ChatGPT Users Statistics 2026
By: Axis Intelligence Research & Sarah Mitchell
Last Updated: June 12, 2026
Next Scheduled Update: Q3 2026 (September 2026)
License: Data available for download under CC BY 4.0
Quick Answer: As of May 2026, ChatGPT has crossed 1 billion global monthly active app users — the fastest app in history to reach this milestone, according to Sensor Tower data reported by Reuters on June 2, 2026. The platform reached 900 million weekly active users in February 2026, doubled from 400 million just 12 months prior, while generating $25 billion in annualized revenue and processing 2.5 billion prompts every single day.
Key Findings
- 1 billion monthly active app users were recorded in May 2026, making ChatGPT the fastest app in history to reach that threshold — surpassing the pace set by TikTok, Instagram, YouTube, and Google Maps, per Sensor Tower estimates reported by Reuters on June 2, 2026.
- 900 million weekly active users were confirmed by OpenAI in February 2026, more than doubling the 400 million reported in February 2025 — a 125% increase in 12 months achieved by no consumer internet product at comparable scale.
- $25 billion in annualized revenue was reached by February 2026 according to Reuters, up from $10 billion ARR in June 2025 — a 150% increase in eight months and a 100× increase from $100 million in 2022.
- 18 billion messages per week were being sent by 700 million users in July 2025, according to the OpenAI/NBER working paper (Chatterji et al., 2025) — the largest-ever behavioral study of an AI consumer platform, based on 1.5 million conversations.
- 34% of U.S. adults have used ChatGPT as of February–March 2025, roughly double the 18% recorded in 2023, with 28% of employed Americans using it for work — a 20 percentage point increase in two years, per Pew Research Center survey of 5,123 U.S. adults.
The Axis Intelligence ChatGPT Growth Velocity Index (CGVI™)
A cross-source proprietary metric developed by Axis Intelligence — this figure does not appear in any single published report.
Every publication tracks either WAU (weekly active users), MAU (monthly active users), or web traffic in isolation. No published source synthesizes all three growth curves into a normalized acceleration score. The ChatGPT Growth Velocity Index (CGVI™) fills that gap by measuring month-over-month percentage growth across three dimensions simultaneously: WAU growth (OpenAI official), web traffic growth (Semrush), and revenue growth (Reuters/OpenAI), then averaging them into a single velocity score for each period.
Methodology:
CGVI™ = ( WAU_MoM% + Traffic_MoM% + Revenue_MoM% ) ÷ 3
| Period | WAU MoM% | Traffic MoM% | Revenue MoM% | CGVI™ |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dec 2022 – Jan 2023 | +9,900% (1M→100M MAU) | n/a | n/a | — |
| Jan 2024 – Aug 2024 | +100% (100M→200M WAU) | +115% YoY | +270% YoY | 162.0 |
| Aug 2024 – Feb 2025 | +100% (200M→400M WAU) | +40% | +200% | 113.3 |
| Feb 2025 – Oct 2025 | +100% (400M→800M WAU) | +30% | +100% | 76.7 |
| Oct 2025 – Feb 2026 | +12.5% (800M→900M WAU) | +8% | +25% | 15.2 |
| Feb 2026 – Jun 2026 | +11%* (900M→1B MAU) | +5%* | +20%* | 12.0* |
Estimates based on Sensor Tower June 2026 data and Semrush/Reuters trajectory data. Asterisk denotes partially estimated figures.
Sources used: OpenAI official announcements (via TechCrunch, Reuters); Semrush traffic analysis (via Semrush blog, April 2026); Reuters revenue reporting (February 2026).
What the CGVI™ reveals: ChatGPT’s growth is decelerating — not declining — as a mathematical inevitability of its scale. A platform reaching 12% monthly WAU growth at 900 million users is still adding more absolute users per month than most products achieve in their entire lifetime. The CGVI™ score dropping from 162 in 2024 to 12 in 2026 does not signal crisis; it signals the transition from viral expansion to mature platform scaling. The critical question for 2026–2027 is whether revenue growth (currently the most buoyant of the three CGVI™ components) can sustain itself as user growth normalizes.
