Consumer spending on AI apps is up nearly 200-fold since 2022, and ChatGPT takes most of it

What the data shows

As Analytics Insight reported, citing figures from the research firm Sensor Tower, consumer spending on generative AI apps has grown nearly 200-fold. The comparison runs from the first quarter of 2022 to the first quarter of 2026, when quarterly spending reached nearly USD 2 billion. Generative AI means software that produces text, images or other content on request, such as chatbots and art generators.

The yearly figures show how the growth built up. In 2022, the year ChatGPT launched, in-app purchases on chatbots and art generators came to about USD 30 million. That rose to USD 455 million in 2023 and nearly USD 1.3 billion in 2024. In 2025, revenue more than tripled and passed USD 5 billion.

The pace has not slowed. Sensor Tower expects the first half of 2026 to finish above USD 4 billion, 36% more than the last six months of 2025. Its earlier forecast of more than USD 10 billion for all of 2026 still looks reachable.

One app takes most of the money

The revenue is highly concentrated. ChatGPT brought in USD 3.4 billion through purchases inside the app in 2025. That made it the third most profitable app of the year, behind only TikTok and Google One. In the first half of 2025 it accounted for 63% of all generative AI app revenue.

Its audience is just as large. In May 2026, ChatGPT became the fastest mobile app to reach one billion monthly active users, meaning people who open it at least once in a month. Together, ChatGPT, Google Gemini and DeepSeek made up almost 90% of AI assistant app usage in Q1 2026.

Rivals are gaining ground on engagement, though. Claude's monthly usage climbed from 40 minutes to 120 minutes. The two biggest names are also spending heavily on marketing. Generative AI advertising in the United States more than tripled in Q1 2026, and both OpenAI and Anthropic raised their ad spending by over 800% year on year.

Who downloads and who pays

Where people download AI apps differs from where they pay for them. Asia leads on downloads, driven by India and Mainland China. In the first half of 2025, Asian downloads rose 80% over the previous six months, against 51% in Europe and 39% in North America. India also leads on time spent in these apps.

Revenue points the other way. North America generated 40% of generative AI app spending in the first half of 2025 and 39% of global spending in Q1 2026. Fast download growth in Asia has not yet turned into matching spending.

The wider app market is shifting too. In 2025, spending on non-game apps overtook spending on games, largely because of AI apps. Overall app downloads grew by less than 1% that year, while revenue rose by more than 10%. In other words, the industry is earning more from roughly the same number of installs.

Why people are paying, and what the data leaves out

According to the report, the growth reflects a move toward premium subscriptions that do real work, such as drafting, studying, job tasks and shopping. Curiosity about a novelty is no longer the main draw. More than 200,000 apps now mention AI in their store descriptions, and together they are projected to approach 10 billion downloads in the first half of 2026.

Some caveats matter before you quote the headline. The numbers are Sensor Tower's estimates of what consumers spend inside apps. They leave out enterprise contracts and fees that developers pay to connect to AI models, so they understate the AI industry's total revenue.

The 200-fold figure also starts from a very small base. Spending in 2022 was tiny, so almost any later number looks huge. The steadier signal is the yearly pattern: roughly tripling in 2025 and still rising in 2026.