AI TRENDS | QuestMobile: Doubao Led Monthly Active Users in AI Apps as of May 2026

QuestMobile released its semiannual report on the development of the AI application market in 2026. According to Jin10, the report said that as of May 2026, monthly active users (MAU) for five categories were 499 million for AI-native apps, 644 million for AI application plugins, 755 million for device-maker AI apps, 172 million for PC web-based AI apps, and 18 million for PC client AI apps. The report said year-on-year MAU growth for those categories was 85.4%, -7.9%, 14.0%, -22.8%, and 20.1%, respectively. It also reported average monthly usage frequency per user of 92.7, 60.9, 51.4, 25.3, and 26.9 times, respectively. QuestMobile said the top-10 ranking pattern was becoming more stable. It reported that Doubao, Qianwen, and DeepSeek formed the first tier, with MAU of 382 million, 167 million, and 130 million, respectively. The report said that under a “Matthew effect,” year-on-year growth rates were also highly concentrated among first-tier players, with Doubao’s growth rate at 172.1% and Qianwen’s at 5,792.9%.