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Over 1 billion weekly active users. 50 million paying subscribers. And more than 2.5 billion queries a day as early as July 2025. ChatGPT's numbers are staggering.
In this article, I've collected the most fascinating statistics about OpenAI's blockbuster tool.
From user numbers and available languages to use cases and limitations, it's all here. For OpenAI corporate metrics (revenue, valuation, investors), see the dedicated article: OpenAI Statistics.
TL;DRKey Takeaways
ChatGPT has over 1 billion weekly active users (OpenAI, end of August 2026) and over 50 million paying subscribers
With a 55.5% web traffic share (August 2026, SimilarWeb), ChatGPT is the most-used AI chatbot in the world; the latest official figure is more than 2.5 billion queries per day (July 2025)
GPT-6 Astra has been OpenAI's best model overall since September 3, 2026. Since September 22, 2026, the more affordable GPT-6 Sol and GPT-6 Luna have joined the family, both 50% cheaper than their respective GPT-5.6 predecessors
1. How Many Users Does ChatGPT Have?
On December 5, 2022, just 5 days after its release, ChatGPT was able to according to CEO Sam Altman already record over 1 million users.
Other services took significantly longer to reach one million users, as the following overview shows:
ChatGPT had 700-800 million weekly active users in September 2025 and 900 million by February 2026. By the end of August 2026, OpenAI's chief marketing officer Colin Fleming put ChatGPT's own weekly active users at more than 1 billion (Adweek, August 31, 2026), a month after CFO Sarah Friar's broader claim that OpenAI's models overall reach “more than one billion active users and more than two million businesses” without specifying ChatGPT alone or a time window. Around 190 million people use ChatGPT daily worldwide.
Over 1B weekly active users (WAU), per OpenAI (end of August 2026), up from 900M in February 2026
Approx. 190M daily active users (DAU)
Over 50M paying subscribers (of which 9M business users)
1.44B cumulative app downloads (since May 2023)
Approx. 2.5B queries per day
India is the second-largest single market with 100M WAU, after the United States
175M users accessed the mobile app in March 2025 (about 44% of the 400M WAU at the time)
92% of Fortune 500 companies use ChatGPT or the OpenAI API
2. How Often Is ChatGPT Accessed Each Month?
The analytics tool SimilarWeb estimates ChatGPT's monthly visits as follows:
The most recent data points (DemandSage): February 2026 approx. 5,350M, March 2026 approx. 5,730M, April 2026 approx. 5,510M, May 2026 approx. 5,570M visits.
3. Which Countries Do ChatGPT Users Come From?
According to SimilarWeb (May 2026), visits to chatgpt.com break down as follows: USA 18.53%, India 9.79%, Brazil 5.57%, Japan 4.23%, United Kingdom 3.94%.
It also handles frequently spoken languages like German, French, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, Russian, and Chinese well.
OpenAI officially supports 58 languages, which together cover about 4.5 billion native speakers. In practice, however, ChatGPT can understand and respond in over 95 natural languages, though quality varies depending on available training data.
Here's a selection of the most important supported languages (output quality and comprehension may vary):
LanguageAlbanian
Spoken in:Albania
LanguageAmharic
Spoken in:Ethiopia
LanguageArabic
Spoken in:Egypt
LanguageArmenian
Spoken in:Armenia
LanguageAzerbaijani
Spoken in:Azerbaijan
LanguageAwadhi
Spoken in:India
LanguageBashkir
Spoken in:Russia
LanguageBasque
Spoken in:Spain
LanguageBelarusian
Spoken in:Belarus
LanguageBengali
Spoken in:India
LanguageBhojpuri
Spoken in:India
LanguageBosnian
Spoken in:Bosnia and Herzegovina
LanguageBrazilian Portuguese
Spoken in:Brazil
LanguageBulgarian
