The Fastest in History: The Number of ChatGPT Users Exceeds One Billion

SadaNews - The AI application ChatGPT has successfully surpassed the milestone of one billion active users worldwide on a monthly basis.

According to the latest statistics reported by "Reuters" from the Sensor Tower app performance tracking platform, this figure represents the fastest growth rate for an application reaching this level of users, surpassing popular apps like Google Maps, TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube.

This achievement comes at a time when competition is intensifying between OpenAI and "Anthropic", alongside Google and "Meta", to dominate the rapidly growing generative AI market, amid accelerating developments in new models and expanding their commercial and consumer applications.

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Despite ChatGPT maintaining its lead in the AI applications market, Sensor Tower data indicates emerging signs of a slowdown in its growth pace compared to competitors.

Statistics indicated that American users who installed the Claude app during the first quarter of 2026 reduced the time they spent on ChatGPT by 5% just one month after installing the app, compared to their average usage in the previous eight months.

According to the data, the number of monthly active users for Claude reached about 56 million globally by the second quarter of 2026, while its annual growth rate exceeded 640%, compared to only 62% for ChatGPT during the same period.

This coincided with notable financial movements within the sector, as Anthropic secretly filed for an initial public offering in the United States, while OpenAI is also preparing to take similar steps in the coming weeks.

Spending Exceeding $3 Billion

In terms of financial returns, ChatGPT achieved a new record after consumer spending through the app on iOS and Android exceeded $3 billion globally, according to Appfigures estimates.

This figure represents total spending since the app's launch on smartphones in May 2023.

The "Claude" app recorded significant growth in the number of paid subscriptions during 2026, reflecting the increasing consumer interest in advanced AI tools.

Data showed that most of this spending occurred during 2025, with users spending about $2.48 billion within the app during the year, marking an annual increase of 408% compared to $487 million in 2024.

The app had only generated revenues of $42.9 million in 2023, before seeing a growth rate exceeding 1000% the following year.

Data indicates that ChatGPT took only 31 months to reach $3 billion in consumer spending, compared to 58 months for TikTok, 42 months for Disney+, and 46 months for HBO Max.

An Open Race

These figures reflect the rapid transformation in the generative AI market, which has quickly shifted from limited trials to global competition for users, revenues, and infrastructure.

Although ChatGPT currently maintains its lead, recent indicators reveal that the market remains open to major changes, with competitors continuing to close the gap through innovation and integration, as a previous Sensor Tower report showed that ChatGPT's monthly active users rose by 180% year-on-year by November 2025, compared to 170% for Gemini. However, ChatGPT's growth pace has started to slow, with a quarterly increase of only 6% between August and November.

In contrast, the number of Gemini users jumped by about 30% during the same period, supported by the app's integration within the Android system and the image generation model Nano Banana, which raised the app's market share by 3%, compared to a similar decline for ChatGPT.

At the same time, Grok, affiliated with xAI, is approaching ChatGPT in terms of revenue generation rate, reflecting the expanding competition in the AI market, despite OpenAI's early advantage and entering the market ahead of its competitors at the end of 2022.