Anthropic overtakes OpenAI in business customers for first time, Ramp data reveals

Anthropic Claims Lead in Business AI Adoption

For the first time since the AI race began, Anthropic has secured more business customers than OpenAI, marking a significant shift in the competitive landscape. According to the May 2026 Ramp AI Index, 34.4% of participating businesses are now paying for Anthropic services, edging past OpenAI's 32.3% share1

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. The survey, compiled from expense data across more than 50,000 companies by the fintech firm Ramp, represents the first time Anthropic has held the top position in business AI adoption2

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The crossover represents the culmination of a yearlong surge that few industry observers predicted. Anthropic has quadrupled its business adoption over the past 12 months, climbing from a mere 9% in May 2025 to its current 34.4% share1

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. During this same period, OpenAI's share declined by 1%, while overall AI adoption among businesses increased by 9%1

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Claude vs ChatGPT Battle Shifts Momentum

The Anthropic vs OpenAI competition has witnessed a dramatic reversal over the past year. In April 2025, OpenAI commanded roughly 32% of business adoption while Anthropic stood at under 8%2

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. OpenAI had built an early, commanding lead as the consumer default, with ChatGPT serving as most people's first encounter with AI, and that momentum initially carried into corporate purchasing decisions.

By February 2026, the tide had turned decisively. Anthropic was winning approximately 70% of head-to-head matchups against OpenAI among businesses purchasing AI services for the first time—a complete reversal of trends observed in 20252

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. This shift is visible beyond Ramp's data as well. On OpenRouter's leaderboard, which samples a different portion of users, OpenAI last ranked above Anthropic in December 20251

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Technical Customer Base Drives Growth Strategy

Anthropicʼs success stems from a deliberate strategy focused on winning over a technical customer base first. "Anthropic has already been in the lead amongst the high adoption groups like finance, tech, professional services," Ramp economist Ara Kharazian told TechCrunch. "It's across the other firms where OpenAI still has a lead, but that has been shrinking over the past couple of months"1

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The company was popular early on with engineers and AI evangelists—the technical vanguard inside organizations—and leveraged that early-adopter base to go mainstream2

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. "What Anthropic did worked really well," Kharazian explained, "which was—start with a very technical customer base, focus on their needs, really succeed in execution and then start broadening out through tools like Cowork"1

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Claude Code Emerges as Growth Engine

Much of Anthropic's momentum can be attributed to Claude Code, the company's agentic AI coding tool, which has become the fastest-growing product in Anthropic's history. Recent analysis estimated that 4% of all GitHub public commits worldwide were being authored by Claude Code—double the percentage from just one month prior2

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. This product has resonated particularly well with the developer community and technical organizations.

AI Adoption Trends Show Broader Workplace Integration

The shift in Anthropic business customers occurs against a backdrop of accelerating workplace AI integration. For the first time in Gallup's measurement, half of employed American adults say they use AI in their role at least a few times a year, up from 46% the previous quarter. Frequent use is also increasing, with 13% of employees now saying they use AI daily and 28% reporting they use it a few times a week or more2

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Fragile Lead Faces Multiple Threats

Despite Anthropic's current advantage, Ramp's analysis warns that the company's position may be more fragile than it appears. Kharazian expressed skepticism about whether this advantage will last, citing threats including escalating costs, compute constraints, and the very token-based pricing model that has fueled the company's extraordinary revenue growth2

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. The Ramp AI Index methodology, which tracks corporate card and invoice-based payments, likely underestimates actual adoption since many employees use free AI tools or personal accounts for work tasks2

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