OpenAI's leadership advised staff that ChatGPT has resumed growth at a rate exceeding 10% per month, according to an internal message circulated within the company. The chatbot service is reported to have more than 800 million weekly active users, and the company is preparing to release "an updated Chat model" during the coming week, according to that internal communication.
OpenAI did not immediately respond to requests for comment. The report could not be independently verified.
The announcement arrives amid an intensifying contest among AI developers for users and commercial opportunities. Established and emerging AI companies are increasing efforts to attract customers and expand market share. One competitor's consumer-facing app recorded more than 750 million monthly active users at the end of the December quarter, highlighting the scale of user engagement across the sector.
Anthropic has been characterized within industry commentary as a disruptive force in the software industry, particularly as software developers have adopted its AI tools for coding tasks. Anthropic is also pursuing business contracts for workplace automation with products such as Claude Cowork, which executes computer tasks intended to assist white-collar employees.
Internally, OpenAI's CEO also said the company's coding product, Codex, experienced roughly 50% growth compared with the prior week. Codex is positioned in direct competition with Anthropic's programming tool, Claude Code. In a separate product update, OpenAI launched a new coding model last week called GPT-5.3-Codex.
To support ongoing development costs, OpenAI plans to begin showing advertisements in ChatGPT to a subset of U.S. users as part of broader revenue-generation efforts. The company frames this step as a means to help fund the substantial expenses associated with building and maintaining advanced AI systems.
Context and implications
- The reported rebound in monthly growth and the introduction of an updated chat model indicate a renewed push to sustain user engagement.
- Rapid week-over-week expansion of the Codex coding product underscores competition in developer tools and enterprise AI offerings.
- Ad testing in ChatGPT signals a material shift toward monetization strategies to offset high development costs.