Report: ChatGPT reached 100 million users in the month of January

ChatGPT’s number of users has grown at a much faster rate than that of TikTok and other popular apps. UBS, an analytics firm, released a study (via Reuters and CBS) indicating that OpenAI’s chatbot was on track to surpass 100 million MAUs in January.

Although the chatbot only recently became accessible to the general public (on November 30 of last year), its popularity seems to have skyrocketed. The study found that in just the first month of its release, 57 million people were using it regularly. It had about 13 million unique users per day in January.

TikTok, which is very popular among young people, took nine months after its global debut to reach 100 million monthly users. Lloyd Walmsley, an analyst at UBS, noted that Meta’s Instagram had been active for 2.5 years by that time. It will be interesting to see if the chatbot can keep up this level of popularity in the coming weeks and months.

The fact that ChatGPT users get responses to their questions that sound so much like real people makes some teachers nervous because it raises the possibility that students will use it to cheat on tests.

Despite its significant accuracy issues — Models like ChatGPT have a notorious tendency to spew biassed, harmful, and factually incorrect content — it is the only publicly available chatbot of its kind.

Google executives reportedly felt threatened enough by this to issue a “code red” and speed up the company’s artificial intelligence research and development. The tech titan plans to unveil 20 AI products this year, some of which, like a search chatbot, could pose a threat to ChatGPT.

For the time being, using ChatGPT is completely free of charge, and OpenAI does not appear to have any plans to restrict access to it in any way, shape, or form behind a paywall. The startup hopes to eventually charge for ChatGPT and has begun beta testing a $20 monthly premium plan that includes priority support and early access to new features.