ChatGPT Statistics 2026: Users, Usage, and Revenue
1 billion people use ChatGPT every week, as of August 2026 (OpenAI, 2026). In the United States, 44% of adults say they use it, up from 34% a year earlier (Pew Research Center, 2026). OpenAI ended 2025 with more than $20 billion in annualized revenue (OpenAI, January 2026).
ChatGPT numbers go stale within months, and the most repeated ones mix weekly users (what OpenAI reports) with monthly users and site visits (what outside firms estimate). Every figure below carries its month.
How many people use ChatGPT
1 billion weekly users: “Every week, 1 billion people turn to ChatGPT,” OpenAI wrote on August 6, 2026 (OpenAI, 2026).
900 million weekly active users was the figure on February 27, 2026 (OpenAI, 2026).
800 million weekly users was what Sam Altman announced on stage on October 6, 2025 (TechCrunch, 2025).
700 million weekly users in July 2025, about 10% of the world’s adult population (OpenAI and NBER, “How People Use ChatGPT”, 2025).
400 million weekly active users in February 2025, up 33% from 300 million in December 2024, per OpenAI’s chief operating officer (CNBC, 2025).
100 million weekly users in November 2023, announced by Altman at OpenAI’s first developer conference (The Verge, 2023).
Where “100 million users in two months” comes from
The figure is a third-party estimate of monthly users, not an OpenAI number. On February 1, 2023, Reuters reported that ChatGPT “is estimated to have reached 100 million monthly active users in January, just two months after launch,” citing a UBS analyst note built on Similarweb traffic data. The same note estimated about 13 million unique daily visitors that month. OpenAI’s own 100 million figure came nine months later, and it counted weekly users.
How many messages ChatGPT handles per day
More than 2.5 billion messages a day, about 29,000 per second, were being sent on consumer plans by July 2025 (OpenAI and NBER, 2025). The same paper counts 18 billion messages a week.
451 million messages a day was the June 2024 volume, so daily use grew almost sixfold in a year (OpenAI and NBER, 2025).
What people use ChatGPT for
73% of consumer ChatGPT messages in June 2025 were not related to work, up from 53% in June 2024 (OpenAI and NBER, 2025). The study covers consumer plans only.
Nearly 80% of conversations fall into three topics: Practical Guidance, Seeking Information, and Writing (OpenAI and NBER, 2025).
40% of work-related messages in June 2025 were Writing, the most common work use. About two-thirds of those asked ChatGPT to edit the user’s own text instead of writing from scratch (OpenAI and NBER, 2025).
4.2% of messages are about computer programming, and 1.9% are about relationships and personal reflection (OpenAI and NBER, 2025).
52% of users with a classifiable first name had a typically feminine name by July 2025, up from 37% in January 2024 (OpenAI summary of the study, 2025). 46% of messages from users who reported their age came from people 18 to 25 (OpenAI and NBER, 2025).
Who uses ChatGPT in the United States
44% of U.S. adults say they use ChatGPT, against 34% in 2025, 23% in 2024, and 18% in 2023 (Pew, 2026, surveyed February 17 to 23, 2026). Pew changed the question wording in 2026.
61% of adults under 30 use it, along with 55% of those 30 to 49, 37% of those 50 to 64, and 19% of those 65 and older (Pew age breakdown, 2026).
28% of employed U.S. adults said in 2025 that they use ChatGPT for work, up 20 points in two years (Pew, 2025). More in AI in the workplace statistics.
ChatGPT market share and traffic rank
79.4% of AI chatbot share worldwide belonged to ChatGPT in August 2026, with Google Gemini second at 10.9% (StatCounter, 2026). StatCounter counts page views referred to sites running its tracker, so this measures traffic chatbots send to websites, not time spent chatting.
44% versus 24%. U.S. adults use ChatGPT far more than Gemini (24%) or Copilot (17%) (Pew, 2026).
Fifth most visited website in the world in August 2026, according to Similarweb’s public ranking. Semrush ranks chatgpt.com fourth, with an estimated 6.58 billion visits in August 2026. Both are outside estimates of visits, not users.
