As of this week, ChatGPT has reached a new milestone of $3 billion in global consumer spending on mobile, according to estimates from app intelligence provider Appfigures. This figure represents total spending on iOS and Android devices since the app was first released in May 2023, and then only on iOS.
Notably, most of that spending was done this year. Globally, consumers spent an estimated $2.48 billion on ChatGPT mobile apps in 2025. This is a 408% year-over-year increase from $487 million in 2024. In 2023, the app’s first year of availability, it earned $42.9 million, before increasing by 1,036% to reach its 2024 figure.
These numbers show a sharp increase in consumer adoption compared to other popular apps. For example, ChatGPT took 31 months to reach $3 billion in consumer spending, while top earner TikTok took 58 months, Appfigures told TechCrunch.
ChatGPT also reached the milestone faster than top streaming apps like Disney+ and HBO Max, reaching the $3 billion figure in 42 and 46 months, respectively.
However, xAI’s Grok has a similar revenue trajectory to ChatGPT compared to other AI rivals.
Grok was released to X Premium Plus subscribers in late 2023 and then became widely available last year. However, when comparing the pace of consumer spending across AI apps, once monetization started, Grok came closest to matching ChatGPT’s cumulative revenue at the same point. (This can be seen in the chart below, which plots AI app spending according to when each app started monetizing.)
While $3 billion in spending indicates significant consumer adoption, it is not the only way to measure AI app adoption and potential long-term returns.
ChatGPT’s mobile customers purchase paid subscriptions such as ChatGPT Plus, which costs $20 per month, and ChatGPT Pro, which costs $200 per month for advanced users. But AI apps can generate revenue through things like developer products and, perhaps soon on ChatGPT, advertising. Additionally, ChatGPT launched some kind of its own app store on Wednesday, indicating that the company will monetize it in some way in the future, the company said in a blog post.
Meanwhile, Google is exploring the possibility of shifting its healthy search advertising business to AI-powered search, particularly by placing ads in AI Mode, AI Overview, AI Shopping, and the increasingly AI-powered Discover page.
Anthropic is targeting the business market and reportedly plans to hit $70 billion in revenue by 2028.
