New Delhi: ChatGPT has crossed 1 billion global monthly active app users, making it the fastest app to reach the milestone, according to estimates from
market intelligence firm Sensor Tower, as reported by Reuters. The number shows how quickly AI chatbots have moved from tech circles into daily use.
The OpenAI chatbot reached the mark in May 2026, roughly three years after its launch. Sensor Tower said ChatGPT grew faster than Google Maps, TikTok, Instagram and YouTube on its way to the 1 billion monthly active users club.
ChatGPT hits 1 billion users as AI apps go mainstream
For many users, ChatGPT has now become a daily tool. Some use it for emails. Some use it for coding. Students use it for notes. Office workers use it to clean up presentations. A lot of people, frankly, use it like that one friend who can explain things without making it painful.
ChatGPT had already made history when it crossed100 million users by January 2023, within two months of launch. Now, with over 1 billion monthly active app users, it has become one of the biggest consumer tech stories of recent years.
Claude is still smaller, but growing fast
The AI app race is getting more serious. Sensor Tower estimates that Anthropic’s Claude had 56 million global monthly active app users in the second quarter so far. That is much smaller than ChatGPT, but Claude’s year-on-year growth stood at around 640 per cent, compared with ChatGPT’s 62 per cent growth.
Sensor Tower also found that US users who installed Claude in the first quarter of 2026 spent 5 per cent less time on ChatGPT one month later, compared with their average usage in the previous eight months.
Downloads show the AI race is opening up
ChatGPT remains the top AI app globally. Among six major AI apps tracked by Sensor Tower, ChatGPT held 47 per cent of worldwide downloads in the second quarter of 2026 so far, down from 67 percent a year earlier, according to insights analyst Kara Lee, as reported by Forbes.
Google’s Gemini had 22 per cent of AI app downloads in the quarter so far, down from its peak of 34 per cent in the fourth quarter of 2025. Claude rose to 14 per cent, from just 1 per cent in each quarter of 2025.
IPO talk adds a business angle
The user race comes at a busy time for AI companies. Anthropic has confidentially filed for a US initial public offering, while Reuters has reported that OpenAI is also preparing to file for an IPO in the coming weeks.
No longer a niche experiment, AI apps are now fighting for time, downloads, money and trust on the same phones people use for maps, videos, shopping and chats.
