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Claude’s Paying Consumer Base Grows 75% in 2026 as Anthropic Closes Gap With ChatGPT

Anthropic’s Claude is gaining significant ground with paying consumers, according to credit card transaction data from Indagari, which analyses anonymised spending patterns across approximately 28 million US consumers. The data, covering weekly transactions from 2025 through May 2026, shows Claude’s paying consumer base and associated revenue growing roughly 75% since January 2026, with gains continuing steadily even after a notable spike in March.

The trend suggests Claude’s appeal extends well beyond its established base of enterprise clients and developer users of Claude Code, pointing to broader consumer adoption across subscription and API token purchases.

Corroborating data comes from DataCamp, an AI skills education platform with around 20 million users, which reports that “Claude” has become the most searched term on its site, surpassing even the word “AI.” Among self-directed learners, demand for Claude courses is outpacing ChatGPT by three to one, with course interest rising 18 times in the past 30 days alone.

Despite the momentum, ChatGPT remains the dominant consumer AI platform by a substantial margin across paying users and overall reach, with Claude still closing a considerable gap.

The data takes on added significance as Anthropic moves toward a public listing. The company has also faced recent regulatory headwinds after the US government restricted its most advanced cybersecurity-focused models, Mythos 5 and Fable 5, from non-American users, prompting Anthropic to withdraw them from the market entirely.

James Dargan
About the author
James Dargan

James Dargan is a writer and researcher at The AI Insider. His focus is on the AI startup ecosystem and he writes articles on the space that have a tone accessible to the average reader.

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