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ChatGPT MAU Growth Trajectory, 2022–2026

ChatGPT is the fastest-scaling consumer product in history. It reached 1 million users in five days, 100 million monthly users in about two months — a record at the time — and, by OpenAI's own reporting, grew from 100 million weekly active users in late 2023 to roughly 900 million by February 2026. This page tracks that trajectory year by year and quarter by quarter, marks the model releases that drove each acceleration, and is careful about a detail most coverage blurs: OpenAI reports weekly active users, not monthly, for most of this period.

4 visualizations 6 sources Last updated June 2026 Free to embed
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Source: OpenAI public disclosures, reported by TechCrunch (Feb 2026). Figures are weekly active users (WAU).
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Chart 1 · The headline trajectory

ChatGPT weekly active users, Nov 2023 – Feb 2026

Weekly active users (millions)

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Source: OpenAI disclosures via TechCrunch, CNBC and a16z. Weekly active users (WAU) at each reported milestone. OpenAI began reporting WAU in Nov 2023; earlier figures used a monthly measure and are shown separately in Chart 3.
Chart 2 · Pace of growth

Months to add each 100M weekly users

Months to add each 100M weekly users

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Source: AI Behavior Index analysis of OpenAI milestone dates. Approximate months between each 100M-WAU increment. Later increments span 100M each; the jump to 700M covered a larger gap and is annualized per 100M for comparability.
Chart 3 · Fastest to 100M

Months to 100M users: ChatGPT vs other apps

Months from launch to 100M users

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Source: Reuters / UBS, and company disclosures. Time from launch to 100M users. ChatGPT's 100M was a monthly-active figure (~2 months); comparison apps use their widely-cited time-to-100M.
Chart 4 · What drove the jumps

Year-by-year: weekly users and the releases behind each step

Year-end weekly active users (millions)

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Source: OpenAI disclosures via TechCrunch and a16z. Year-end weekly active users (2023–2025) with Feb 2026 latest. a16z attributes the late-2024 re-acceleration to GPT-4o, Advanced Voice Mode and the o1 model series.

About this data

This page compiles ChatGPT user-growth figures from OpenAI's own public statements, as reported by major outlets, alongside third-party estimates for the early period and for mobile. The trajectory uses weekly active users (WAU), the metric OpenAI has reported consistently since November 2023.

The AI Behavior Index is the research arm of OneChat AI, an integrated multi-model AI platform. We compile and analyze data from primary sources to make AI adoption and market trends more accessible to journalists, researchers, and decision-makers.

A note on "MAU" vs "WAU": this topic is commonly searched as "ChatGPT MAU growth," but OpenAI does not publish a consistent monthly-active-user series. Its early record — ~100M users about two months after launch — was a monthly figure (Reuters, citing UBS/Similarweb). From late 2023 onward, OpenAI has reported weekly active users: 100M (Nov 2023), 300M (Dec 2024), 400M (Feb 2025), ~700M (mid-2025), ~800M (late 2025), and ~900M (Feb 2026). MAU is necessarily higher than WAU, so the two series should not be plotted as one line. In May–June 2026, Reuters reported ChatGPT passed 1 billion monthly app users (Sensor Tower estimate) — a third metric again. We label each figure by its measure rather than forcing them onto one axis.

Methodology notes: milestone dates are approximate and reflect when a figure was first reported, not necessarily when it was reached. Company-reported actives are not independently audited. Quarter-by-quarter spacing is interpolated between reported milestones for the pace charts; only the milestone points themselves are sourced figures.

Sources used on this page:

Corrections or suggestions: research@aibehaviorindex.org

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