Citation: Axis Intelligence Research. “ChatGPT Growth Velocity Index (CGVI™) 2024–2026.” Axis Intelligence, June 12, 2026. https://axis-intelligence.com/chatgpt-users-statistics/
Active Users — The Official Timeline
From Zero to One Billion: The Full WAU Growth Curve
ChatGPT’s ascent from zero to one billion monthly active users is the fastest consumer technology adoption in recorded history. For full context on the broader ChatGPT statistics landscape — including model capabilities, pricing tiers, and competitive benchmarks — see our comprehensive ChatGPT statistics hub.
The primary source for all official WAU figures is OpenAI’s own announcements, cross-referenced with Reuters, TechCrunch, and the OpenAI/NBER academic paper. No third-party estimations are treated as official unless OpenAI itself has confirmed the figure.
| Date | Weekly Active Users | Source | MoM Growth |
|---|---|---|---|
| Nov 2022 (launch) | ~0 | OpenAI | — |
| Jan 2023 | 100M MAU | Reuters / UBS Similarweb analysis | n/a |
| Aug 2024 | 200M WAU | OpenAI official | n/a |
| Dec 2024 | 300M WAU | OpenAI official | — |
| Feb 2025 | 400M WAU | OpenAI official | +33% |
| Mar 2025 | 500M WAU | OpenAI (via multiple reports) | +25% |
| Jul 2025 | 700M WAU | OpenAI / NBER WP34255 | +20% |
| Oct 2025 | 800M WAU | OpenAI official | +5% |
| Feb 2026 | 900M WAU | OpenAI (via TechCrunch, Feb 27, 2026) | +12.5% |
| May 2026 | 1B MAU (app) | Sensor Tower / Reuters, Jun 2, 2026 | ~+11% |
The February 2026 announcement — 900 million weekly active users — was made by OpenAI as part of its $110 billion private funding round disclosure. The milestone was confirmed independently by TechCrunch on February 27, 2026.
The 1 billion MAU figure (May 2026) is a Sensor Tower estimate for the ChatGPT mobile app specifically, reported by Reuters on June 2, 2026. OpenAI has not independently confirmed this figure in an official statement as of the publication date of this article, though the company has historically confirmed such milestones within days of market intelligence reports. The Sensor Tower methodology counts monthly active app users across iOS and Android; it does not include web-only users.
Key context for accurate interpretation: OpenAI reports WAU (weekly active users); Sensor Tower reports MAU (monthly active app users). These are not directly comparable. A user who opens ChatGPT once per week is counted in both; a user who opens it once per month is counted only in MAU. The 1 billion MAU figure includes users who may not be in the 900 million WAU count.
The Fastest App to 1 Billion Users in History
According to Sensor Tower data reported by Reuters, ChatGPT reached 1 billion monthly active app users in approximately 3 years — measured from the mobile app launch on iOS and Android in May 2023. For context:
| App | Time to 1 Billion MAU | Launch Year |
|---|---|---|
| ChatGPT (app) | ~3 years | 2023 |
| TikTok | ~5–6 years | 2016 (global) |
| ~6–7 years | 2010 | |
| YouTube | ~8 years | 2005 |
| Google Maps | ~8 years | 2005 |
| ~8+ years | 2004 |
Source: Sensor Tower, via Reuters, June 2, 2026.
The speed differential reflects several structural advantages: ChatGPT launched into a world already saturated with smartphone users, required zero social graph building (unlike Facebook or Instagram), offered immediate utility across all languages, and benefited from unprecedented media coverage that compressed awareness-to-trial cycles.
Web Traffic — The Semrush & Similarweb Data
Monthly Visits to chatgpt.com: 2023–2026
OpenAI does not publish web traffic statistics. The authoritative third-party sources are Semrush and Similarweb, which use panel-based clickstream methodologies across hundreds of millions of devices.
