ChatGPT's Explosive Growth: 2.5 Billion Daily Prompts Challenge Google's Dominance

OpenAI says ChatGPT users send over 2.5 billion prompts every day

Emma Roth is a news writer who covers the streaming wars, consumer tech, crypto, social media, and much more. Previously, she was a writer and editor at MUO. OpenAI's ChatGPT sees more than 2.5 billion requests daily, with 330 million from users based in the US, according to data obtained by Axios. The data suggests that ChatGPT users send over 912.5 billion requests to the AI chatbot each year. Although ChatGPT still has a way to go to catch up to Google's 5 trillion annual searches, its rapid growth still poses a major threat to the search giant. In the span of just a few months, ChatGPT's weekly users spiked from 300 million last December to more than 500 million in March. The Verge reached out to OpenAI with a request for comment, but didn't immediately hear back. Earlier this month, a report from Reuters suggested that OpenAI is preparing to release an AI-powered web browser in the coming weeks, which will directly compete with Google Chrome. The company took a step toward this milestone with last week's launch of ChatGPT Agent, a tool that can complete tasks on your computer for you.

ChatGPT now handles 2.5 billion prompts daily, OpenAI confirms

Serving tech enthusiasts for over 25 years. TechSpot means tech analysis and advice you can trust. Recap: Generative AI and large language models continue to gain popularity among individuals and companies despite mounting research that questions the technology's usefulness. As AI investments expand, climbing daily usage statistics will likely intensify scrutiny of the environmental impact. OpenAI recently told Axios that its popular generative AI chatbot, ChatGPT, receives over 2.5 billion prompts per day globally. Of those, over 330 million, or around 13 percent, come from the US. Without providing exact numbers, the company also confirmed that most of its over 500 million weekly active users utilize the free version. Bloomberg previously reported that ChatGPT has approximately 3 million paying users, a 50 percent increase from earlier this year. The numbers could draw more attention to one of the primary criticisms of LLMs: their water and energy consumption. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman claims that ChatGPT prompts use approximately 0.34 watt-hours and around 0.32 milliliters of water, or one-fifteenth of a teaspoon on average. However, recent research suggests that the true figure could vary wildly depending on the LLM used. Researchers from the universities of Rhode Island and Tunis estimate that GPT-4o, the default model for free ChatGPT users, is one of the most efficient, using between 1ml and 2ml per prompt. Still, other variants of GPT-4 can consume between 0.1ml (GPT-4.1 nano) and 30ml (GPT-4.5). Based on Altman's estimate, 2.5 billion prompts per day might consume roughly 212,500 gallons of water, or over 77 million gallons, annually. However, researchers believe GPT-4o's yearly water footprint could be several times higher. Cooling-water and infrastructural water usage for the LLM's data centers might permanently remove at least 352 million gallons of freshwater from local ecosystems by the end of 2025, or enough drinking water for 1.2 million people. ChatGPT will also likely consume millions to billions of watt-hours this year, roughly equivalent to the usage of thousands of households. As the technology's appetite and popularity grow, so do doubts over its future. LLM usage is becoming endemic in higher education, accelerating in courtrooms, and becoming mandatory at some companies. Yahoo Japan expects AI usage to double productivity by 2028, but multiple reports indicate that the technology actually slows workers down. Microsoft cut 9,000 jobs to offset an $80 billion AI investment. The technology also recently made Nvidia the world's first $4 trillion company. However, a top economist warns that it has created a larger repeat of the 2000 dot-com bubble. The S&P 500 may have become dangerously dependent on massive AI bets from a few companies, and EZPR's Ed Zitron recently outlined how the sector's growth mostly stems from sales of Nvidia data center GPUs. The chipmaker might have become a single point of failure for an industry that has yet to demonstrate significant profitability.

Is This the End of Google As We Know It?

