Hassan Khan
The internet had a big year in 2025 bigger than many expected. According to Cloudflare’s newly released Radar 2025 Year in Review, global internet traffic increased by 19%, showing just how deeply the online world is woven into everyday life.
People are spending more time online for work, entertainment, shopping, learning, and communication. At the same time, entire regions that were once poorly connected are now coming online thanks to satellite internet. While older technologies like AOL dial-up officially faded into history, newer systems pushed the web into places it had never reached before.
Cloudflare isn’t just guessing here. As one of the companies that helps run the backbone of the internet powering security, performance, and traffic routing for millions of websites it sees internet activity in real time. When Cloudflare talks about traffic growth, it’s based on real data flowing through the global web.
AI Bots Are Now a Real Part of Internet Traffic
One of the most eye-opening findings in Cloudflare’s report is the rise of AI bots. These automated systems used by companies to train AI models now account for 4.2% of all HTML web requests worldwide.
In simple terms, a noticeable chunk of the internet’s traffic no longer comes from humans at all.
AI companies send bots across the web to:
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Read articles and webpages
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Collect language patterns
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Train large AI models
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Improve search and chat systems
For website owners, this has been a mixed experience. Some sites report higher traffic numbers, but not higher engagement or revenue. Others worry about bandwidth costs, content ownership, and how their work is being used to train AI without clear permission.
Google unveils its most advanced AI research agent just hours after OpenAI launches GPT-5.2
Cloudflare’s data confirms what many publishers have been sensing for months: AI is no longer just using the internet it’s shaping it.
At the same time, Cloudflare notes that not all bot traffic is harmful. Verified bots like GoogleBot still play a key role in search indexing. The real challenge going forward will be balancing innovation with fairness, transparency, and control.
Google Still Rules, Mobile Dominates, and Starlink Expands Access
Despite all the excitement around AI tools, traditional internet giants remain firmly in control. According to Cloudflare:
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Google is still the most-used internet service in the world
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It runs the top search engine, browser (Chrome), and verified bot
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ChatGPT, while dominant in AI, does not rank among the top 10 internet services overall
On the mobile side, Android devices generated 65% of global internet traffic, leaving iOS with the remaining share. The numbers vary by region for example, iOS accounts for over half of mobile traffic in the U.S. but globally, Android continues to lead due to its affordability and reach.
Perhaps the most important story, however, is about access.
Starlink, SpaceX’s satellite internet service, recorded 2.3× growth over the past year. In 2025, the company launched its 10,000th satellite, helping bring internet access to rural communities, disaster zones, and remote regions that traditional infrastructure never reached.
This expansion played a major role in overall traffic growth. More people online means more voices, more data, and more opportunities but also more responsibility for companies managing the internet’s core systems.
Finally, while ChatGPT topped the list of AI services by usage, competitors like Claude and Perplexity surprisingly outranked Google Gemini in engagement, showing that the AI race is still wide open.
What This Means for the Future of the Internet
Cloudflare’s 2025 report paints a clear picture: the internet is growing, evolving, and becoming more automated than ever before. Humans are still at the center of it but AI systems are now permanent residents of the web.
The next phase of the internet won’t just be about speed or scale. It will be about trust, access, and balance between humans and machines, innovation and regulation, growth and stability.
And if 2025 proved anything, it’s this: the internet isn’t slowing down anytime soon.