Spoken in:Bulgaria
LanguageChhattisgarhi
Spoken in:India
LanguageChinese (Cantonese)
Spoken in:China
LanguageChinese (Mandarin)
Spoken in:China
LanguageChinese (Min)
Spoken in:China
LanguageChinese (Wu)
Spoken in:China
LanguageDanish
Spoken in:Denmark
LanguageGerman
Spoken in:Germany
LanguageDogri
Spoken in:India
LanguageEnglish
Spoken in:United States
LanguageEsperanto
Spoken in:Worldwide (no single country)
LanguageEstonian
Spoken in:Estonia
LanguageFaroese
Spoken in:Faroe Islands
LanguageFinnish
Spoken in:Finland
LanguageFrench
Spoken in:France
LanguageGalician
Spoken in:Spain
LanguageGeorgian
Spoken in:Georgia
LanguageGreek
Spoken in:Greece
LanguageGujarati
Spoken in:India
LanguageHaryanvi
Spoken in:India
LanguageHausa
Spoken in:Nigeria
LanguageHindi
Spoken in:India
LanguageIndonesian
Spoken in:Indonesia
LanguageIrish
Spoken in:Ireland
LanguageItalian
Spoken in:Italy
LanguageJapanese
Spoken in:Japan
LanguageJavanese
Spoken in:Indonesia
LanguageKannada
Spoken in:India
LanguageKazakh
Spoken in:Kazakhstan
LanguageKashmiri
Spoken in:India
LanguageCatalan
Spoken in:Spain
LanguageKyrgyz
Spoken in:Kyrgyzstan
LanguageKonkani
Spoken in:India
LanguageKorean
Spoken in:South Korea
LanguageCroatian
Spoken in:Croatia
LanguageLatin
Spoken in:Worldwide (no single country)
LanguageLatvian
Spoken in:Latvia
LanguageLithuanian
Spoken in:Lithuania
LanguageMaithili
Spoken in:India
LanguageMalay
Spoken in:Malaysia
LanguageMaltese
Spoken in:Malta
LanguageMarathi
Spoken in:India
LanguageMarwari
Spoken in:India
LanguageMacedonian
Spoken in:North Macedonia
LanguageMoldovan
Spoken in:Moldova
LanguageMongolian
Spoken in:Mongolia
LanguageMontenegrin
Spoken in:Montenegro
LanguageNepali
Spoken in:Nepal
LanguageDutch
Spoken in:Netherlands
LanguageNigerian Pidgin
Spoken in:Nigeria
LanguageNorwegian
Spoken in:Norway
LanguageOriya
Spoken in:India
LanguagePunjabi
Spoken in:India
LanguagePashto
Spoken in:Afghanistan
LanguagePersian (Farsi)
Spoken in:Iran
LanguageLow German
Spoken in:Germany
LanguagePolish
Spoken in:Poland
LanguagePortuguese
Spoken in:Portugal
LanguageRajasthani
Spoken in:India
LanguageRomanian
Spoken in:Romania
LanguageRussian
Spoken in:Russia
LanguageSanskrit
Spoken in:India
LanguageSantali
Spoken in:India
LanguageSwedish
Spoken in:Sweden
LanguageSwiss German
Spoken in:Switzerland
LanguageSerbian
Spoken in:Serbia
LanguageSindhi
Spoken in:Pakistan
LanguageSinhala
Spoken in:Sri Lanka
LanguageSlovenian
Spoken in:Slovenia
LanguageSlovak
Spoken in:Slovakia
LanguageSpanish
Spoken in:Spain
LanguageSwahili
Spoken in:Tanzania
LanguageTajik
Spoken in:Tajikistan
LanguageTamil
Spoken in:India
LanguageTatar
Spoken in:Russia
LanguageTelugu
Spoken in:India
LanguageThai
Spoken in:Thailand
LanguageCzech
Spoken in:Czech Republic
LanguageTurkish
Spoken in:Turkey
LanguageTurkmen
Spoken in:Turkmenistan
LanguageUkrainian
Spoken in:Ukraine
LanguageHungarian
Spoken in:Hungary
LanguageUrdu
Spoken in:Pakistan
LanguageUzbek
Spoken in:Uzbekistan
LanguageVietnamese
Spoken in:Vietnam
LanguageWelsh
Spoken in:Wales
Albanian
Albania
Amharic
Ethiopia
Arabic
Egypt
Armenian
Armenia
Azerbaijani
Azerbaijan
Awadhi
India
Bashkir
Russia
Basque
Spain
Belarusian
Belarus
Bengali
India
Bhojpuri
India
Bosnian
Bosnia and Herzegovina
Brazilian Portuguese
Brazil
Bulgarian
Bulgaria
Chhattisgarhi
India
Chinese (Cantonese)
China
Chinese (Mandarin)
China
Chinese (Min)
China
Chinese (Wu)
China
Danish
Denmark
German
Germany
Dogri
India
English
United States
Esperanto
Worldwide (no single country)
Estonian
Estonia
Faroese
Faroe Islands
Finnish
Finland
French
France
Galician
Spain
Georgian
Georgia
Greek
Greece
Gujarati
India
Haryanvi
India
Hausa
Nigeria
Hindi
India
Indonesian
Indonesia
Irish
Ireland
Italian
Italy
Japanese
Japan
Javanese
Indonesia
Kannada
India
Kazakh
Kazakhstan
Kashmiri
India
Catalan
Spain
Kyrgyz
