Written By Deepti Ratnam
Published By: Deepti Ratnam | Published: Feb 28, 2026, 12:56 PM (IST)
ChatGPT is close to reaching a major milestone. According to OpenAI, the number of weekly active users of the AI chatbot has reached 900 million. This is a powerful increase compared to 800 million in October 2025. The site is currently heading towards the one billion weekly user target. Together with the user growth, OpenAI has also validated the sharp rise in paid subscribers.
Following OpenAI, ChatGPT currently has 900 million weekly users. This implies that in a very short duration 100 million new users have been added every week. The business also announced that it has achieved 50 million subscribers who pay.
OpenAI reported the strong growth of subscribers at the beginning of the year. It is predicted that January and February will be the largest months of new paid sign-ups in the history of the company. This demonstrates that users do not just test AI tools but also spend money on premium options.
ChatGPT is commonly utilized in writing, planning, coding, research, and learning. With an increasing number of users, OpenAI states that the improvement of the systems is observed. The company claims that users are being provided with faster response, better reliability and safety controls.
The growth update is coupled with an announcement of a huge funding. OpenAI has attracted a private round of funding amounting to 110 billion dollars. The pre-money valuation of the company has now reached 730 billion.
Key participants in this round are Amazon with a valuation of 50 billion dollars, Nvidia with a valuation of 30 billion dollars and SoftBank with a valuation of 30 billion dollars. The financing round remains open, and additional investors can be added. At this valuation, OpenAI would be one of the most valuable private companies in the world, should it be valued at this price.
The rate at which the number of ChatGPT users increases demonstrates the integration of AI tools in everyday life. In contrast to the social media platform, which relies primarily on the advertising aspect, the paid option of ChatGPT displays that the users are willing to spend the money directly on productivity tools.
Having almost 1 billion weekly users, as well as a well-subsidized financial base, OpenAI now has new challenges. It will be important to keep the trust, safety and performance with this scale. Billions of users and keeping quality on that scale is the next major milestone and it will be the future of AI platforms.