Per Semrush traffic analysis (cited in multiple primary Semrush publications) and Similarweb data points confirmed by OpenAI CEO Sam Altman in a public exchange in 2025:
| Period | Monthly Visits (chatgpt.com) | Source | Ranking |
|---|---|---|---|
| Jan 2023 | ~590M | Similarweb | — |
| Dec 2023 | ~1.6B | Similarweb | Top 20 globally |
| Jan 2025 | ~3.8B | Semrush | Top 10 globally |
| Aug 2025 | ~5.8B | Similarweb | Top 5 globally |
| Oct 2025 | ~6B (peak) | Fatjoe/Semrush synthesis | #5 globally |
| Jan 2026 | ~5.72B | Semrush | Top 5 globally |
| Apr 2026 | ~5.51B | DemandSage/Semrush | Top 5 globally |
According to the Semrush clickstream analysis of over 1 billion U.S. sessions published in April 2026, ChatGPT’s U.S. traffic plateaued near 1 billion monthly visits from late 2025 into early 2026, with year-over-year growth of 206% in outbound referral traffic — meaning ChatGPT is increasingly acting as a web traffic router, not just a destination. The full methodology and dataset are available at semrush.com/blog/chatgpt-search-insights/.
Year-over-year traffic growth: 48.67% YoY as of January 2026 — the highest of any site in the global top ten.
Daily visits: Approximately 193 million visits per day as of April 2026, per DemandSage analysis of Semrush data.
Cloudflare Radar ranking: chatgpt.com is ranked #10 globally among all domains — the only AI domain in the global top 20, per Cloudflare’s public ranking infrastructure. Semrush separately ranks it #5.
Revenue — From $100M to $25 Billion in 3.5 Years
OpenAI Revenue Trajectory
OpenAI’s revenue growth is among the fastest in enterprise software history. The confirmed data points come from Reuters reporting on OpenAI’s CFO statements, Sacra research, and OpenAI’s own disclosures.
| Period | Annualized Revenue | Source |
|---|---|---|
| 2022 | ~$100M | Multiple reports |
| 2023 | ~$1B | Business Insider |
| 2024 | ~$3.7–6B | Business Insider / Sacra |
| Jun 2025 | $10B ARR | OpenAI / Reuters |
| Oct 2025 | $20B ARR | OpenAI CFO (blog post) |
| Feb 2026 | $25B ARR | Reuters / Sacra |
| 2026 (target) | $29.4B | OpenAI internal projections |
Revenue has tripled year-over-year for three consecutive years. OpenAI’s CFO Sarah Friar disclosed the $20 billion ARR figure in a blog post in late 2025; Reuters confirmed the $25 billion figure by February 2026, representing a 150% increase over the June 2025 baseline in just eight months.
Revenue mix: Enterprise contracts now account for more than 40% of total revenue, per OpenAI’s own disclosures, and are on track to reach parity with consumer revenue by end of 2026. The ads pilot — launched in 2026 — reached $100 million in ARR in under six weeks.
Monthly run rate: OpenAI confirmed it is generating $2 billion per month in revenue as of early 2026.
Paying Subscribers: The 50 Million Milestone
OpenAI confirmed 50 million paying subscribers across all tiers in April 2026. Most published analyses still cite the 10 million figure, which reflects only ChatGPT Plus. The full subscriber landscape:
| Plan | Price | Subscribers (est.) | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| ChatGPT Plus | $20/month | ~42M (est.) | Largest consumer tier |
| ChatGPT Pro | $200/month | ~3M (est.) | 5.8% of B2C sales (Earnest Analytics) |
| ChatGPT Team | $25/user/month | Included in 9M business | Multi-seat |
| ChatGPT Enterprise | Custom | Included in 9M business | Large org deployment |
Additionally, OpenAI confirmed 9 million paying business users as of February 2026 — a 4× increase from September 2025 — and crossed 1 million business customers in November 2025.
In-app purchase revenue: ChatGPT generated $227 million in in-app purchases in February 2026 alone (iOS and Android), per app store intelligence. Over the 12-month period from March 2024 to March 2025, in-app revenue grew 591.6%.
How People Actually Use ChatGPT — The NBER Data
The most rigorous source on ChatGPT usage behavior is the NBER Working Paper 34255 (September 2025), produced by OpenAI’s Economic Research team in collaboration with Harvard economist David Deming. The study analyzed 1.5 million conversations across 700 million weekly users as of July 2025, using a privacy-preserving pipeline. It is the largest behavioral study of an AI consumer platform ever published.
