ChatGPT's meteoric rise: 800 million users in just 3 years, generating 29,000 prompts a second

Launched on November 30, 2022, OpenAI's ChatGPT quickly established the company as a leading AI innovator in Silicon Valley. The chatbot now boasts approximately 800 million weekly active users.

At the initial announcement, CEO Sam Altman remarked, "Language interfaces are going to be a big deal," a prediction that significantly understated the tool's eventual popularity. Within three years, ChatGPT became one of the most widely used technology products in history.

Available as both a web platform and mobile app, ChatGPTs adoption among individuals and businesses has reinforced OpenAIs position as a serious competitor against tech giants like Meta and Google. Its growth has been meteoric since the first research release, initially powered by GPT3.5, with more advanced models like GPT4o in 2024 and GPT5 in 2025 improving performance and efficiency across diverse tasks.

GPT5, now the default model for non-subscribers, delivers faster responses and improved accuracy for real-world queries, while ChatGPT Plus users can still access GPT4o. OpenAI highlights improvements in reducing hallucinations, enhancing instruction-following, and optimizing performance in writing, coding, and health-related tasks.

Explosive User Growth

One month after its debut, ChatGPT had one million weekly active users. This figure grew to over 100 million after one year, 350 million after two years, and reached 700 million by mid-2025. Currently, weekly active users number around 800 million, representing nearly 10% of the worlds adult population.

Early adoption was dominated by users with masculine names, but by the first half of 2025, the gender distribution reached near parity, with women beginning to outnumber men. Female users tended to seek guidance and writing help, while male users focused on technical assistance and multimedia inquiries.

By July 2025, ChatGPT users were sending 18 billion messages per weekover 2.5 billion daily, or roughly 29,000 per second. The platform supports both work-related and casual interactions, with non-work messages increasing to 73% of total usage by mid-2025.

Business Integration and Customization

ChatGPT serves over one million paying business customers through services like ChatGPT for Work and API access. Users can also create custom GPT versions without coding, tailoring the chatbot for personal or professional tasks. By early 2024, over three million custom GPTs had been created and shared.

The platform has expanded functionality to include image generation, speech-to-text transcription, AI-driven shopping recommendations, and group chat features.

Global Reach and Valuation Impact

ChatGPT is accessible in more than 150 countries. Its widespread adoption has significantly boosted OpenAIs valuation, which rose from $80 billion in early 2024 to $157 billion by October 2024, and reportedly reached $500 billion after a secondary share sale in 2025. Analysts project a potential valuation of $1 trillion if the company goes public.

ChatGPT has firmly established itself as a versatile tool for billions worldwide, transforming how people interact with AI for work, personal projects, and daily life.

Author: Sophia Brooks