Anthropic’s Claude is winning over paid consumers, a market owned by ChatGPT

Recent insights from Indagari, a credit card transaction analytics firm, reveal a noteworthy trend: consumers are increasingly opting for Anthropic's AI, Claude. This shift indicates that Anthropic is attracting a broader and more diverse customer base than previously thought, extending beyond just enterprise and startup developers utilizing Claude Code. Indagari's analysis, which encompasses billions of anonymized transactions from approximately 28 million U.S. consumers, highlights that while exact revenue figures for Anthropic remain elusive, the data is substantial enough to identify significant trends. Notably, between January 2026 and May 10, 2026, Claude's revenue from paying consumers has surged by about 75%, demonstrating consistent growth month over month. Interestingly, this upward trajectory continued even after a notable spike in March when Anthropic made headlines by refusing to let its AI models be employed by the Trump administration for mass surveillance and autonomous weaponry. This decision appears to resonate positively with consumers, contributing to Claude's increasing appeal. DataCamp, an online platform aimed at teaching AI skills to a wide audience, has also reported a remarkable rise in interest for Claude. With around 20 million users, DataCamp noted that Claude has become the most searched term on their site, surpassing even the term "AI" itself. While courses on ChatGPT remain more popular for corporate training, consumer interest in Claude courses has outstripped ChatGPT by a staggering three to one, showcasing an 18-fold increase in demand within just the last month. Despite Claude's impressive growth, it remains clear that ChatGPT continues to dominate the AI landscape among consumers. According to Sensor Tower, while Claude is making strides this year, it still trails significantly behind ChatGPT in terms of overall popularity and user base. ChatGPT's growth has slowed recently, likely due to its already extensive reach, yet it still boasts a far larger number of paying users, as indicated by Indagari's findings. As both OpenAI and Anthropic approach the prospect of becoming public companies, the dynamics of their businesses are under close scrutiny. The implications of Anthropic's recent conflicts with the U.S. government are still unfolding; the government has restricted the use of Anthropic's advanced models, Mythos 5 and Fable 5, to non-Americans, prompting the company to withdraw them from the market temporarily. Nevertheless, all available data suggests that Anthropic is successfully expanding its consumer and enterprise user base, leaving industry observers intrigued about its future trajectory. Anthropic has chosen not to comment on these developments.