ChatGPT becomes fastest-growing app, hits 1 billion users

Artificial intelligence (AI)-based chatbot ChatGPT has set global popularity records. Since its launch in November 2022, hundreds of millions of people have used ChatGPT and its rapid success has pushed many companies to accelerate development of AI chatbots.

Now, the number of ChatGPT users has reached 1 billion meaning this AI chatbot achieved the milestone in just three years. This is a milestone that no other popular app including Instagram, TikTok, WhatsApp, YouTube or Facebook has reached in such a short time.

Previously, this record was held by TikTok which reached 1 billion users in 5.1 years. Instagram took 7.7 years, YouTube 8.1 years and Facebook 8.7 years to reach the same milestone.

According to Reuters, ChatGPT reached 1 billion users in May 2026. Sensor Tower data suggests that another AI chatbot, “Cloudy” is also rapidly gaining attention with 56 million monthly users. Its user base has increased by 640% in a year, while ChatGPT’s users increased by 62% during the same period.

However, ChatGPT’s new milestone indicates that AI assistants are increasingly becoming part of everyday tools used for writing, planning, coding and many other tasks.