OpenAI’s ChatGPT is on pace to reach 700 million weekly active users, according to a statement this week from Nick Turley, VP and head of the ChatGPT app.
The milestone marks a sharp increase from 500 million in March and represents a fourfold jump compared to the same time last year.
Turley shared the update on X, writing:
“This week, ChatGPT is on track to reach 700M weekly active users — up from 500M at the end of March and 4× since last year. Every day, people and teams are learning, creating, and solving harder problems. Big week ahead. Grateful to the team for making ChatGPT more useful and delivering on our mission so everyone can benefit from AI.”
How Does This Compare to Other Search Engines?
Weekly active user (WAU) counts aren’t typically shared by traditional search engines, making direct comparisons difficult. Google reports aggregate data like total queries or monthly product usage.
While Google handles billions of searches daily and reaches billions of users globally, its early growth metrics were limited to search volume.
By 2004, roughly six years after launch, Google was processing over 200 million daily searches. That figure grew to four billion daily searches by 2009, more than a decade into the company’s existence.
For Microsoft’s Bing search engine, a comparable data point came in 2023, when Microsoft reported that its AI-powered Bing Chat had reached 100 million daily active users. However, that refers to the new conversational interface, not Bing Search as a whole.
How ChatGPT’s Growth Stands Out
Unlike traditional search engines, which built their user bases during a time of limited internet access, ChatGPT entered a mature digital market where global adoption could happen immediately. Still, its growth is significant even by today’s standards.
Although OpenAI hasn’t shared daily usage numbers, reporting WAU gives us a picture of steady engagement from a wide range of users. Weekly stats tend to be a more reliable measure of product value than daily fluctuations.
Why This Matters
The rise in ChatGPT usage is evidence of a broader shift in how people find information online.
A Wall Street Journal report cites market intelligence firm Datos, which found that AI-powered tools like ChatGPT and Perplexity make up 5.6% of desktop browser searches in the U.S., more than double their share from a year earlier.
The trend is even stronger among early adopters. Among people who began using large language models in 2024, nearly 40% of their desktop browser visits now go to AI search tools. During the same period, traditional search engines’ share of traffic from these users dropped from 76% to 61%, according to Datos.
Looking Ahead
With ChatGPT on track to reach 700 million weekly users, OpenAI’s platform is now rivaling the scale of mainstream consumer products.
As AI tools become a primary starting point for queries, marketers will need to rethink how they approach visibility and engagement. Staying competitive will require strategies focused as much on AI optimization as on traditional SEO.
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