Full paper: Chatterji, A., Cunningham, T., Deming, D.J., Hitzig, Z., Ong, C., Shan, C.Y., & Wadman, K. (2025). “How People Use ChatGPT.” NBER Working Paper 34255. DOI: 10.3386/w34255.
Usage by Conversation Type (July 2025)
| Message Type | Share of Usage | Trend |
|---|---|---|
| Asking (seeking guidance, information) | 49% | Growing |
| Doing (writing, coding, tasks) | 40% | Stable |
| Expressing (creative, self-expression) | 11% | Small |
Usage by Topic (Top Categories)
| Topic | Share of Conversations |
|---|---|
| Practical Guidance | ~28% |
| Seeking Information | ~26% |
| Writing | ~24% |
| Computer Programming | ~8% |
| Self-expression / creative | ~6% |
| Other | ~8% |
Work vs. personal: Non-work messages have grown from 53% to more than 70% of all usage — meaning ChatGPT’s use case has fundamentally shifted from a productivity tool to a general-purpose daily companion. Work usage remains more common among highly educated users in professional occupations.
Geographic trends: By May 2025, ChatGPT adoption growth rates in the lowest-income countries were over 4× those in the highest-income countries. The platform is no longer a developed-world phenomenon.
Gender shift: At launch, approximately 80% of ChatGPT users were male. By July 2025, more than 52% of users with classifiable names were women — a full demographic reversal in under 3 years.
Message volume: 18 billion messages per week as of July 2025 across 700 million users, equating to approximately 25.7 messages per user per week — a figure that appears nowhere in any single published source but is directly calculable from the NBER paper’s primary data. Axis Intelligence notes this as an original derived statistic.
OpenAI’s live behavioral dataset is updated regularly at openai.com/signals/data/, covering July 2024 through March 2026.
User Demographics
U.S. Adult Adoption — Pew Research Center Data
The authoritative source for U.S. consumer adoption is the Pew Research Center’s American Trends Panel, which surveyed 5,123 U.S. adults from February 24 to March 2, 2025.
Key findings from Pew Research Center, June 25, 2025:
| Metric | 2023 | 2025 | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| U.S. adults who have used ChatGPT | ~18% | 34% | +16pp |
| Employed adults using for work | 8% | 28% | +20pp |
| Used for learning | 8% | 26% | +18pp |
| Under-30 who have used it | ~35% | 58% | +23pp |
| 50+ who have used it | ~10% | ~22% | +12pp |
ChatGPT awareness among U.S. adults reached 80% by early 2025. Among employed adults aged 18–29, 38% have used ChatGPT at work, dropping to 30% for ages 30–49 and 18% for 50+, per Pew Research Center data updated in March 2026.
Teen usage: The Pew Research Center survey of 1,458 U.S. teens (ages 13–17, September–October 2025) found that roughly two-thirds of American teens report using AI chatbots, with approximately three-in-ten doing so daily. About 62% of teens in households earning $75,000 or more use ChatGPT, compared to 52% in lower-income households. Full report: pewresearch.org/internet/2025/12/09/teens-social-media-and-ai-chatbots-2025/.
Global Traffic Distribution
Per Similarweb analysis (August 2025):
| Country/Region | Share of ChatGPT Web Traffic |
|---|---|
| United States | ~15.1% |
| India | #2 (fastest-growing major market) |
| Brazil | ~5.3% |
| Other | ~79.6% |
The U.S. leads by traffic share but its relative dominance is shrinking as emerging markets drive the majority of new user growth. India has become the most strategically significant growth market, with ChatGPT confirming 100 million weekly active users in India as of February 2026.
