OpenAI Surpasses 400 Million Users on Weekly Basis

Despite the rise of new competitors like the Chinese DeepSeek, ChatGPT creator OpenAI reported that it has reached a major milestone, exceeding 400 million weekly active users in February and this is in accordance to a business representative who talked to Reuters on Thursday, which demonstrates the quick rise in the usage of AI capabilities.

This impressive rise underscores the growing global acceptance of artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities, a company representative told Reuters on Thursday.

In December, the Microsoft-backed firm experienced a sharp rise in its user base and boasted up to 33% from 300 million weekly active users in December. In February, the number of its paying corporate users surpassed 2 million, more than tripling since its last report in September.

The encouraging figures follow weeks after China’s DeepSeek raised concerns about US dominance in the generative AI market by releasing an AI model that it claimed could perform on par with or better than Western competitors at a tenth of the price.

Lightcap noted ChatGPT’s “natural progression” as it grows more practical and recognizable to a wider range of users.

However, since then, the little firm has experienced downtime due to a spike in demand for DeepSeek.

In addition, there have been concerns over how DeepSeek managed to acquire Nvidia’s H800 chips—which are required to train AI models—despite Washington’s prohibition on their shipments to China.

Since its introduction in late January, OpenAI has seen a fivefold spike in developer traffic for its o3 model and a twofold rise for its reasoning models over the past six months.

Earlier in the day, CNBC broke the story on OpenAI’s weekly users.

The expansion of OpenAI goes beyond its user base. Over the previous six months, the business recorded a twofold rise in developer traffic for their reasoning models.

Additionally, developer interest in its o3 model, which was introduced in late January, has increased fivefold.

These indicators demonstrate OpenAI’s dominant position in the AI market and its capacity to draw in developers and companies looking for cutting-edge AI solutions.

Word-of-mouth spreads the word about it. They recognize its usefulness. In an interview, Lightcap stated, “They see their friends using it,” but that it takes time for people to discover use cases that appeal to them. “There is a general effect of people seeing how valuable these tools are and wanting them very much.”

This is having an impact on OpenAI’s expanding enterprise business. According to Lightcap, the firm now has 2 million paying enterprise customers, nearly tripling from September. Employees frequently use ChatGPT on their own and recommend the service to their employers. 

“Organic consumer adoption, where people are already familiar with the product, gives us a lot of advantages and a tail wind,” he stated. “On a different curve, growth is really healthy.”

According to Lightcap, developer traffic has also increased over the last six months, quintupling for the company’s “reasoning” model o3. OpenAI is used by developers to incorporate the technology into their own programs. Among OpenAI’s biggest business clients are Uber, T-Mobile, Moderna, and Morgan Stanley.

Lightcap compared this use to cloud services, which were first introduced by Amazon Web Services twenty years ago. Since consumers may adopt it whenever they want, the consumer business may expand more quickly, but the enterprise is still “building up,” he added. 

Scaling an enterprise firm involves a learning process and a purchase cycle, according to Lightcap. AI will resemble cloud services. You won’t be able to manage a firm that ultimately doesn’t operate on these really potent models underneath the surface.