ChatGPT at 3: Still Earning 2x Its Rivals Combined
ChatGPT's mobile app turns three on May 18, which makes this a good time to check in and see whether the app that made AI mainstream on mobile is still giving competitors a run for their money and downloads.
It is.
The AI chatbot market looks very different than it did a year ago. Gemini has become a download machine, Claude is finally showing real mobile momentum, Grok is monetizing aggressively, and Perplexity continues apace with a much smaller but very valuable user base. ChatGPT is no longer alone.
But according to Appfigures Intelligence, ChatGPT is still the revenue engine of mobile AI. In April, ChatGPT generated an estimated $301M in worldwide consumer spend across the App Store and Google Play. Gemini, Claude, Grok, Microsoft Copilot, and Perplexity combined generated $138M.
The field is getting bigger. ChatGPT still made a little more than 2x the rest of the leading revenue-generating chatbot apps combined.
The Lead Is Smaller, But Still Enormous
ChatGPT's revenue lead has narrowed a lot. In January 2025, ChatGPT generated 18.5x as much worldwide consumer spend as the other leading chatbot apps combined. By April 2026, that multiple was down to a little more than 2x.
The multiple dropped because competitors are finally making real money. Claude generated $76M in worldwide consumer spend in April, according to our estimates. Grok generated $39M. Perplexity and Gemini were both around $11M.
ChatGPT still generated $301M.
The category is no longer tiny outside of ChatGPT. Competitors are growing, but ChatGPT is still operating at a scale none of them has reached.
Rivals Are Winning More Downloads
Competitors combined have generated more worldwide downloads than ChatGPT every month since September 2025. App Store and Google Play users are clearly trying more AI apps, not just defaulting to ChatGPT every time.
April's headline download total needs context. ChatGPT generated 54.5M worldwide downloads in March and 49.4M in April through April 28. Looking only at the monthly totals, that looks like a 9% decline.
But March had 31 days. April's estimate in this comparison includes 28 days. On a daily-average basis, ChatGPT went from 1.76M downloads per day in March to 1.77M in April. That's basically flat, and slightly up.
Adoption is getting more competitive. April does not show the kind of download collapse the monthly total implies.
Revenue Is Still Growing
Consumer spending is where ChatGPT still looks strongest.
According to our estimates, ChatGPT's worldwide consumer spend rose from $224M in April 2025 to $301M in April 2026. That's 34% growth on top of an already huge base.
For January through April, ChatGPT generated an estimated $1.3B in worldwide consumer spend in 2026, up 121% from the same period in 2025. Claude grew much faster, from $11M to $156M, but that growth came from a much smaller starting point.
That's not a knock on Claude. Claude is the challenger worth watching. It became the number two chatbot app by worldwide consumer spend in April and is finally turning Anthropic's brand into a meaningful mobile business.
Claude's growth makes the category stronger. It doesn't make ChatGPT small.
ChatGPT Still Monetizes Best
ChatGPT was the top app in this group by worldwide consumer spend per download in April 2025 and again in April 2026. Its monthly consumer spend per download rose from $4.18 to $5.83, a 39% increase. Claude rose from $3.17 to $4.06 over the same period.
Grok and Perplexity are closing in fast. Grok went from $0.38 to $5.26, while Perplexity went from $0.93 to $4.90. Those are strong moves, and paid AI on mobile is no longer just a ChatGPT story.
But ChatGPT still led the pack.
This metric is not lifetime value. Subscription revenue and monthly downloads come from different user cohorts, so consumer spend per download is best used as directional arithmetic. Even with that caveat, ChatGPT's monetization did not weaken as competitors became more aggressive. It improved.
The Market Is Catching Up, Not Moving On
ChatGPT is moving from breakout app to category leader.
A year ago, ChatGPT was so far ahead that the rest of the category barely registered. Now the rest of the category is real. Gemini is bringing downloads, Claude is bringing revenue momentum, Grok is monetizing quickly, and Perplexity is holding onto a valuable niche.
But the full picture still runs through ChatGPT. It is losing some of the loneliness that made its early mobile run look untouchable, but not the business that made it important.
The third anniversary check-in shows a healthier market around ChatGPT, not a ChatGPT collapse. The app is still the leader. The pack is just finally close enough to see.
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All figures included in this report are estimated. Unless specified otherwise, estimated revenue is always net, meaning it's the amount the developer earned after Apple and Google took their fee.