Age and Gender Demographics (Semrush/OpenAI Data)
- Age distribution: 46.7% of ChatGPT users are aged 18–24 — nearly double Google’s 24.7% for the same age group (Semrush Trends, 2025)
- Gender split (2026): Approximately 52% women / 48% men — reversed from the ~80% male at launch in 2022
- Dominant web demographic: Males aged 25–34 (Similarweb, April 2026), reflecting the web-first power-user cohort that differs from the broader app user base
Enterprise Adoption
ChatGPT’s enterprise trajectory is as significant as its consumer story. Per OpenAI’s State of Enterprise AI 2025 report and subsequent confirmations:
| Metric | Figure | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Fortune 500 companies using ChatGPT | 92% | OpenAI State of Enterprise AI 2025 |
| Enterprise workplace seats | 7M+ | OpenAI (Feb 2026) |
| YoY enterprise seat growth | ~9× | OpenAI |
| Paying business users | 9M+ | OpenAI (Feb 2026) |
| Business customers (organizations) | 1M+ | OpenAI (Nov 2025) |
| Enterprise share of total revenue | 40%+ | OpenAI (2026) |
The enterprise adoption rate — 92% of Fortune 500 — is the most frequently cited corporate AI statistic in 2026 and positions ChatGPT not as a consumer experiment but as operational infrastructure for the largest companies on earth.
Competitive Context — AI Market Share
Axis Intelligence’s cross-analysis of Sensor Tower, Similarweb, and Goodie Wave 2 data (January–April 2026, covering 25.77 billion visits across the top 5 AI surfaces) produces the following AI chatbot market snapshot as of Q2 2026:
| Platform | WAU/MAU | YoY Growth | B2B AI Referral Share | Web Traffic |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ChatGPT | 900M WAU / 1B MAU | +125% WAU | 63% (down from 89%) | ~5.5B visits/mo |
| Gemini | ~750M MAU | High (30% quarterly) | ~20% (up from 5%) | Growing fast |
| Claude | 56M MAU | +640% YoY | 18.5% (up from 1.4%) | Rising |
| Perplexity | ~100M+ | +370% YoY | ~8% | Growing |
Sources: Sensor Tower via Reuters (June 2, 2026); Goodie Wave 2 AI Search Traffic Report (May 2026); Similarweb.
The competitive landscape has shifted materially since 2025. ChatGPT’s B2B AI referral share dropped from 89% to 63% in eight months. Claude’s share rose from 1.4% to 18.5%. This does not reflect declining ChatGPT traffic in absolute terms — it reflects the emergence of a multi-platform AI ecosystem where users split across tools depending on task type.
According to Axis Intelligence’s cross-analysis of Sensor Tower and Similarweb data, ChatGPT still commands more absolute monthly visits than the next four AI platforms combined — a dominance that no single metric captures but that the cross-source synthesis makes clear.
Methodology
Data Collection
This report synthesizes data from the following primary sources:
- OpenAI official announcements — All WAU figures are sourced from OpenAI’s own public blog posts, press releases, and investor communications, cross-referenced via TechCrunch (techcrunch.com), Reuters, and the OpenAI blog at openai.com.
- NBER Working Paper 34255 — “How People Use ChatGPT” (Chatterji et al., September 2025). DOI: 10.3386/w34255. The primary source for behavioral usage data, message volume, and demographic trends. Methodology: privacy-preserving analysis of 1.5 million conversations from 700 million weekly users.
- Pew Research Center — American Trends Panel surveys. February–March 2025 survey (N=5,123 U.S. adults): pewresearch.org/short-reads/2025/06/25/34-of-us-adults-have-used-chatgpt-about-double-the-share-in-2023/. December 2025 teen survey (N=1,458 teens 13–17): pewresearch.org/internet/2025/12/09/teens-social-media-and-ai-chatbots-2025/.
- Sensor Tower / Reuters — 1 billion MAU milestone (June 2, 2026); competitive mobile app comparisons. Reuters article: reuters.com.
- Semrush clickstream analysis — 1 billion+ U.S. sessions analyzed, October 2024–February 2026. Published: semrush.com/blog/chatgpt-search-insights/, April 2026.
- OpenAI Signals Data portal — Live behavioral data covering July 2024–March 2026: openai.com/signals/data/.
CGVI™ Calculation Transparency
The ChatGPT Growth Velocity Index (CGVI™) is an original Axis Intelligence calculation. It averages three independently sourced growth percentages — WAU growth (OpenAI), web traffic growth (Semrush), and revenue growth (Reuters/OpenAI) — for each comparable period. Limitations: (a) not all three metrics are available for every period; (b) WAU and MAU are not directly comparable across time; (c) Q2 2026 figures include Sensor Tower/Reuters estimates not yet confirmed by OpenAI directly; (d) revenue growth percentages reflect ARR run rate, not audited revenue.
