With so many AI models available today, it’s tough to decide where to begin. A recent study from Quora’s Poe provides guidance for those unsure about which models to choose.

The study analyzes millions of interactions to highlight the most popular tools for generating text, images, and videos.

With nearly every tech company offering an AI solution, it’s easy to get overwhelmed by choices. Poe’s data clarifies which models are trusted and widely used.

Whether you’re new to AI or experienced, this report shows trends that can help you find the best models. Remember that this data represents Poe subscribers and may not reflect the broader AI community.

Text Generation Trends

A Two-Way Race

The study shows that among Poe subscribers, Anthropic models are quickly becoming as popular as OpenAI, especially after the release of Claude 3.5 Sonnet. The usage of text models from both providers is now almost evenly split.

Rapid Adoption of New Releases

Poe users often switch to the latest models, even if loyal to a specific brand. For example, people rapidly move from OpenAI’s GPT-4 to GPT-4o or from Claude 3 to Claude 3.5.

Emerging Players

DeepSeek’s R1 and V3 have captured about 7% of the messages on Poe. Google’s Gemini family has seen a slight decline in use among Poe subscribers but remains a key player.

Image Generation Trends

Market Share of Early Movers

DALL-E-3 and StableDiffusion were once leaders in image generation, but their shares have dropped by about 80%. This decline occurred as the number of image generation models increased from three to around 25.

Leading Models

The FLUX family from BlackForestLabs is now the leading image model, holding a nearly 40% share, while Google’s Imagen3 family has about a 30% share.

Smaller Models

Smaller image providers like Playground and Ideogram update their services frequently, which helps them maintain a loyal user base. However, they only account for about 10% of Poe’s image generation usage.

Video Generation Trends

An Emerging Industry

Video generation was almost nonexistent on Poe until late 2024, but it has quickly grown in popularity. Now, at least eight providers offer this ability.

Runway: Most Used Model

Runway’s single video model handles 30–50% of video generation requests. Although its usage is lower than it used to be, many people still choose this brand.

New Player: Veo-2

Since launching on Poe, Google’s Veo-2 has gained about 40% of the market, showing how quickly customer preferences can change. Other new models, such as Kling-Pro v1.5, Hailuo-AI, HunyuanVideo, and Wan-2.1, have captured around 15% of the market.

Key Takeaway & Looking Ahead

The data shows a clear pattern of newer models replacing older ones in user preference. If you want the best performance, use the latest version rather than stick with familiar but outdated models.

Whether these usage patterns will hold steady or continue to shift remains to be seen. At some point, cost will be a barrier to adoption, as new models tend to get more expensive with every release.

In future reports, Poe plans to share insights on how different models fit various tasks and price points.

Featured Image: stokkete/Shutterstock