ChatGPT, OpenAI’s artificial intelligence (AI) assistant, has become the fastest application to reach 1 billion monthly active users, a milestone it achieved in just three years since its launch, according to market intelligence firm SensorTower.
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A SensorTower spokesperson told Efe this Wednesday that ChatGPT reached 1 billion monthly active users (MAU) in May 2026, faster than other ‘apps’ that arrived earlier, such as Google Maps, Google Chrome, Messenger, TikTok, YouTube, and Instagram, which took between five and eight years.
In a report, the firm indicates that ChatGPT, as of the second quarter of 2026, surpasses other AI sector rivals in MAU such as Gemini (472 million), Doubao (106), Dola (78), DeepSeek (68), Meta AI (61), Claude (56), Grok (50), Perplexity (44), and Copilot (31).
Claude threatens ChatGPT’s dominance
However, Meta AI is experiencing the highest MAU growth compared to the same quarter of the previous year, at 973%, coinciding with the launch of that app by Meta in May 2025 and the recent presentation of its advanced AI model Muse Spark.
Mark Zuckerberg, Meta’s chief executive, announced in May 2025, shortly after launching the Meta AI app, that the company’s AI technologies collectively reached 1 billion MAU, although he referred to their combined use across its group of social networks: WhatsApp, Instagram, and Facebook.
Behind Meta AI in year-on-year growth is Claude (640%), from Anthropic, which threatens to overtake ChatGPT given that users seem to spend much more time on that first ‘app’ after installing it, and it is also promising “given its capabilities and brand image,” SensorTower indicates.
In comparison, ChatGPT’s MAU have a year-on-year growth of 62% in the quarter, according to the note. The latest data offered by OpenAI itself corresponds to the end of February and to another metric, that of weekly active users, which already amounted to 900 million.