25.7 Messages Per User Per Week — Derived Statistic
The NBER WP34255 states: “18 billion messages were being sent each week by 700 million users” (as of July 2025). Dividing 18 billion by 700 million yields 25.71 messages per user per week. This calculation does not appear in the NBER paper itself; Axis Intelligence derives it from primary data. It should be cited as: “Axis Intelligence calculation from NBER Working Paper 34255 primary data.”
Limitations
- OpenAI’s WAU figures cover all platforms (web, app, API); Sensor Tower’s MAU figure covers the mobile app only — these are complementary, not redundant
- Semrush and Similarweb panel methodologies differ; traffic figures from each may diverge by 20–30%
- Revenue figures reflect annualized run rates unless stated otherwise; OpenAI does not publish audited financials
- Competitive market share data reflects AI referral traffic to publisher sites (Goodie Wave 2), not total platform usage
About This Dataset
Dataset title: ChatGPT Active Users & Traffic Statistics 2026
Publisher: Axis Intelligence Research Desk
Coverage: Global, November 2022 – June 2026
Update cadence: Quarterly (next: Q3 2026, September 2026)
License: Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)
Download: axis-intelligence.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/chatgpt-users-statistics-2026.csv
Citation Block
APA:
Axis Intelligence Research Desk, & Mitchell, S. (2026, June 12). ChatGPT has 1 billion users: Active users, traffic & growth statistics (June 2026). Axis Intelligence. https://axis-intelligence.com/chatgpt-users-statistics/
MLA:
Axis Intelligence Research Desk and Sarah Mitchell. “ChatGPT Has 1 Billion Users: Active Users, Traffic & Growth Statistics (June 2026).” Axis Intelligence, 12 June 2026, axis-intelligence.com/chatgpt-users-statistics/.
Chicago:
Axis Intelligence Research Desk and Sarah Mitchell. “ChatGPT Has 1 Billion Users: Active Users, Traffic & Growth Statistics (June 2026).” Axis Intelligence, June 12, 2026. https://axis-intelligence.com/chatgpt-users-statistics/.
Frequently Asked Questions
How many users does ChatGPT have in 2026?
ChatGPT has 1 billion monthly active app users as of May 2026, per Sensor Tower estimates reported by Reuters on June 2, 2026 — making it the fastest app in history to reach that milestone. OpenAI separately confirmed 900 million weekly active users in February 2026. Note that WAU (weekly active users, OpenAI’s preferred metric) and MAU (monthly active app users, Sensor Tower’s metric) measure different things and should not be directly compared.
How many weekly active users does ChatGPT have?
900 million weekly active users were confirmed by OpenAI on February 27, 2026, announced alongside the company’s $110 billion private funding round. This figure more than doubled the 400 million WAU reported in February 2025, representing 125% growth in 12 months.
How much web traffic does ChatGPT receive?
ChatGPT received approximately 5.51 billion monthly visits in April 2026, down slightly from the all-time peak of approximately 6 billion in October 2025. Semrush ranks chatgpt.com as the 5th most visited website globally; Cloudflare Radar ranks it #10. Year-over-year traffic growth was 48.67% as of January 2026 — the highest of any site in the global top ten.
How fast did ChatGPT grow?
ChatGPT reached 1 million users in 5 days, 100 million monthly active users in 2 months (the fastest consumer app ever at that time), 400 million weekly active users by February 2025, and 1 billion monthly active app users by May 2026 — roughly 3 years after its mobile app launch. For comparison, TikTok and Instagram took 5–7 years to reach 1 billion users.
How much revenue does ChatGPT generate?
OpenAI — ChatGPT’s parent company — generated $25 billion in annualized revenue by February 2026, up from $10 billion ARR in June 2025 and $100 million in 2022. The company confirmed $2 billion per month in monthly revenue in early 2026 and has 50 million paying subscribers across all tiers as of April 2026.
How do people use ChatGPT?
According to the NBER Working Paper 34255 (Chatterji et al., 2025), the largest-ever behavioral study of a consumer AI platform: 49% of messages are “Asking” (seeking guidance or information), 40% are “Doing” (writing, coding, task completion), and 11% are “Expressing” (creative or self-expression). Non-work messages now account for more than 70% of all usage, up from 53% at launch. The three most common conversation topics are Practical Guidance, Seeking Information, and Writing — collectively accounting for ~78% of all conversations.
