ChatGPT hits 900 million weekly users Copy

ChatGPT now has 900 million weekly active users globally, the company announced. That is up 100 million from the 800 million reported in October 2025, marking a 13% increase in less than five months.

This growth puts ChatGPT on pace to reach 1 billion weekly users. OpenAI’s VP and head of the ChatGPT product team, Nick Turley, said on X that “for a lot of people, ChatGPT is where they start with AI — writing, building, doing research, planning trips, shopping, or getting tasks done.” 

OpenAI is betting that user growth supports its ad strategy

OpenAI is betting its scale can unlock an ad business. The company has begun testing ad placements inside ChatGPT’s free and Go tiers in the U.S., where sponsored units appear below chatbot responses and are clearly labeled as ads.

User growth alone does not create an ad business. However, scale is an important requirement. At 900 million weekly users, OpenAI can argue it has the audience size to support a meaningful advertising surface with global reach.

That number moves it into the range where media planners start paying attention. Large advertisers require scale before allocating serious budgets. OpenAI now has a metric that meets that threshold.

More importantly, ChatGPT is increasingly used for searches, product comparisons, recommendations, and research. This intent-rich behavior resembles search advertising more than social media scrolling. If ads are integrated alongside responses in those high-intent moments, OpenAI would be positioning itself closer to performance marketing budgets.

The growth announcement strengthens that pitch. Reach plus intent is the foundation of search advertising economics. OpenAI appears to be signaling that it now has both. With 900 million weekly users, it can now present itself to advertisers as a scaled AI search surface rather than a niche assistant.

Growth also strengthens its commerce push

The same growth logic applies to commerce. OpenAI has been developing Instant Checkout within ChatGPT. The feature allows users to complete purchases directly inside the chat interface instead of being redirected to an external site.

Checkout tools only matter if merchants believe the platform has enough users to drive sales. A small audience does not justify integration work. A 900 million weekly audience could change that calculation.

OpenAI is effectively betting that its scale can attract merchants. If users are asking ChatGPT for product advice, comparing options, and then seeing a path to purchase in the same session, the platform begins to resemble a full-funnel environment. Query, recommendation, and transaction happen in one flow.

This is where comparisons matter. Google is pushing its UCP tool across shopping experiences. Perplexity has experimented with commerce features tied to AI answers. Each company is trying to shorten the path from question to purchase.

With 900 million weekly active users, OpenAI can now tell merchants it has the traffic base to support direct transactions. User growth gives weight to its commerce push.

Paid depth strengthens monetization options

The paying side of ChatGPT’s user base is also expanding. The company now reports 50 million paying subscribers across consumption tiers. This includes traditional consumer subscriptions such as Plus and Pro, though OpenAI does not break out exact plans or pricing tiers in its announcement. 

According to the company, subscriber momentum accelerated at the start of the year, with January and February set to be the largest months for new paid additions in its history.  On the business side, OpenAI said more than 9 million business users now rely on ChatGPT and its enterprise offerings for workflows spanning writing, coding, operations, and customer support.

A large subscription base shows users are willing to pay for enhanced access. That diversifies revenue beyond ads. It also creates a segmented environment where premium tiers may remain ad-free while free tiers carry ads.

Investment signals long-term buildout

The growth update came alongside a major funding announcement. OpenAI said it has secured $110 billion in new investment at a $730 billion pre-money valuation. The round includes $30 billion from SoftBank, $30 billion from NVIDIA, and $50 billion from Amazon.

The company also said it signed a strategic partnership with Amazon and secured next-generation inference compute with NVIDIA. Additional financial investors are expected to join as the round progresses.