ChatGPT's Explosive Growth: Over 2.5 Billion Daily Prompts and Counting

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.

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."

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.