Regardless of how Anthropic ultimately ends up in its feud with the Department of Defense, the attention it’s generated, coupled with the company’s hilarious Super Bowl ad targeting OpenAI and the growing popularity of Claude Code, makes it more popular than ever with consumers.
A study of billions of anonymized credit card transactions from nearly 28 million U.S. consumers conducted for TechCrunch by consumer transaction analytics firm Indagari showed that Claude is gaining a record number of paying members.
As with all big data analysis, there are caveats. While this data is substantial, it does not include all consumers. This means that Indagari cannot calculate the total number of current or new users of Anthropic. It also doesn’t include Claude’s enterprise business (which is the company’s bread and butter) or free tier users (those who don’t pay for Anthropic at all). The total number of consumer users of Claude is estimated worldwide (confirmed numbers range from 18 million to 30 million), but Anthropic does not publish this data. However, a spokesperson told TechCrunch that Claude’s number of paid subscribers has more than doubled this year.
Notably, consumers pulled out their wallets in record numbers for Claude from January to February. Interestingly, Indagari told TechCrunch that past users returned to Claude in record numbers in February as well.
Indagari said the majority of new subscribers are the lowest level “pro” users ($20 per month versus $100 or $200 per month).
Data through early March confirms continued subscriber growth. (Data will be available with a two week delay.)
To summarize why consumers have become so aware of Claude since January: Anthropic released several Super Bowl commercials that mocked ChatGPT’s decision to show users ads, and Claude promised he would never do the same. The spot was funny and effective (and it even got under OpenAI CEO Sam Altman’s skin).
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But the bigger uproar began in late January, when multiple media sites, including the Wall Street Journal and Axios, began reporting on the deepening feud between Anthropic and the Pentagon. At the heart of the controversy was what the military could and could not do with Anthropic’s AI.
Anthropic did not allow the Department of Defense to use its AI models for lethal autonomous operations (AI could kill people) or for mass surveillance of American citizens. The beef has become increasingly public, with Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei issuing a firm public statement on February 26, amid threats from the Department of Defense to damage Anthropic’s business by labeling the company a supply risk. That’s what the Department of Defense did. A federal judge temporarily blocked the department’s designation this week, but lawsuits are now flying around.
During this period, new user growth increased rapidly. This increase is particularly noticeable between media reports in late January and Amodei’s statement on February 26th.
Beyond the drama, subscriptions are driven by Claude Code and Claude Cowork, developer and productivity tools released in January. Computer Usage features released this week also caused a spike, Anthropic told TechCrunch. This feature allows Claude to operate independently within the computer, allowing him to click, scroll, and perform actions on his own. Integrates with Dispatch to allow users to assign tasks from their phones. These features are not available to free tier users.
Yet, despite Anthropic’s growth among U.S. consumers willing to pay for AI, Claude still lags far behind ChatGPT.
OpenAI’s uninstall numbers spiked immediately after announcing the Department of Defense contract, a move that contrasts with Anthropic’s safety measures, but Indagari’s data shows that OpenAI is still gaining new paying members at a rapid pace and remains the largest consumer AI platform among them.