ChatGPT at work: business seats and enterprise use
More than 9 million paying business users relied on ChatGPT for work in February 2026 (OpenAI, 2026), up from 2 million paying enterprise users in February 2025 (CNBC, 2025).
More than 1 million business customers used OpenAI’s tools in December 2025, and weekly ChatGPT Enterprise messages had grown roughly 8x since November 2024 (OpenAI, “The state of enterprise AI”, 2025). By July 2026 the count was above two million businesses (OpenAI, 2026).
40 to 60 minutes a day is what ChatGPT Enterprise users say AI saves them, and 75% of surveyed workers say it improved the speed or quality of their output (OpenAI, 2025). OpenAI sells the product, so read it as such. Plans are compared in ChatGPT for business.
Paying subscribers and OpenAI revenue
More than 50 million consumer subscribers paid for ChatGPT in February 2026 (OpenAI, 2026). Against 900 million weekly users at the time, that is about 6% paying.
$2 billion, $6 billion, $20 billion+. OpenAI’s annualized revenue at the end of 2023, 2024, and 2025, as stated by its CFO in January 2026 (OpenAI, 2026). The totals include API sales, not ChatGPT alone.
More than $40 billion in annualized revenue by August 2026 is a press figure, not a company statement: it was reported by Bloomberg on August 13, 2026.
Teens, students, and ChatGPT
59% of U.S. teens ages 13 to 17 use ChatGPT, more than twice the share using Gemini (23%) or Meta AI (20%) (Pew, December 2025).
26% of teens had used ChatGPT for schoolwork, double the 13% of 2023 (Pew, January 2025). Only 18% say it is acceptable to use it to write essays.
How much people trust AI chatbot answers
20% of people across the markets surveyed trust news from AI chatbots, against 37% who trust most news most of the time. Among chatbot users it is 44% (Reuters Institute Digital News Report, 2026). The question covers all chatbots, not ChatGPT alone.
From asking ChatGPT to having the work done
Writing is the top work use of ChatGPT. The next step many users want is for the reply to get sent, the meeting booked, and the follow-up to go out on the right day. Carly is an AI assistant that handles email, scheduling and follow-up, and the Carly plugin makes it available inside ChatGPT. Carly connects to thousands of apps. See ChatGPT connectors and AI agent statistics.
FAQ
How many people use ChatGPT? 1 billion people use ChatGPT every week as of August 2026 (OpenAI, 2026). That is up from 900 million in February 2026, 400 million in February 2025, and 100 million in November 2023.
Did ChatGPT really reach 100 million users in two months? That figure is an estimate of monthly users from a UBS analyst note based on Similarweb data, reported by Reuters on February 1, 2023. OpenAI’s own 100 million figure, in November 2023, counted weekly users.
What do people use ChatGPT for? 73% of consumer messages in June 2025 were not about work, and nearly 80% of conversations were Practical Guidance, Seeking Information, or Writing. Writing made up 40% of work-related messages (OpenAI and NBER, 2025).
How much revenue does ChatGPT make? OpenAI reports company-wide revenue only. It says it ended 2025 with more than $20 billion in annualized revenue, up from $6 billion in 2024 (OpenAI, January 2026). Bloomberg reported a run rate above $40 billion in August 2026. OpenAI counted more than 50 million consumer subscribers in February 2026.
Related: AI in the Workplace Statistics · Chatbot Statistics · AI Agent Statistics · AI Replacing Jobs Statistics · Small Business AI Statistics
Ready to automate your busywork?
Carly schedules, researches, and briefs you—so you can focus on what matters.
See what people say
"Before Carly, I relied on a Calendly link, but the whole process felt impersonal and not very professional. Carly changed that by handling all the back-and-forth, so I'm no longer stuck in endless email threads trying to line up schedules.
Now Carly reaches out to candidates, shares my real-time availability, lets them pick a slot, then sends a Zoom link and drops it straight into my calendar. She sends reminders to both of us before each call, which has significantly reduced no-shows and last-minute confusion.
On top of scheduling, Carly acts like a full executive assistant, sending me my schedule the night before so I can prepare for each call. It reminds me of the old x.ai assistant, but Carly is noticeably smarter, faster, and better suited to my healthcare recruitment business."