ChatGPT is already handling one sixth of Google’s daily search volume, and Sam Altman says he’s just getting started. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman arrived in Washington this week with a carefully crafted message for policymakers: Artificial intelligence is already boosting productivity for millions of Americans, and his company intends to keep it “democratic†by putting it in everyone’s hands. As the capital buzzes with debates over AI regulation, Altman is positioning OpenAI not as a disruptor to be feared, but as an engine for universal progress. “It’s not about stopping disruption, but putting it into people’s hands so they have the opportunity to benefit,†a source familiar with Altman’s thinking told Axios. The timing of this pitch could not be more strategic. ChatGPT is now handling a staggering 2.5 billion prompts every day, with 330 million daily queries coming from the U.S. alone, OpenAI told Axios. Just eight months ago, that figure was a billion daily prompts. For perspective, Google processes an estimated 14 to 16 billion daily searches. This means that in less than two years, OpenAI’s conversational AI has grown to handle a volume equivalent to one sixth of the world’s largest search engine. For decades, search meant one thing: “Google it.†A new analysis by marketing researcher Rand Fishkin of Datos shows just how ingrained this behavior has been. In 2024, the average active American desktop user performed 126 unique Google searches a month. That includes everything from navigational queries like “Facebook login†to shopping, news, and local lookups. But AI tools like ChatGPT are starting to chip away at that habit, and not just for power users. A small but growing cohort is using AI as a direct replacement for search engines, asking it to find, summarize, or create answers instead of scanning a list of blue links. Fishkin notes that while most users have not ditched Google yet, the threat is real enough that Google has defensively rolled out its own AI powered “Search Generative Experience†and even a “Web†tab for users who still prefer traditional links. Google’s core business is search advertising, which generated $175 billion in revenue last year, accounting for more than half of its total $307 billion in revenue. If even a fraction of high value searches migrate to ChatGPT, Google’s economic engine faces a significant long term risk. The company is spending billions to integrate its own Gemini AI into search, but that strategy carries two major dilemmas: Altman’s Washington trip is about more than bragging rights. He is pitching a third path between the “AI will take your job†doomers and the “AI will save the world†optimists. His economic case is that AI is a productivity driver that should be broadly accessible, not a tool hoarded by a handful of corporations or governments. OpenAI is betting that ChatGPT will evolve from a curiosity into a daily utility that users consult for work, shopping, and creativity. In Altman’s words, the goal is to build a “brain for the world†with intelligence that is “too cheap to meter.†The fight between ChatGPT and Google could fundamentally change how we experience the web. For consumers: You may get faster, more conversational answers, but at the cost of seeing fewer diverse links and perspectives. AI could centralize information power even more than search engines did. For creators and businesses: Google’s dominance once meant optimizing for a single algorithm. AI driven search means content could be summarized and stripped of attribution unless strong guardrails are built in. That is a looming threat to publishers already fighting for traffic. For society: Altman argues democratization is key, asking, it’s who gets how much of a slice of the economic pie? But AI also raises the risk of misinformation, bias, and greater economic concentration in fewer hands. We may be watching the first major shift in online behavior since the smartphone. Fishkin remains skeptical that AI will replace Google for most people anytime soon, but he admits the early adopters are showing what is possible. If ChatGPT can handle one sixth of Google’s volume today, what happens when AI native search is built into our phones, cars, and voice assistants? Google is not going away, but its once unassailable dominance is under pressure for the first time since the days of Yahoo and AltaVista. The fight for the future of search is about whether information online remains open and distributed, or collapses into a handful of powerful AI driven platforms.

ChatGPT now handles 1.7 million requests every minute

ChatGPT has cemented itself as one of the fastest growing consumer apps of all time. OpenAI recently told Axios that their AI tool ChatGPT handles over 2.5 billion user instructions every single day. That's the equivalent of about 1.7 million instructions per minute or 29,000 per second. This is a stark increase from December 2024, when ChatGPT was handling about 1 billion messages per day. Having launched in November 2022, it's become one of the fastest growing consumer apps of all time. In comparison, Google's search engine handles around 14 billion searches daily. Sure, the services fulfill different purposes so it isn't an apples-to-oranges comparison, but it's a neat comparison nonetheless. (Google mainly presents links to web pages while ChatGPT directly "converses" with users and helps perform tasks.)

ChatGPT interactions have more than doubled in just 6 months

ChatGPT has cemented itself as one of the fastest growing consumer apps of all time. OpenAI recently told Axios that their AI tool ChatGPT handles over 2.5 billion user instructions every single day. That's the equivalent of about 1.7 million instructions per minute or 29,000 per second. This is a stark increase from December 2024, when ChatGPT was handling about 1 billion messages per day. Having launched in November 2022, it's become one of the fastest growing consumer apps of all time. In comparison, Google's search engine handles around 14 billion searches daily. Sure, the services fulfill different purposes so it isn't an apples-to-oranges comparison, but it's a neat comparison nonetheless. (Google mainly presents links to web pages while ChatGPT directly "converses" with users and helps perform tasks.)

