Claude Paid Users Up 75% Since January 2026

What the Indagari Credit Card Data Shows

Anthropic's Claude grew its paying consumer base and revenue roughly 75% since January 2026. That figure comes from Indagari, a firm that tracks billions of anonymized transactions from about 28 million US consumers. The data runs through mid-May 2026. It covers real spending on subscriptions and API tokens — not estimated engagement.

The sample cannot produce absolute revenue totals. But Indagari says it is large enough to spot directional trends. For Claude, the direction has been consistently upward.

Most new subscribers are signing up at the lowest tier. Indagari told TechCrunch that the majority of new paid users are "Pro" subscribers at $20 per month. Higher tiers run $100 or $200 per month.

An Anthropic spokesperson told TechCrunch that Claude paid subscriptions have more than doubled this year — consistent with what the Indagari data shows directionally.

Why Paid Sign-Ups Spiked in Early 2026

Several events raised consumer awareness of Claude starting in January.

Anthropic ran Super Bowl commercials that mocked ChatGPT's decision to show ads to users. The spots pushed Claude's app into the top 10 on app stores.

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A larger spike followed Anthropic's public dispute with the US Department of Defense. Anthropic refused to let its models be used for lethal autonomous operations or mass surveillance of American citizens. New paid sign-ups climbed sharply between late January — when media coverage of the feud intensified — and February 26, when CEO Dario Amodei issued a public statement. Previous users also returned to Claude in record numbers during February.

Two new tools also drove subscriptions. Claude Code and Claude Cowork, both released in January, pulled in developer and productivity users. The Computer Use feature — which lets Claude click, scroll, and take actions on a computer on its own — sparked another surge when it launched. These features are not available to free-tier users.

This pattern of controversy boosting sign-ups has continued. The US government ordered Anthropic to shut down its most powerful models, Fable 5 and Mythos 5, over a disputed jailbreak in June. The shutdown came just three days after Fable 5 launched. So far, the conflict appears to have helped consumer adoption rather than hurt it.

Key Events Driving Claude's Paid Growth in 2026

• January: Claude Code and Claude Cowork launch; Super Bowl ads mock ChatGPT's ad model
• Late January: DOD feud goes public; new paid sign-ups climb sharply
• February 26: CEO Dario Amodei issues public statement; returning users hit record numbers
• March: Computer Use feature launches; ChatGPT uninstalls spike after DOD deal announced
• June: Anthropic files IPO confidentially at ~$965B valuation; Fable 5 and Mythos 5 shut down by US government order

What the DataCamp Data Adds

DataCamp is an online education platform with about 20 million users. The company told TechCrunch that "Claude" is now the most searched term on its site. It has passed even the word "AI."

Among self-directed learners, demand for Claude courses outpaces ChatGPT by three to one. Course demand for Claude has grown 18 times in the last 30 days alone. ChatGPT courses remain far more popular in corporate training programs on DataCamp. Enterprise and consumer preferences can diverge sharply.

People who study a tool tend to pay for it — and keep paying. That makes the DataCamp signal a leading indicator, not just a curiosity.

Claude vs. ChatGPT: Side-by-Side

How Far Behind ChatGPT Is Claude?

ChatGPT remains far ahead on total users. OpenAI crossed one billion monthly users in May 2026. No other app has reached that milestone as quickly. Sensor Tower data from earlier in June showed Claude growing across all platforms but still trailing ChatGPT by a wide margin.

ChatGPT also retains new sign-ups better than Claude. Sensor Tower notes that gap is closing. OpenAI kept gaining new paid subscribers at a rapid rate even after its DOD deal triggered an uninstall spike in early March.

As we read the available data, the story is not that Claude is overtaking ChatGPT. It is that Claude is growing fast enough that it can no longer be called a niche product.

What This Means for Anthropic's IPO

Anthropic filed confidentially for an IPO in June 2026. The valuation is approaching $965 billion. Investors will want to see growth beyond API contracts. Recurring consumer subscription revenue is more predictable than enterprise API deals. That makes the paid consumer trend directly relevant to the offering.

Anthropic has not publicly disclosed subscriber numbers. But every independent data source examined in 2026 points the same way. Claude is gaining paying consumers at a rate that no longer looks like a niche, per The Next Web's reporting on the full dataset.

Developers tracking Claude's trajectory should also follow the Anthropic-Alibaba distillation attack case, which is running in parallel with this consumer growth story. Broader context on how AI companies are shaping policy sits in the AI CEOs G7 standards talks. For how competing models are scaling, the DeepSeek funding round and OpenAI GPT-5.5 update are both worth tracking.

Anthropic declined to comment on the Indagari data. Sources: TechCrunch, AI Weekly.