Claude is gaining significant traction, with a new report stating that the company is seeing in excess of one million user signups on a daily basis. If that trend continues, it could surpass other AI firms like OpenAI.
A new shift is becoming apparent, as users seem to be on a search for better AI models for their own, varying use cases. According to a new report from Anthropic, the company is seeing a massive surge of users creating Claude AI accounts to use its generational and conversational models.
Anthropic doesn’t get too specific with the signup numbers, but it notes “more than a million people are now signing up every day.” That number refers to global signups, as current data suggests the Claude AI app has become the number one free app on both the Google Play Store and App Store in the US and other regions. That puts it right above ChatGPT, according to AppFigures at the time of writing.
This comes as OpenAI has been hit with some controversy as it officially entered a partnership with the US Department of War to deploy AI for classified applications – something, it seems, Anthropic and Google employees were unwilling to do without heavy guardrails in place.
OpenAI claims its safety measures are satisfactory, noting that ChatGPT or internal models can not be used to deploy autonomous weapons or be used for mass surveillance. It says that since initially turning down the opportunity because of lackluster safety measures, the company says it has “been working hard to ensure that a classified deployment can happen with safeguards to ensure that red lines are not crossed.”
Anthropic has since been designated a “supply chain risk” by the DoD, which it plans to challenge in court. The company stated that it or any other company has no role in operational decision-making with regard to mass surveillance and autonomous weapons.
The fallout seems to be taking the form of increased user activity for Claude over ChatGPT as signups hit record numbers for Anthropic. As of the end of February 2026, OpenAI reported 900 million active users per week, with over 50 million consumer subscribers.
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