The popular chatbot from OpenAI, ChatGPT, is estimated to have reached the mark of 100 million monthly active users in January. According to a USB study on Wednesday, this success comes just after two months of launch, making it the fastest-growing consumer application in history.
Citing data from analytics firm Similarweb, the report said an average of about 13 million unique users visited ChatGPT per day in January, doubling the numbers from December.
UBS analysts wrote in the note, “In 20 years following the internet space, we cannot recall a faster ramp in a consumer internet app.”
According to data from Sensor Tower, TikTok took about nine months to reach 100 million users after its global launch and Instagram took 2-1/2 years.
ChatGPT is an open-source AI that is capable of generating articles, essays, jokes, and even poetry in response to prompts. It was made available to the public for free in late November by OpenAi, a private company backed by Microsoft Corp.
On Thursday, it was announced by OpenAI that it would charge a $20 monthly subscription fee initially for users in the US only. A more stable and faster service would be provided by the company in addition to the opportunity to try new features first.
Analysts believe the viral launch of ChatGPT will give OpenAI a first-mover advantage against other companies that provide AI services. The growing usage has provided valuable feedback to OpenAI to help train the chatbot’s responses.
The company said the subscription revenue would help cover the computing cost.
Microsoft made an announcement last month about another multi-billion-dollar investment in OpenAI in the form of cash and the provision of cloud computing.