ChatGPT now handles 2.5 billion prompts a day -- and it's changing how we search

ChatGPT users are officially chatting at scale and Google might want to start paying closer attention. According to Axios, ChatGPT now processes more than 2.5 billion prompts per day, with around 330 million of those coming from users in the U.S. alone. No wonder CEO Sam Altman is pushing for more GPUs. That's a dramatic surge from just seven months ago, when the platform was averaging about 1 billion daily prompts. The sharp rise in usage signals a major shift in how people are turning to AI for everyday answers, ideas and productivity boosts. It also raises an important question: what happens when we start asking ChatGPT more questions than we do Google? Google still dominates traditional search, with around 14 billion queries per day. But ChatGPT is catching up fast. While search engines are built to index the internet and surface relevant links, ChatGPT is trained to understand, summarize and synthesize language. That difference matters. More users are beginning to favor AI chat assistants for explanations, writing help, summaries and planning rather than sifting through web results. OpenAI's growing numbers show that chatbots are becoming default tools for a wide range of tasks, from work to school to daily life. If ChatGPT becomes the first stop for everything from dinner recipes to customer service scripts, it could chip away at Google's dominance in user attention, and eventually, ad dollars. It also suggests that generative AI is becoming deeply embedded in user habits, which means this shift for everyday users could mean: But there are trade-offs. ChatGPT's free tier still makes up the bulk of its user base, and while that scale is impressive, it also presents challenges. Running billions of prompts a day takes serious compute power, and OpenAI may need to adjust pricing, access or model behavior as it balances growth with sustainability. If you're already using ChatGPT regularly, this moment confirms you're not alone. But it also highlights the importance of knowing when to use a chatbot versus a traditional search engine. Use ChatGPT when you want something explained or simplified, you need help brainstorming or organizing ideas, or want support learning something new. If you're shopping locally or looking up something and want a variety of sources. Google is also a good option for fact-checking, although you can use ChatGPT for that, too. It's clear that ChatGPT is becoming a daily tool for hundreds of millions of users, and its 2.5 billion daily prompts show no signs of slowing. Whether this is a Google killer or a new kind of assistant remains to be seen. But one thing's clear: the way we search, learn and interact with information is evolving fast, and AI is at the center of it.

How many people use ChatGPT? Hint: OpenAI sees more than 1 billion prompts per day.

People are allegedly using ChatGPT a lot. Credit: Thomas Fuller/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images OpenAI provided new insight this week into just how much people use its signature AI chatbot on a daily basis. If you guessed that people entered 1 billion prompts into ChatGPT every day, you still wouldn't be close. You'd have to double that figure, and then add a half billion more, to arrive at the true sum. That's according to an Axios scoop, which revealed that 2.5 billion prompts are made every day in ChatGPT, OpenAI's signature chatbot. On Monday, Axios published a report detailing OpenAI CEO Sam Altman's plans this week in Washington, D.C., where he'll be lobbying for the AI industry. OpenAI gave Axios some eye-opening numbers about ChatGPT's daily usage statistics in advance of that trip. In addition to 2.5 billion daily prompts (a number that can't be independently verified), the company also claims at least 330 million of those prompts come from U.S. users. So, how many people use ChatGPT daily? In terms of total users, the company has reported since April that it has 500 million active weekly users, per Forbes. And according to popular web analytics company SEMRush, ChatGPT is now the fifth-most-visited website in the world, with about 4.6 billion visits in May 2025. In addition, analytics company Backlinko reports that ChatGPT gained 100 million users in its first three months, and it now "accounts for 62.5% of the market share for AI tools" with about 10 million paid subscribers. Axios also reported that a majority of ChatGPT users rely on the free version of the AI chatbot, which shouldn't come as a surprise. Since its explosive debut, ChatGPT has become a hugely influential tool, and many users now rely on it instead of Google to answer questions and find information online. While AI chatbots like ChatGPT have dedicated true believers, outlets like The Economist also report that "AI is killing the web." On top of that, an article in The Wall Street Journal recently referred to an "AI Armageddon," reporting that "Chatbots are replacing Google's traditional search, devastating traffic for some publishers."

