toriihq.com/research/data/ai-breakout-september-2025.csv and https://www.toriihq.com/research/data/ai-breakout-september-2025.json