Kyrgyzstan
Konkani
India
Korean
South Korea
Croatian
Croatia
Latin
Worldwide (no single country)
Latvian
Latvia
Lithuanian
Lithuania
Maithili
India
Malay
Malaysia
Maltese
Malta
Marathi
India
Marwari
India
Macedonian
North Macedonia
Moldovan
Moldova
Mongolian
Mongolia
Montenegrin
Montenegro
Nepali
Nepal
Dutch
Netherlands
Nigerian Pidgin
Nigeria
Norwegian
Norway
Oriya
India
Punjabi
India
Pashto
Afghanistan
Persian (Farsi)
Iran
Low German
Germany
Polish
Poland
Portuguese
Portugal
Rajasthani
India
Romanian
Romania
Russian
Russia
Sanskrit
India
Santali
India
Swedish
Sweden
Swiss German
Switzerland
Serbian
Serbia
Sindhi
Pakistan
Sinhala
Sri Lanka
Slovenian
Slovenia
Slovak
Slovakia
Spanish
Spain
Swahili
Tanzania
Tajik
Tajikistan
Tamil
India
Tatar
Russia
Telugu
India
Thai
Thailand
Czech
Czech Republic
Turkish
Turkey
Turkmen
Turkmenistan
Ukrainian
Ukraine
Hungarian
Hungary
Urdu
Pakistan
Uzbek
Uzbekistan
Vietnamese
Vietnam
Welsh
Wales
Note
This is just a selection of supported languages. ChatGPT can also understand regional dialects and minority languages like Scottish Gaelic, as well as various language variants (e.g., Swiss German, Austrian German). However, the quality of responses is significantly better for widely spoken languages with lots of training data than for less commonly spoken languages.
5. In which countries is ChatGPT available?
The map follows OpenAI’s list for ChatGPT on web and mobile. The country assignments were checked on September 9, 2026.
Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Egypt and Afghanistan are listed. Ukraine is included with certain regional exceptions. China, Russia, Belarus, Iran, North Korea, Cuba, Syria and Venezuela are absent from the supported-country list.
Grey areas have no clear source match. The simplified map omits some small islands and does not draw the individual exceptions within Ukraine. Consult OpenAI’s current ChatGPT country list for the current position.
6. What Programming Languages Does ChatGPT Support?
ChatGPT can understand and generate code in many programming languages, though not all equally well. The Aider Polyglot Benchmark tests how correctly AI models generate code in various languages. Here are the results for GPT-5.x:
Python leads by a wide margin, driven by the enormous amount of Python training data. Compiled languages like Go and Rust also score very well. Older languages like C land noticeably lower but are still very usable.
ChatGPT also handles markup languages like HTML, Markdown, and XML, as well as database languages like SQL.
6.1 What Markup Languages Does ChatGPT Support?
ChatGPT can handle the following markup languages:
HTML
Markdown
XML
6.2 Which Programming Language Does ChatGPT Handle Best?
According to OpenAI, ChatGPT handles Python best, as it has the most extensive training data in this language.
7. How Current Is the Data ChatGPT Was Trained On?
The Knowledge Cutoff Date specifies how far a model's training data extends. Here is an overview of all GPT models:
GPT-6 Luna's May 18, 2026 cutoff is currently the latest of any GPT model, just ahead of GPT-6 Astra (April 30, 2026) and GPT-6 Sol (April 20, 2026). All current ChatGPT models can also access current information through web search, unlike the original ChatGPT 3.5, whose training data stopped in September 2021.
8. How Many Characters Can ChatGPT Generate?
With GPT-5, the limit was significantly increased: Up to 128,000 tokens output is possible (approximately 96,000 words). For free users, the limit is 8,000 tokens; for Plus users, it's 32,000 tokens.
9. What Types of Content Are Prohibited with ChatGPT?
OpenAI as a company has its own fascinating story: roughly $190 billion in total funding, an $852 billion valuation (March 2026), and investors ranging from Microsoft and SoftBank to Amazon and Nvidia.