Google should be worried - ChatGPT users now send 2.5 billion prompts a day, here's how that compares

People are increasingly turning to AI instead of search engines If you use ChatGPT on a daily basis, you're certainly not alone. According to Axios, ChatGPT users now send more than 2.5 billion prompts a day to the artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot, showing how incredibly popular it has become over the last few years. Of those numbers, 330 million daily prompts are thought to come from users based in the US, Axios reports. Although we don't know whether ChatGPT is actively searching the internet for answers in response to those prompts (or instead relying on its training data), the figure could be worrying reading for search giant Google. That's because people are increasingly turning away from Google and heading to the best AI tools for answers to their queries. Google, by comparison, doesn't share its daily search figures, but its parent company Alphabet recently revealed that the search engine gets roughly five trillion queries per year. That translates to about 14 billion daily searches - still some way ahead of ChatGPT, but perhaps not unassailably so. What's all the more impressive about ChatGPT's search figures is the rapid growth it's undergone since December 2024. Back then, Sam Altman, CEO of ChatGPT maker OpenAI, said that the platform received about one billion prompts a day. That means it's more than doubled its usage in around eight months. The question remains, though, whether ChatGPT's current model is economically sustainable for OpenAI. The report from Axios highlights that the "vast majority of the platform's more than 500 million weekly active users" are using the free version of ChatGPT, meaning OpenAI is only generating income from a small subset of users. And given there are claims that even the paid edition of ChatGPT is struggling to make money, securing so many daily searches might not be enough for OpenAI in the long run - at least in its current format. Still, there's no doubt that the company has undergone rapid expansion even in just the last year, as the daily prompt numbers attest. With Google looking nervously over its shoulder, search engines might soon look very different.

OpenAI lifts the lid on ChatGPT's daily prompt count -- and it's big

Since its debut in November 2022, OpenAI's ChatGPT has rapidly become one of the fastest-growing consumer apps, and is up there with the likes of Instagram and Threads when it comes to records in user growth. The first public release of the company's AI-powered chatbot stirred global interest in generative AI, and since then the tool has only gained more momentum. OpenAI recently revealed to Axios that its AI chatbot now handles more than 2.5 billion user prompts per day worldwide, a remarkable leap from just 1 billion daily queries in December 2024. And of that figure, around 330 million prompts come from U.S.-based users alone. Recommended Videos To put that in perspective, it means ChatGPT is processing more than 1.7 million prompts every minute, or 29,000 every second. While ChatGPT's 2.5 billion daily prompts are far fewer than the 14 billion or so queries that Google Search handles on a daily basis, the usage of ChatGPT is fundamentally different in that it doesn't just serve up web links, but actively helps users carry out tasks, automate workflows, conduct deep research, provide tutoring, and a whole lot more besides. This important difference means that ChatGPT acts not just as an information finder, but also as a collaborative productivity tool. The rapid adoption of ChatGPT highlights its growing presence in our digital lives, and it's clear that the technology is reshaping the way we interact with information online. In just a short time, ChatGPT has gone from a curious new tool to an integral part of the online experience, and is now a key example of how AI is transforming our digital lives. But of course, ChatGPT is not the only generative-AI tool out there, with OpenAI facing tough competition from a growing field of rivals, including tech giants like Google, Microsoft, and Meta, as well as a slew of startups, all of them investing huge sums of money in AI productivity tools in a bid to get ahead. Indeed, the eagerness to dominate the sector has prompted some pushback, with generative-AI firms known to train their AI models on the work of creatives without permission and payment, though recently some have begun inking licensing deals with publishers, artists, and rights holders in a bid to address copyright concerns.

ChatGPT now deals with a mind-boggling 2.5 billion queries daily, showing huge growth in 2025

TL;DR: ChatGPT usage surged to over 2.5 billion daily queries in 2025, an increase of a factor of 2.5x since the end of 2024. Most of those queries are from free users, however, according to a new report, which also contends that Sam Altman has a plan to keep AI 'democratic'. ChatGPT usage has jumped in a big way over the course of 2025, and according to a new report, the AI is now dealing with over 2.5 billion queries every day. If asked directly, ChatGPT is rather modest, it seems (Image Credit: OpenAI) As you might expect, those are mostly from free users, and this is data from Axios, which contends that 330 million daily prompts are from people in the US. To put these figures into perspective, as TechRadar (which flagged the report) observes, at the end of 2024, Sam Altman told us that ChatGPT was crunching through around a billion prompts on a daily basis. So, it seems that in a little over half a year, the use of the AI has grown by a factor of 2.5, which is pretty remarkable. If that kind of growth trajectory continues, we could even be looking at 5 billion daily queries being answered by ChatGPT as 2026 rolls around. (As TechRadar points out, for perspective, Google processes some 14 billion search queries every day). The Axios report also discusses how AI is making Americans more productive already, according to Altman, as well as the OpenAI CEO making a promise that AI will be kept 'democratic' by getting it in as 'many hands as possible' going by sources seemingly in the know. That's glossing over a whole lot of concerns about how AI might be used to manipulate democracy, or more specifically, voters - but that's a whole huge can of worms we won't get into here.