What percentage of Americans use ChatGPT?
34% of U.S. adults have used ChatGPT as of February–March 2025, per Pew Research Center’s American Trends Panel (N=5,123). That is roughly double the 18% figure from 2023. Among employed adults, 28% use it for work — up 20 percentage points in two years. Among adults under 30, 58% have used it.
Who are ChatGPT’s main competitors?
As of Q2 2026: Google Gemini (approximately 750 million monthly active users), Anthropic Claude (56 million MAU, +640% YoY), and Perplexity (100+ million monthly visits, +370% YoY) are the primary challengers. While ChatGPT retains dominant share in web traffic and absolute users, its B2B AI referral market share has dropped from 89% to 63% since late 2025, as the AI platform ecosystem fragments into a multi-tool landscape.
What is the ChatGPT Growth Velocity Index (CGVI™)?
The CGVI™ is an original proprietary metric developed by Axis Intelligence Research Desk. It averages the month-over-month growth rates of three independently sourced metrics — WAU (OpenAI), web traffic (Semrush), and annualized revenue (Reuters/OpenAI) — into a unified velocity score. The CGVI™ peaked at 162.0 in the Aug 2024–Feb 2025 period and stands at approximately 12.0 in Q2 2026, reflecting ChatGPT’s transition from explosive viral growth to mature platform scaling. Full methodology is in this article and in the downloadable dataset.
Embed Block — Cite This Research
Copy the HTML below to embed the Axis Intelligence CGVI™ table on your site with automatic attribution:
<div style="border:1px solid #e5e7eb;border-radius:8px;padding:16px;max-width:660px;font-family:sans-serif;">
<p style="font-size:12px;color:#6b7280;margin:0 0 8px;">SOURCE: Axis Intelligence Research — CGVI™</p>
<p style="font-size:21px;font-weight:700;margin:0 0 4px;">ChatGPT: 1B MAU, 900M WAU, $25B ARR</p>
<p style="font-size:13px;margin:0 0 12px;">ChatGPT Growth Velocity Index (CGVI™) — cross-source severity score combining OpenAI WAU, Semrush traffic, and Reuters revenue data (2024–2026)</p>
<table style="width:100%;border-collapse:collapse;font-size:12px;">
<tr style="background:#f3f4f6;"><th style="padding:6px;text-align:left;">Period</th><th>WAU MoM%</th><th>Traffic MoM%</th><th>Rev MoM%</th><th>CGVI™</th></tr>
<tr><td style="padding:6px;">Aug 2024–Feb 2025</td><td>+100%</td><td>+40%</td><td>+200%</td><td><strong>113.3</strong></td></tr>
<tr style="background:#f9fafb;"><td style="padding:6px;">Feb 2025–Oct 2025</td><td>+100%</td><td>+30%</td><td>+100%</td><td><strong>76.7</strong></td></tr>
<tr><td style="padding:6px;">Oct 2025–Feb 2026</td><td>+12.5%</td><td>+8%</td><td>+25%</td><td><strong>15.2</strong></td></tr>
<tr style="background:#f9fafb;"><td style="padding:6px;font-weight:700;">Q2 2026</td><td>~+11%</td><td>~+5%</td><td>~+20%</td><td><strong>~12.0</strong></td></tr>
</table>
<p style="font-size:11px;color:#9ca3af;margin:10px 0 0;">Sources: OpenAI announcements · Semrush (semrush.com/blog/chatgpt-search-insights/) · Reuters.
Full methodology: <a href="https://axis-intelligence.com/chatgpt-users-statistics/" style="color:#2563eb;">axis-intelligence.com</a></p>
</div>
Every embed creates a do-follow link back to this article. For researchers, journalists, or platforms seeking data licensing, citation collaboration, or to flag updated figures, contact [email protected].
Vendors, AI platform teams, or academic researchers seeking to contribute primary data, suggest corrections, or be considered for inclusion in future Axis Intelligence AI statistics reports should contact [email protected].