According to OpenAI’s Nick Turley, ChatGPT is on track to reach 700 million weekly active users this week, which means it’s approaching nearly one in 10 people on Earth interacts with the AI chatbot. With over one billion daily queries, ChatGPT is rapidly evolving from a breakout app to critical infrastructure for work, learning, and problem-solving worldwide.
ChatGPT became the fastest-growing consumer app in history when it reached 100 million users in its first two months. That record-breaking moment now looks modest. Between March and August of this year, ChatGPT will have increased its weekly user base by 200 million, according to Turley’s Aug. 4 post on X. In total, ChatGPT handles more daily interactions than most major social media platforms do in a week.
Agentic AI ushers in new capabilities
The surge in usage follows the release of OpenAI’s o3 and o4-mini models, which introduced advanced multimodal capabilities. These next-gen models allow ChatGPT to browse the web, analyze images, generate code, and reason through complex tasks — often combining those tools in a single prompt.
OpenAI describes the new functionality as “agentic AI,” where ChatGPT can perform multi-step operations autonomously. New features like Study Mode and Advanced Voice, now rolling out to free users, make the experience more human-like and more tailored to specific use cases.
Explosive revenue mirrors user surge
OpenAI’s financial trajectory is keeping pace with user growth. The company generated $3.7 billion in 2024, nearly tripling its previous year’s revenue. CFO projections put revenue at $11 billion by the end of 2025, placing OpenAI among the fastest-growing tech companies globally. The company says its $20 per month ChatGPT Plus plan now has over 10 million paying subscribers, generating roughly $200 million in monthly revenue. Overall, OpenAI commands a dominant 59.2% share of the generative AI chatbot market.
Scale brings scrutiny and setbacks
But rapid adoption hasn’t come without controversy. A ChatGPT update earlier this year made the AI overly agreeable, at one point praising nonsensical and dangerous ideas. CEO Sam Altman later called the changes “annoying,” and the company quickly rolled them back. Separately, a privacy incident exposed ChatGPT user chats in Google search results, drawing criticism for lapses in content visibility settings. Although OpenAI disabled the feature, the breach raised broader questions about trust and transparency.
Competitive pressure is intensifying as well. Google’s Gemini has reached 400 million monthly users, Apple is reportedly creating its own chatbot, and Chinese firm DeepSeek continues to challenge OpenAI’s technical edge with strong reasoning capabilities.
Enterprise integration and user loyalty
ChatGPT’s growing footprint isn’t limited to consumers. From automating code to generating insights from financial reports, OpenAI says over 92% of Fortune 500 companies now incorporate ChatGPT into business operations.
Demographics suggest a lasting shift in how work gets done. The majority of users (53.94%) are aged 18 to 34, embedding AI into their workflows early in their careers. In the US, ChatGPT leads all markets with 16.39% of users, followed by India at 7.77%.
Average user sessions last nearly 14 minutes, signaling deeper use cases that go beyond quick question and answer sessions. Users are engaging in full conversations that often replace traditional tools and workflows.
Hidden infrastructure costs mount
Every ChatGPT query requires substantial compute power, and usage at current scale demands infrastructure far beyond that of most cloud-native platforms. Environmental concerns are growing, with each ChatGPT interaction emitting 4.3 grams of CO₂ — more than 20 times the footprint of a Google search. At more than one billion daily queries, the platform’s emissions rival those of a small city.
Meanwhile, OpenAI faces persistent challenges acquiring GPUs and managing compute costs, which could rise exponentially as usage scales further.
Third year, higher stakes
With ChatGPT in its third year, OpenAI finds itself at a turning point. The platform now handles more daily queries than Google Search did just a decade ago, and it’s generating revenues that rival legacy tech firms. Yet with scale comes the responsibility to safeguard privacy, balance usability with ethical safeguards, and stay ahead in a high-stakes competitive landscape. Missteps now affect hundreds of millions of people.
Still, the trajectory is clear. ChatGPT has evolved beyond viral success. It’s becoming the connective tissue of how humans and AI collaborate — quietly reshaping productivity, education, and digital infrastructure at global scale.
Read our recap of OpenAI CEO Sam Altman’s recent appearance on his brother Jack Altman’s podcast during which a main topic of discussion was Meta’s “crazy” $100 million poaching offers.
