The ChatGPT logo [Getty Images]
The ChatGPT logo [Getty Images]

OpenAI has reached 1 billion active users of its AI model ChatGPT, three years and eight months after the product's launch — more than two years faster than Facebook took to hit the same milestone, even as intensifying competition from Google and Anthropic has slowed its growth.

OpenAI announced Thursday that its AI had surpassed 1 billion active users and that its corporate customer count had exceeded 2 million.

The figures mark a milestone reached three years and eight months after ChatGPT's public debut on Nov. 30, 2022. Facebook needed six years to reach 1 billion users, making OpenAI's pace more than two years faster.

ChatGPT attracted 1 million sign-ups within five days of launch and crossed 100 million weekly active users within a year. It then hit 200 million users in August 2024, 500 million last August and 800 million last October, sustaining rapid growth throughout that stretch.

The momentum stalled, however, before OpenAI could meet an internal target of reaching 1 billion users by the end of last year. The company did not hit 900 million users until February, and it took five more months to cross the 1 billion mark.

The slowdown since late last year reflects the rise of credible rivals — particularly Anthropic, whose Claude Mythos and Fable models helped push its valuation above OpenAI's, alongside competitive pressure from Google's AI offerings.

OpenAI has fought back with GPT-5.6 Sol and has introduced the coding model Codex and the agent tool ChatGPT Work. It also launched the more cost-efficient GPT-5.6 Terra and GPT-5.6 Luna models, targeting Anthropic's reputation for relatively high prices. The user-count announcement came immediately after OpenAI cut prices on the Terra and Luna models by 20 to 80 percent.

OpenAI Chief Financial Officer Sarah Friar described the price cuts as a strategy of "economics of abundance." "When the cost of useful intelligence goes down, the range of tasks worth doing expands," she said. "As people develop deeper trust in the technology, they are using it in increasingly meaningful ways."

Friar also emphasized that the company is building AI infrastructure methodically. "The goal is not simply to build the most infrastructure, but to deploy the right capacity at the right time, matched to reliable demand," she said.

OpenAI's emphasis on user growth and disciplined infrastructure investment is widely seen as an effort to demonstrate profitability and cost control to investors ahead of a planned initial public offering. The company filed a confidential IPO application in early July with the aim of listing this year, but is weighing a delay until next year after projections emerged that its post-listing valuation could fall short of $1 trillion.


eyre@heraldcorp.com