ChatGPT is on track to reach 700 million weekly active users
OpenAI says the platform's active users have gone up nearly 4 times since last year.
It's wild to think how quickly ChatGPT became a staple app, but here we are. OpenAI says it's on track to hit 700 million weekly active users this week, up from 500 million in March 2025 and a fourfold rise compared to the same time last year. That kind of growth rivals the explosive adoption seen by apps like Zoom at its peak.
And it’s not just casual browsers. Just last week, COO Brad Lightcap confirmed that ChatGPT now serves 5 million paying business users, up from 3 million in June. That’s a 66% rise in one month, signalling mounting trust in AI for professional use.
Engagement stats also read like a gamer leaderboard: 12 days per month on average per user, and about 16 minutes per day in session time. Only Google and X sit above ChatGPT in that kind of user retention, according to Sensor Tower data.
Much of this growth is driven by new models like GPT-4o and viral image-generation tools. Over 130 million users created more than 700 million images within days after launch. These features reignited curiosity and daily use far beyond basic text chat.
Looking ahead, GPT-5 is arriving soon. It's a unified model combining language, reasoning, and vision into one AI assistant. Its release seems perfectly timed against this user surge.
Money flows fast, too. Annualised revenue now sits near $12 billion, but so does the burn rate, with $8 billion in 2025 expenses projected. And investors are still pouring cash in, including a fresh $7.5 billion round from investors beyond SoftBank.
Louis Eriakha
On the ethical front, OpenAI is rolling out new safeguards like “break reminders” during long sessions and tailored responses for emotionally sensitive prompts. The company says these safety boosts are essential as ChatGPT becomes deeply embedded in daily use.
Of course, competition is heating up. Google’s Gemini has 450 million monthly users, Anthropic’s Claude is gaining traction, and Meta is riding high on open-source efforts with Llama. But with ChatGPT's growth pace and now processing 2.5 billion prompts every day, none can match its user frequency and high engagement, at least not yet.
Emmanuel Oyedeji
