After Elon Musk accused Apple of granting favor to OpenAI’s ChatGPT over xAI’s Grok in a back-and-forth over its App Store rankings for AI apps, Apple has defended the firm’s algorithm for its rankings. In a recent post Musk tweeted via X, he labeled Apple’s behavior “an unambiguous antitrust violation,” claiming Apple never promotes X or Grok in the App Store and tends to always promote ChatGPT over them.
Apple quickly responded through Bloomberg, arguing its App Store AI rankings are based on objective criteria centered on safety, equity, and driving meaningful developer visibility. Its aim is to offer what it calls ” safe discovery for users” while making sure that app developers are able to get valuable exposure across rapidly changing categories.
But outside data have shown that even more AI apps have climbed as high or even higher in rankings in the App Store, despite Musk’s claims. The top-ranked players include, for example, January’s DeepSeek from China and July’s Perplexity AI. These examples give the impression that AI rankings on Apple’s App Store go beyond ChatGPT promotion.
Apple stated, “The App Store is intended to be impartial and royalty-free. Thousands of apps are highlighted through charts, algorithmic recommendations and editor-choose lists based on objective criteria.” This is a further explanation of how Apple wants to frame its statements regarding App Store AI ranks—it puts user safety and discovery above favoritism, according to the company.
Musk appears to be particularly frustrated because, despite the X app jumping to the top of the News chart recently, it hasn’t notably been featured on the App Store. Likewise, even with Grok 4 being offered at no charge to every user by xAI, the app only came in fifth place overall and second in the Productivity category. This raises the question of app visibility, even for popular AI platforms.
The incident highlights a larger war going on between Elon Musk’s xAI Grok and OpenAI’s ChatGPT. In that respect, Apple is the de facto gatekeeper of the AI ecosystem, so some are questioning whether the rank order of apps in its App Store is entirely neutral. Musk raises issues over fairness of the system, while Apple claims it is committed to security, fairness, and discoverability for all its users and developers.
With metric tensions seeps awheel, its fringe to sees if the tech community uses a interns slander platter them into a longer quarrelsome trial, movable tip this effervescent it cavalierly expands away from just audiences figment slander. The result could have major impact on AI app discovery—and how tech platforms will approach rankings going forward.
Case in point:Apple stands firm on App Store AI rankings as a balancing act between neutrality, safety, and giving all developers a fair shot. Whether or not Apple will eventually open its doors to AI apps, the very concept of an App Store rules discussion highlights the power that Apple wields in determining what makes or breaks in the space, and the impact of such practices on competition.
FAQ
Musk says Apple preferentially treats ChatGPT over his xAI Grok app and never puts X or Grok “front and center,” which he considers to be unfair.
Apple claims that its App Store AI rankings have more to do with safety, fairness, and objective criteria than favoritism.
Indeed apps like DeepSeek or Perplexity AI in China have already reached #1, so it is not just a ChatGPT exclusive system.
We saw a little dust-up with some AI apps and visibility and fairness and how Apple assesses App Store AI rankings.
Musk recently threatened to sue over the matter, but it’s uncertain whether this will move beyond a war of words.