The full breakdown of investors, funding rounds, valuation trajectory, revenue, employees, and infrastructure lives in a dedicated article: OpenAI Statistics 2026: Key Numbers, Data & Facts. That's where I keep all corporate metrics in one place.
11. What Alternatives Are There to ChatGPT?
The following alternatives come into question for ChatGPT:
OpenAI offers various GPT models with different capabilities. For Codex, OpenAI currently recommends Sol, Terra, and Luna. GPT-5.3 Codex is already deprecated when you sign in with a ChatGPT account, while API access is separate. The official Codex model overview contains the current status details:
AvailabilityChat: Pro $100, existing Pro $200, Business, Enterprise. Also Codex and API
ModelGPT-6 Sol
Context Window1.05M tokens
Key FeaturesSecond GPT-6 tier for complex and agentic work, at xhigh effort outperforms Claude Opus 5 at max effort on AutomationBench per OpenAI, knowledge cutoff Apr. 20, 2026
AvailabilityChatGPT Work and Codex (Plus, Pro, Business, Enterprise, Edu) since Sep 22, 2026, API
ModelGPT-6 Luna
Context Window1.05M tokens
Key FeaturesCheapest GPT-6 tier for high-volume clerical work, knowledge cutoff May 18, 2026
AvailabilityChatGPT Work and Codex (Plus, Pro, Business, Enterprise, Edu) since Sep 22, 2026, Free/Go in the desktop app, API
ModelGPT-5.6 Sol
Context Window1M tokens
Key FeaturesTerminal-Bench 2.1 88.8%, Sol Ultra 91.9%. Generally available since Jul 9, 2026, knowledge cutoff Feb 2026
Chat: Pro $100, existing Pro $200, Business, Enterprise. Also Codex and API
GPT-6 Sol
1.05M tokens
Second GPT-6 tier for complex and agentic work, at xhigh effort outperforms Claude Opus 5 at max effort on AutomationBench per OpenAI, knowledge cutoff Apr. 20, 2026
ChatGPT Work and Codex (Plus, Pro, Business, Enterprise, Edu) since Sep 22, 2026, API
GPT-6 Luna
1.05M tokens
Cheapest GPT-6 tier for high-volume clerical work, knowledge cutoff May 18, 2026
ChatGPT Work and Codex (Plus, Pro, Business, Enterprise, Edu) since Sep 22, 2026, Free/Go in the desktop app, API
GPT-5.6 Sol
1M tokens
Terminal-Bench 2.1 88.8%, Sol Ultra 91.9%. Generally available since Jul 9, 2026, knowledge cutoff Feb 2026
73% of all messages are for private, non-work-related purposes. For work-related messages, writing dominates at around 40% of all conversations. About two-thirds of writing requests involve editing existing texts rather than creating new content.
13.2 Usage by Demographic Group
According to Pew Research and McKinsey, different groups use ChatGPT at varying intensities:
ChatGPT still dominates the AI chatbot market by web traffic share and recently regained ground. Gemini has nearly doubled its share compared to early 2025, and Claude has risen to 9.3% (SimilarWeb, August 2026):
Some remarkable facts about ChatGPT, each with comparison data:
15.1 Fastest App to 100 Million Active Users
ChatGPT reached 100 million monthly active users in just 2 months. No other service has ever achieved this so quickly. Threads (Meta) was downloaded by 100 million people in 5 days, but daily usage collapsed immediately afterward.
In early 2023, OpenAI spent an estimated $700,000 a day just to run ChatGPT, according to SemiAnalysis (see the chart below). Since then, costs have exploded: total inference spend hit around $1.8 billion in 2024, and total costs for 2025 are estimated at around $22 billion.
Over 570 GB of compressed text data (approx. 300 billion tokens) was used for GPT-3 (OpenAI GPT-3 paper). Since then, the data volumes have grown massively:
According to an analysis by Epoch AI (February 2025), a typical ChatGPT query (GPT-4o) consumes approximately 0.3 Wh. This is significantly lower than older estimates of 3 Wh (Alex de Vries, 2023), but still roughly 7x higher than a modern Google search (approx. 0.04 Wh).
According to CEO Sam Altman, OpenAI's goal was to have over 1 million GPUs for training and inference by end of 2025 (Tom's Hardware). Other AI companies are also ramping up massively:
According to GitHub, 46% of code from Copilot users is generated with AI assistance. At launch in 2022, the figure was just 27%. Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella also stated that 20-30% of Microsoft's internal code is now AI-generated.