ChatGPT now handles an incredible 2.5 billion prompts every day

According to Axios, OpenAI's ChatGPT processes 2.5 billion prompts daily from global users, with approximately 330 million originating from the United States. This volume highlights the increasing integration of the AI model into daily digital interactions. Comparatively, Google handles a significantly higher volume of daily queries. While Alphabet, Google's parent company, does not disclose daily search figures, it reported 5 trillion annual queries, averaging nearly 14 billion daily searches. Independent analyses corroborate this, with Neil Patel of NP Digital estimating 13.7 billion daily searches and digital marketing firms SparkToro and Datos estimating around 16.4 billion daily searches for Google. Despite Google's established dominance, ChatGPT demonstrates rapid expansion. In December, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman stated that ChatGPT received over 1 billion daily queries. This indicates that the platform's query volume has more than doubled in approximately eight months, underscoring its accelerated adoption rate.

ChatGPT Receives This Many Prompts Every Single Day

OpenAI is expected to release GPT-5 AI model in the coming weeks ChatGPT reportedly handles more than 2.5 billion prompts daily. As per the report, OpenAI revealed the volume of messages its chatbot and servers process for the first time. The artificial intelligence (AI) company also highlighted the number of messages that are sent from the US, as compared to the rest of the world. The data highlights the rising popularity of the AI chatbot, as well as the high number of weekly active users. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman will reportedly be travelling to Washington to talk about democratising AI and bringing it to as many hands as possible. According to an Axios report, ChatGPT receives more than 2.5 billion messages from users each day. Out of this, more than 330 million messages are sent from just the US, and the remaining volume comes from the rest of the world. The publication claimed that these numbers were shared by the company directly. This marks the first time when OpenAI's prompt volume has been revealed in the public domain. Additionally, the AI firm reportedly also highlighted that ChatGPT has more than 500 million weekly active users, out of which the majority uses the free tier of the platform. The Android app of the chatbot also ranks at the top of the "Top Free" chart on Play Store, while the iOS app ranks second in the "Top Free Apps" list of the App Store. As per the report, Altman will speak about keeping AI democratic at Washington this week. Citing unnamed sources familiar with the matter, the report claimed that Altman's vision is to get the technology into the hands of as many people as possible, and not limiting it to the hands of the few. The high adoption of ChatGPT and similar AI platforms is resulting in a decline in search traffic. According to a report, the global search traffic dropped by 15 percent year-on-year (YoY) in June 2025. At the same time, the no-clickthrough rate to news websites grew from 56 percent in May 2024 to nearly 69 percent in May 2025.

ChatGPT answers over 2.5 billion queries a day, shows internal data

OpenAI may launch a Chromium-based AI browser called Aura soon. OpenAI's popular AI chatbot ChatGPT now reportedly processes over 2.5 billion requests per day. The San Francisco based AI startup, as per the internal data reported by Axios, is among the most used AI tools available online. The report also adds that around 330 million queries or requests come solely from the United States only. If the chatbot managed to process the requests at the same pace, it would be handling over 912 billion requests annually, which is an exponential growth from last year. The number itself suggests that the growth rate is massive, even if we compare it with the traditional search engines like Google, which has been into the business for years. As per the reports, Google gets around 5 trillion searches each year, and if the AI usage surges at this pace, it may soon reach a trillion milestone soon, which can be a problem for search engines. For the unversed, OpenAI's chatbot has recorded a weekly user surge from 300 million in December 2023 to over 500 million by March 2024. This surge comes as OpenAI has aggressively expanded its offering. Meanwhile, Reuters reported that the company is planning to develop its own AI-powered web browser that will compete directly with Google Chrome. The browser could include a panel on the right side with AI functions that can answer user queries. This development follows the release of ChatGPT Agent, a tool that can run tasks on users' computers. However, OpenAI has not yet officially confirmed the details. READ: OpenAI may be building Aura browser with built-in AI assistant: Here's what we know As per the reports, the web browser could be named Aura and will be built on Chromium to ensure compatibility. The browser is expected to be introduced in the coming weeks, and if it does manage to grab ChatGPT's 500 million weekly users, it could give stiff competition to Google Chrome.