Overview
- Sensor Tower reported that ChatGPT's true audience share fell below 50 percent by the end of May 2026, landing at about 46.4 percent while Google’s Gemini and Anthropic’s Claude expanded their shares.
- ChatGPT remains the largest assistant with roughly 1.1 billion monthly users and became the fastest app to reach one billion monthly users in May 2026.
- Global engagement and spending on generative AI surged in H1 2026, with time spent projected to reach about 36 billion hours and in‑app purchase revenue topping roughly $4 billion.
- Anthropic’s Claude now outperforms rivals on monetization, with about 13 percent of iOS users paying for subscriptions and a U.S. mobile ARPU near $2.76 versus ChatGPT's roughly $1.74.
- Sensor Tower ties spikes in ChatGPT uninstalls to OpenAI’s reported February deal with the U.S. Department of Defense and notes that OpenAI has begun ad experiments, with about 17 percent of daily ChatGPT users estimated to have seen ads by May 2026.