Anthropic's Claude Gains Ground on ChatGPT Among Paying Users

Anthropic’s Claude is increasingly capturing the attention and wallets of AI consumers, signaling a shift in a market long dominated by OpenAI’s ChatGPT. While ChatGPT maintains a commanding lead in total users, new data indicates that Anthropic is successfully expanding its reach beyond its traditional base of enterprise and startup developers.

Growing Consumer Momentum

Trend data from Indagari, which analyzes billions of anonymized credit card transactions from approximately 28 million U.S. consumers, shows a clear upward trajectory for Claude. Between January 2026 and May 10, 2026, Claude’s paying consumer base and revenue grew by approximately 75%. This growth persisted even after a notable spike in March, a period during which Anthropic refused to allow its models to be used by the Trump administration for autonomous weapons and the mass surveillance of Americans.
While Sensor Tower data confirms that ChatGPT remains the most popular AI with consumers across all platforms, Claude is steadily gaining ground in terms of consumer awareness, interest, and revenue collection. Although ChatGPT’s growth has been more modest recently—a trend attributed to its already massive market reach—it continues to hold a significantly larger number of paying users.

Rising Interest in AI Education

Further evidence of Claude’s rising popularity is found on DataCamp, an online education platform with 20 million users. Since the start of 2026, interest in Claude has exploded among the platform's self-directed learners. "Claude" has become the most searched term on the site, surpassing the term "AI."
While businesses still favor ChatGPT for corporate training, the demand for Claude-related courses among individual consumers is outpacing ChatGPT by a ratio of three to one. DataCamp reports that demand for courses focused on Claude has surged 18x in the last 30 days.

Navigating Regulatory Challenges

Anthropic’s growth occurs against a backdrop of complex regulatory hurdles. Earlier this month, the U.S. government banned the company from allowing non-Americans to use its most powerful, cybersecurity-focused models, Mythos 5 and Fable 5. This forced Anthropic to pull those specific models from the market entirely.
Despite these challenges and the uncertainty surrounding the impact of government relations on its business, available data consistently shows that Anthropic continues to grow its base of both enterprise and consumer users. As both OpenAI and Anthropic approach the potential for becoming public companies, these trends provide a clearer view of the momentum behind their respective platforms. Anthropic declined to comment on the data.