According to TechCrunch, citing data from Appfigures, OpenAI’s ChatGPT mobile app has hit a new milestone of $3 billion in worldwide consumer spending. This figure represents all spending on iOS and Android since the app’s launch in May 2023. The bulk of that revenue, a massive $2.48 billion, was spent just in 2025 alone, marking a 408% year-over-year increase from 2024. For context, the app earned $42.9 million in its first year in 2023 before growing over 1,000% the next year. This growth trajectory has allowed ChatGPT to reach the $3 billion mark in just 31 months, significantly faster than top apps like TikTok, Disney+, and HBO Max.
The speed is what’s crazy
Look, $3 billion is a huge number. But the real story here is the velocity. Hitting that figure in under three years is wild when you stack it up against cultural juggernauts. TikTok took 58 months. Disney+ took 42. ChatGPT basically lapped them. This tells us something important: consumers are not just curious about AI, they’re willing to pay for it at a scale and pace we haven’t really seen before. It’s not a niche tech enthusiast thing anymore; it’s mainstream utility. People are voting with their wallets, and they’re doing it fast.
The subscription model is working (for now)
Here’s the thing: all this revenue is coming from subscriptions. We’re talking about people willingly paying $20 a month for ChatGPT Plus, or even $200 a month for the Pro tier. That’s a serious commitment. It proves there’s a market for premium, generalized AI access. But is it sustainable? This is where OpenAI’s other moves get interesting. They just launched a platform for developers to submit apps, which they hint will be monetized. And let’s not forget the ever-present whisper of ads. The $3 billion from subscriptions is a fantastic foundation, but you can bet they’re building a whole revenue ecosystem on top of it.
Grok is the only one keeping pace
The article makes a fascinating point about the competition. Among the other AI apps, only xAI’s Grok has shown a similar revenue trajectory to ChatGPT when you align their monetization start dates. Everyone else is lagging far behind. So what does that mean? It suggests that having a strong, existing platform (in Grok’s case, being baked into X) and a distinct, personality-driven brand might be the only recipe for even coming close to OpenAI’s head start. For other rivals, the gap isn’t just widening; it’s becoming a chasm. The race for consumer AI dollars is looking less like a pack and more like a leader with one distant pursuer.
What this really measures
Okay, let’s take a step back. This $3 billion figure is incredible, but it’s not the whole story. It measures consumer appetite for a specific type of product: a direct-to-user, chat-based AI assistant. It doesn’t capture the potentially larger enterprise and developer revenue, which is a huge part of OpenAI’s business. And it doesn’t tell us about user retention or long-term engagement. Still, you can’t argue with the signal. When an app grows from $43 million to $2.5 billion in yearly revenue in just two years, something fundamental is shifting. Basically, the mobile AI assistant has arrived as a major software category, and OpenAI is so far ahead it’s not even funny.
