ChatGPT Hits 1 Billion Users Faster Than Any App in History

ChatGPT Hits 1 Billion Users Faster Than Any App in History

OpenAI’s ChatGPT app reached 1 billion global monthly active users faster than any other app, Reuters reported Tuesday (June 2), citing data from Sensor Tower.

The ChatGPT app reached that milestone in May, about three years after its launch, according to the report. The app is seeing year-over-year growth of 62%.

Anthropic’s Claude app had 56 million global monthly active users and was seeing year-over-year growth of about 640%, Sensor Tower found, per the report.

Seeking Alpha reported Tuesday that Sensor Tower said it took between five and eight years for Google’s Maps, Chrome, YouTube, Meta’s Messenger and TikTok apps to reach 1 billion global monthly active users.

OpenAI began rolling out its ChatGPT apps in May 2023, starting with one for iOS in the United States and later expanding it to other countries and adding one for Android.

“Since the release of ChatGPT, we’ve heard from users that they love using ChatGPT on the go,” OpenAI said at the time.

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It was reported in December that as of that time, consumers had spent over $3 billion in the ChatGPT app since it was launched, with $2.5 billion of that total being spent in 2025 alone.

In that report, Appfigures said the speed with which the ChatGPT app reached the $3 billion milestone in mobile consumer spending was faster than TikTok and major streaming apps.

Also in December, OpenAI opened its ChatGPT App Directory, which is a marketplace of third-party applications that run directly within the ChatGPT interface. The ChatGPT app store, accessible via the tools menu in ChatGPT or at chatgpt.com/apps, includes integrations that bring services from major brands directly into the AI chat experience.

It was reported in March that OpenAI was preparing to combine its ChatGPT app, Codex coding platform and browser into a desktop “super app” as part of a push to make ChatGPT more central to how people work on their computers.

According to that report, the move is meant to simplify the user experience while helping the company sharpen its focus on engineering and business customers at a moment when competition in enterprise AI is intensifying.