3 years old, 800 million users, 29,000 prompts a second: ChatGPT's meteoric rise, by the numbers

Altman described the first iteration of ChatGPT as a "research release."

"Soon you will be able to have helpful assistants that talk to you, answer questions, and give advice. Later, you can have something that goes off and does tasks for you," Altman wrote on X. "Eventually, you can have something that goes off and discovers new knowledge for you."

At the time, ChatGPT relied on OpenAI's GPT‑3.5 large language model. As the company built more advanced models — like GPT-4o in 2024 — ChatGPT became faster and more efficient in tackling a wider range of tasks.

The most recent version, GPT-5 replaced older versions — to the disappointment of some who missed the "personality" of GPT-4o. In response, Altman said users subscribed to ChatGPT Plus would still be able to use GPT-4o.

GPT-5 is the default model for non-subscribers, and OpenAI said it is designed for casual users.

"GPT‑5 not only outperforms previous models on benchmarks and answers questions more quickly, but—most importantly—is more useful for real-world queries," the company said in August. "We've made significant advances in reducing hallucinations, improving instruction following, and minimizing sycophancy, while leveling up GPT-5's performance in three of ChatGPT's most common uses: writing, coding, and health."

One month after its November 2022 launch, ChatGPT had attracted one million weekly active users, according to a study by the company's Economic Research team and Harvard economist David Deming.

"ChatGPT had more than 100 million logged-in WAU after one year, and almost 350 million after two years," the study, published in September, said, referring to weekly average users. "By the end of July 2025, ChatGPT had more than 700 million total WAU, nearly 10% of the world's adult population."

An OpenAI spokesperson told Business Insider that ChatGPT has now reached 800 million weekly active users.

Researchers for OpenAI's study said that users with masculine names initially dominated ChatGPT's user demographics.

"A significant share (around 80%) of the weekly active users (WAU) in the first few months after ChatGPT was released were by users with typically masculine first names. However, in the first half of 2025, we see the share of active users with typically feminine and typically masculine names reach near-parity."

Researchers said that as of September 2025, women appear to outnumber men on the platform.

"By June 2025, we observe active users are more likely to have typically feminine names. This suggests that gender gaps in ChatGPT usage have closed substantially over time," researchers wrote.

They said the users with "typically female first names" tended to use ChatGPT for queries about practical guidance and writing. On the other hand, users with "typically male first names" were more likely to create queries about multimedia, technical help, and seeking out information.

An OpenAI spokesperson told Business Insider that ChatGPT users were sending the chatbot 18 billion messages a week by July.

The company's study broke down the number of messages even further: Users were sending "more than 2.5 billion messages per day, or about 29,000 messages per second" by July.

ChatGPT isn't just a tool for people who want to create Studio Ghibli-style images or diet plans.

OpenAI announced that it had accumulated one million business customers in November 2025.

"This includes all organizations that actively pay OpenAI for business use—either through ChatGPT for Work, or through direct consumption of our models through our developer platform," the company said.

ChatGPT has played a big role in driving OpenAI's sky-high valuation.

A New York Times report valued the company at $80 billion in February 2024. By October 2024, the valuation skyrocketed to $157 billion.

More recently, OpenAI Chief Financial Officer Sarah Friar told attendees at the Goldman Sachs tech conference in September that after a secondary share sale, the company had reached a $500 billion valuation, making it the most valuable startup in history.

In October, a Reuters report said OpenAI could achieve a $1 trillion valuation if it ever goes public.

The AI-powered chatbot is available for use in over 150 countries. An OpenAI spokesperson shared the top 10 countries using ChatGPT:

1. United States
2. India
3. Brazil
4. Germany
5. Indonesia
6. France
7. Japan
8. Mexico
9. United Kingdom
10. Philippines

OpenAI's study on ChatGPT said that 53% of messages users sent were non-work-related and 47% were work-related in June 2024.

A year later, researchers said non-work-related messages jumped to 73%, while work-related messages fell to 27%.

"Both types of messages have grown continuously, but non-work messages have grown faster and now represent more than 70% of all consumer ChatGPT messages," the researchers wrote. "While most economic analysis of AI has focused on its impact on productivity in paid work, the impact on activity outside of work (home production) is on a similar scale and possibly larger."

When ChatGPT first launched, users were confined to writing prompts and receiving written responses from the chatbot.

Now, ChatGPT has several features, including the ability to generate images and transcribe speech to text. In April 2025, the company introduced a new AI shopping feature that curates product suggestions.

OpenAI also introduced a group chat feature in ChatGPT in November.

In November 2023, OpenAI announced that users could create custom versions of ChatGPT. No coding is required to build a GPT.

"GPTs are a new way for anyone to create a tailored version of ChatGPT to be more helpful in their daily life, at specific tasks, at work, or at home—and then share that creation with others," the company said.

OpenAI said users had created more than 3 million custom GPTs as of January 2024. "Many builders have shared their GPTs for others to use," OpenAI said.