Claude Makes More Money Per User Than Market Leader ChatGPT Report Finds

BreakingBusinessClaude Makes More Money Per User Than Market Leader ChatGPT Report FindsBySiladitya Ray,Forbes Staff. Siladitya Ray is a New Delhi-based Forbes news team reporter.Follow AuthorJun 16, 2026, 06:30am EDTToplineChatGPT became the fastest app to reach 1 billion monthly active users and remained the market share leader, but rivals like Anthropic’s Claude and Google’s Gemini have been closing the gap and even beating OpenAI’s app on metrics such as monetization, according to a new report.While ChatGPT has vastly more active users than its rivals, Claude earns more revenue per user.NurPhoto via Getty ImagesKey FactsChatGPT’s iOS and Android apps hit 1 billion monthly active users last month, according to Sensor Tower’s State of AI report—just three years after arriving on smartphone app stores.While ChatGPT continued to lead in monthly users, the report showed its market share fell below 50% for the first time in March this year, down from 81% in March 2024.Anthropic’s Claude has seen a significant jump in users since the start of 2026 and is beating its rivals in monetization, with 13% of its iOS users paying for a subscription compared to ChatGPT’s 8%.The Claude app also makes 1.5 times as much per user as ChatGPT, with an average revenue of $2.76 per user compared to $1.74 for OpenAI’s app.While ChatGPT remains the biggest AI app by monthly users in most countries except Russia and China, Google’s Gemini is the fastest growing in key markets like the U.S., Canada, most of the European Union, Japan and South Korea. OpenAI’s app, however, remains the best at retaining new users who sign up each month, with a user retention rate of 86% last month—though Claude’s is now closing the gap, having risen to 73.7%. if (!window.cnxel) { window.cnxel = {}; window.cnxel.cmd = []; var iframe = document.createElement('iframe'); iframe.style.display = 'none'; iframe.onload = function() { var iframeDoc = iframe.contentWindow.document; var script = iframeDoc.createElement...