According to Pew Research, the share of US teenagers using ChatGPT for schoolwork roughly doubled year over year, and a follow-up study found the number climbing even further for AI chatbots broadly. See the chart below for the exact year-by-year figures.
In February 2026, ChatGPT had over 50 million paying subscribers (Plus, Pro, and Business). OpenAI stated that January and February 2026 were the strongest months for new sign-ups in the company's history.
In July 2025, ChatGPT processed around 2.5 billion queries per day (TechCrunch), more than double the 1 billion from December 2024. Compared to other platforms:
Frequently Asked Questions About ChatGPT Statistics
ChatGPT has more than 1 billion weekly active users (OpenAI, end of August 2026), up from 900 million in February 2026 and 700-800 million in September 2025. Around 190 million people use ChatGPT daily. The tool reached over 1 million users just 5 days after release.
The USA leads global ChatGPT visits by a wide margin, followed by India, Brazil, Japan, and the UK (see the country chart above for exact shares). ChatGPT is available in over 160 countries but is blocked in countries like China, Russia, and Iran.
OpenAI generated $13.1 billion in total revenue in 2025. The annualized revenue at the end of February 2026 reached approximately $25 billion, and topped $40 billion by August 2026 (Bloomberg). In March 2026, OpenAI's post-money valuation hit $852 billion after closing a $122 billion funding round. Microsoft has invested approximately $13 billion since 2019. OpenAI now has over 50 million paying subscribers.
GPT-6 Astra has been OpenAI's best model overall since September 3, 2026. Since September 22, 2026, GPT-6 Sol and GPT-6 Luna have joined the GPT-6 family, both available in ChatGPT Work and Codex for Plus, Pro, Business, Enterprise, and Edu users, as well as via the API. GPT-6 Sol at xhigh effort even outperforms Claude Opus 5 at max effort on AutomationBench, at just 9% of Opus 5's cost per task. GPT-5.6 Sol was previously the most powerful generally available model and still scores 88.8% on Terminal-Bench 2.1. GPT-5.5 and GPT-5.5 Pro were the flagships before that. GPT-5.6 Luna, and now also GPT-6 Luna in the desktop app, remain available for free users. GPT-5.2 was retired on June 12, 2026.
GPT-6 Astra has been OpenAI's newest and, by its own account, best model overall since September 3, 2026. Since September 22, 2026, the more affordable GPT-6 Sol and GPT-6 Luna have joined the GPT-6 family, both 50% cheaper than their respective GPT-5.6 predecessors. GPT-6 Sol targets complex, agentic work like coding, while GPT-6 Luna targets high-volume, clear-cut tasks like summarizing. Both are available in ChatGPT Work and Codex for Plus, Pro, Business, Enterprise, and Edu users, as well as via the API. Free and Go users additionally get GPT-6 Luna in the desktop app. The GPT-5.6 family (Sol, Terra, and Luna) remains active alongside it.
ChatGPT reached 1 million users in just 5 days and 100 million users in 2 months, a record. For comparison: Instagram took 2.5 months to reach 1 million users, Facebook 10 months. Only Threads was faster at 1 hour.
ChatGPT supports over 95 natural languages, with English working best, followed by German, French, Spanish, and Chinese. For programming languages, it masters numerous languages, including Python (best), JavaScript, C++, Java, and TypeScript.
GPT-6 Astra has a knowledge cutoff of April 30, 2026. GPT-6 Sol is close behind at April 20, 2026, while GPT-6 Luna's May 18, 2026 cutoff is currently the latest of any GPT model. All three can additionally access current information via web search. GPT-5.6 Sol previously had a February 2026 cutoff, and the earlier flagships GPT-5.5 and GPT-5.5 Pro had December 2025. Older legacy models had earlier cutoffs: GPT-3.5 had September 2021, GPT-4 had April 2023.
GPT-5 can generate up to 128,000 tokens (approximately 96,000 words) per response. Free users have a limit of 8,000 tokens, Plus users 32,000 tokens. Additionally, content related to hate, violence, self-harm, political influence, or malware cannot be created.
Finn Hillebrandt is the founder of Gradually AI, an SEO and AI expert. He helps online entrepreneurs simplify and automate their processes and marketing with AI. Finn shares his knowledge here on the blog in 50+ articles as well as through the AI Business Club.
