OpenAI is experiencing unprecedented explosive growth. The company announced on Monday that the weekly active users of its flagship product, ChatGPT, have reached 700 million, more than quadrupling year-over-year, marking another important milestone in the AI application field.
The momentum of user growth is strong, and commercialization is accelerating rapidly
ChatGPT's user growth is showing an astonishing acceleration trend. In addition to the significant increase in weekly active users, its daily user message volume has also exceeded 3 billion. Compared to a 2.5-fold growth rate from the same period last year, this data shows a continuous rise in user activity and an increasing reliance on AI tools.
In terms of commercialization, OpenAI has also delivered impressive results. The number of paid business users increased from 3 million in June to 5 million, a growth of over 66%. This data reflects the rapid increase in acceptance of AI tools by enterprises and educational institutions, and the strong growth trend in demand for AI applications in the commercial market.
Financially, OpenAI's revenue for the first seven months of the year doubled, with an annualized revenue reaching $12 billion. Compared to about $4 billion in revenue in 2024, this growth is remarkable and could even exceed the previously expected $12.7 billion revenue target for 2025.
GPT-5 is coming? Executive hints at an important moment
Nick Turley, OpenAI's Vice President of Products, said when announcing the user data: "Every day, individuals and teams are learning, creating, and solving more complex problems. The next week will be an important moment." This statement has sparked widespread speculation in the industry.
Analysts generally believe that the "important week" mentioned by Turley likely hints at the upcoming release of GPT-5. According to previous reports, this version was originally scheduled to be released in early August, and it is expected to integrate reasoning capabilities (o3), launch mini and nano versions, and achieve significant improvements in coding and performance.
If GPT-5 does indeed come out, it will be another major upgrade in OpenAI's technological capabilities and market competitiveness. The release of the new version is expected to further solidify ChatGPT's leading position in the AI chatbot field and may bring a new round of user growth and revenue increase.
Competitive Landscape: Still Lags Behind Google's AI Products
Despite its rapid growth, ChatGPT still faces considerable challenges in competition with tech giants. Sundar Pichai, CEO of Alphabet, the parent company of Google, revealed in a recent earnings call that its AI summary product, AI Overviews, currently has about 2 billion monthly users in over 200 countries, and the monthly active users of the AI chatbot Gemini App have also exceeded 450 million.
From a comparison of user scale, Google's AI products still have a clear advantage in coverage. However, ChatGPT performs better in user activity and paid conversion, reflecting different focuses between the two companies in their AI product strategies.
Product Optimization: Focusing on User Health and Experience Enhancement
As the user base expands rapidly, OpenAI is actively optimizing the product experience. This week, ChatGPT introduced a new update that adds a rest reminder feature, aiming to provide users with a healthier and more goal-oriented way of using the tool.
This update demonstrates OpenAI's concern for user well-being. As the usage time of AI tools increases, how to help users develop healthy usage habits has become an important issue. The introduction of the rest reminder function shows the company's consideration of users' physical and mental health in product design.
Additionally, the new version is dedicated to improving users' emotional and mental state, providing guidance for major personal decisions, and integrating professional advice from doctors, researchers, and mental health consultants. These features make ChatGPT evolve from a simple conversation tool into a more comprehensive AI assistant.
Industry Impact: AI Application Popularization Enters a New Stage
OpenAI's rapid growth not only reflects the market recognition of its products but also indicates that AI technology is entering a new stage of large-scale popularization. The figure of 700 million weekly active users means that about one-tenth of the global population is regularly using AI dialogue tools, which is quite rare in the history of technology.
The rapid growth in the number of commercial users also signals that AI tools are shifting from personal use to enterprise-level applications. As more companies integrate AI into their daily workflows, there is still great potential for this market to grow.
The dual explosive growth in ChatGPT's user numbers and revenue marks a new stage in the AI industry. With the continuous maturation of technology and the ongoing expansion of application scenarios, AI tools are expected to play an important role in more fields, profoundly changing people's work and lifestyles.