ChatGPT was the chatbot that kickstarted the generative AI revolution, which has been responsible for hundreds of billions of dollars in data centres, graphics chips and AI startups.
Launched by startup OpenAI, ChatGPT was an immediate success, reaching 100 million users in less than two months. The tool has been used by workers, students and people of all walks of life, as a search engine, essay reader and content creation tool, amongst many other use cases.
For those unaware, OpenAI is a research laboratory founded by some of the biggest names in tech such as Elon Musk, Reid Hoffman, Peter Thiel, and Sam Altman. It has created a lot of press due to its breadth of capabilities, from answering questions and following up on secondary queries, to writing essays, to being a coding buddy.
ChatGPT is built on top of OpenAI’s GPT large language model, which is still considered the most sophisticated model available for general use. It is also a foundational model, as the framework for all three of OpenAI’s consumer AI apps: ChatGPT, DALL-E, and Codex.
Even though ChatGPT is far from a complete product, with OpenAI CEO Sam Altman saying on Twitter that it is “incredibly limited” and “a mistake to rely on it for anything important”, many have used it as a tool to automate emails, essays and a few news sites have even used the tool to write content for them (Business of Apps is not one of those).
Demand for ChatGPT has been far greater than OpenAI expected. To monetize that demand, OpenAI launched ChatGPT Plus for $20 per month, which provides subscribers with access to ChatGPT even at peak times, faster response time, and priority access to new features.
Running an AI chatbot at this scale is not cheap, with OpenAI burning through billions of funds every year to power its generative AI service. It has received hundreds of billions in funding from Microsoft, SoftBank and Nvidia, among others, to improve its chatbot and build data centers to power it.
Even though other tech giants have launched their own chatbots, such as Google’s Gemini, Microsoft’s Copilot and Meta AI, ChatGPT remains the most widely used.
We have collected data and statistics on ChatGPT. Read on below to find out more. Want to dig deeper? Check out our AI app report.
ChatGPT Key Statistics
- ChatGPT generated $2.7 billion for OpenAI in 2024, a 285% increase on the previous year
- ChatGPT has 700 million active users, who access the app once a week
- ChatGPT set a record as the fastest app to reach 100 million active users, reaching that milestone in two months
- OpenAI said ChatGPT had “tens of millions” of subscribers, which we estimate to be 20 million
- ChatGPT was downloaded 350 million times in the first half of 2025 and is on track to be the most downloaded app of 2025
- OpenAI has been most recently valued at $500 billion
AI App Report 2025
Want to learn more about the AI app industry? Our AI App report offers insights on app financials, market share, users, installs, demographics and benchmarking data.
- Charts: 61
- Data Points: 966
- Apps covered: 23
ChatGPT Overview
| Title | Title 2 |
|---|---|
| Launch date | December 2015 |
| HQ | San Francisco, California |
| People | Sam Altman (CEO, co-founder), Greg Brockman (President, co-founder) |
| Business type | Private |
| Industry | AI |
ChatGPT Revenue
ChatGPT made OpenAI $2.7 billion revenue in 2024, accounting for about 75% of the company’s total revenues.
ChatGPT revenue 2022 to 2024 ($mm)
| Year | Revenue ($mm) |
|---|---|
| 2022 | 100 |
| 2023 | 700 |
| 2024 | 2300 |
Sources: Reuters, The Information
ChatGPT Users
ChatGPT reached 100 million users in two months and reached 700 million by the start of 2025.
ChatGPT active users 2022 to 2025 (mm)
| Date | Users (mm) |
|---|---|
| December 2022 | 1 |
| January 2023 | 57 |
| February 2023 | 100 |
| September 2023 | 150 |
| August 2024 | 200 |
| October 2024 | 250 |
| December 2024 | 300 |
| March 2025 | 500 |
| September 2025 | 700 |
| October 2025 | 800 |
Sources: Bloomberg, CBS, Reuters
ChatGPT Subscribers
ChatGPT has an estimated 20 million subscribers across all of its pro services.
ChatGPT subscribers 2023 to 2025 (mm)
| Date | Subscribers (mm) |
|---|---|
| H2 2023 | 0.5 |
| H1 2024 | 9.8 |
| H2 2024 | 16.5 |
| H1 2025 | 20 |
Source: Company data
ChatGPT Downloads
ChatGPT quickly became one of the most popular apps on both app stores, regularly hitting the top ten most downloaded apps in the world charts.
ChatGPT downloads 2023 to 2024 (mm)
| Date | Downloads (mm) |
|---|---|
| H1 2023 | 13 |
| H2 2023 | 90 |
| H1 2024 | 105 |
| H2 2024 | 174 |
| H1 2025 | 350 |
Sources: Appfigures, AppMagic
OpenAI Valuation
OpenAI has seen its valuation rapidly increase over the past two years, with a recent private sale of shares valuing the company at $500 billion.
OpenAI valuation 2022 to 2025 ($bn)
| Date | Valuation ($bn) |
|---|---|
| December 2022 | 20 |
| February 2023 | 29 |
| February 2024 | 80 |
| October 2024 | 157 |
| May 2025 | 300 |
| August 2025 | 500 |
Source: CNBC
OpenAI Funding Rounds
OpenAI has had 10 funding rounds, although the latest was a debt financing round rather than the typical investment round. It has received over $22 billion from these funding rounds, and probably a few million more from the undisclosed ones.
OpenAI funding rounds 2016 to 2025
| Date | Funding | Lead investors |
|---|---|---|
| Mar 2025 | $40bn | SoftBank |
| Oct 2024 | $4bn | |
| Oct 2024 | $6.6bn | Thrive Capital |
| Apr 2024 | Undisclosed | |
| Feb 2024 | Undisclosed | Thrive Capital |
| Apr 2023 | $300m | Andreesen Horowitz, K2 Global, Sequoia Capital, Thrive Capital |
| Jan 2023 | $10bn | Microsoft |
| Jan 2021 | Undisclosed | Tiger Global Management |
| July 2019 | $1bn | Microsoft |
| Mar 2019 | Undisclosed | Khosla Ventures, Reid Hoffman Foundation |
| Aug 2016 | 120k | Y Combinator |
Source: Crunchbase
AI App Market Landscape
The AI app market is surging, with thousands of apps integrating AI models into their products and major AI apps receiving hundred billion dollar valuations. ChatGPT and its model GPT are at the forefront of this revolution, as two of the most popular tools available. You can download this map as a PDF, which includes a landscape version.
AI App Users
Over 950 million people use AI apps worldwide, with ChatGPT being the most widely used.
AI app users 2021 to 2025 (mm)
Want to learn more about AI apps? Check out the AI App Report
ChatGPT FAQ
How much does it cost to run ChatGPT?
Some have estimated it would cost $3 million per month for OpenAI to run ChatGPT, although that was in December when there was far less traffic (Tom Goldstein)
How much of a stake does Elon Musk have in OpenAI?
Elon Musk sold his entire stake of OpenAI to Microsoft in 2018 and is not affiliated with the company (Bisma Farrukh)
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