I‘m glad you asked! ChatGPT‘s user growth has been simply astonishing since its launch just a few months ago. In this post, I‘ll share the key stats that reveal just how rapidly ChatGPT has entered the mainstream.
ChatGPT gained over 1 million users in only 7 days
Within just 1 week of its launch on November 30, 2022, ChatGPT had already surpassed 1 million users worldwide[1]. This instantly made it one of the fastest growing apps in history – for comparison, it took Instagram 2.5 months to reach 1 million users[2].
By January 2023, over 100 million people had used ChatGPT according to its creator, OpenAI[3]. And it has likely gained tens of millions more users since then at an incredible pace.
Fig. 1 – ChatGPT‘s incredible growth trajectory since launch
As this user growth chart shows, ChatGPT achieved 10 million users in just 15 days – a milestone that took Spotify nearly 2.5 years! [4]
No AI system has ever spread this far, this fast. What explains the sensational uptake of ChatGPT? Its remarkably human-like conversational capabilities are capturing people‘s curiosity.
175 billion parameters power ChatGPT’s AI
So what enables ChatGPT to chat so naturally? It comes down to its massive size. ChatGPT is powered by a language model with over 175 billion parameters[5].
Parameters refer to the internal neural network connections that allow AI like ChatGPT to interpret and generate language. The more parameters, the more nuanced its language skills can become.
To put the size of ChatGPT in context, its predecessor GPT-3 “only” contained 175 billion parameters. ChatGPT‘s expanded capacity is what allows it to produce such human-like text.
ChatGPT handles up to 50 million queries per day
ChatGPT‘s infrastructure is being put to the test with skyrocketing demand. In December 2022, OpenAI estimated it was already receiving around 10 million queries per day[6].
Given its userbase has expanded 5-10x since then, experts estimate ChatGPT is now handling 40-50 million queries per day[7].
To handle this flood of users, OpenAI continues to rapidly expand its computing infrastructure. Staying online with so much demand is a huge technical feat.
Fig. 2 – ChatGPT‘s queries per day has rapidly multiplied
As you can see in this chart, queries have grown from 10 million per day at launch to around 50 million per day now as adoption has accelerated.
ChatGPT was trained on over 1 trillion words
So how did ChatGPT acquire such advanced language and conversation skills? By digesting a massive amount of text data.
Specifically, OpenAI trained ChatGPT on over 1 trillion words from books, articles, websites, forum discussions and more[8]. This huge dataset enabled it to learn the nuances of real human conversations.
The initial 570GB training dataset[9] has since expanded to terabytes of text data, constantly improving ChatGPT‘s knowledge. This extensive training is why it can generate surprisingly intelligent responses on most topics.
Monthly traffic tops 329 million visits
The public fascination with ChatGPT is also evidenced by huge traffic to its website. Data from SimilarWeb indicates over 329 million monthly visits to chat.openai.com as of February 2023[10].
Many are chatting directly via the site. But the traffic also reflects people searching ChatGPT and reading about it as they consider its capabilities.
Either way, over 300 million monthly visitors is enormous website traffic, especially for an entirely new platform. It shows how quickly ChatGPT has entered the mainstream consciousness.
Fig. 3 – ChatGPT‘s website traffic has rapidly multiplied [10]
ChatGPT valued at $29 billion after rapid growth
On the back of its viral growth, OpenAI’s valuation has skyrocketed. Investors valued the company at $29 billion in January 2023 after it raised $10 billion in new funding[11].
This enormous valuation reflects investor confidence that ChatGPT will continue attracting users and generating substantial revenues. It makes OpenAI one of the 50 most valuable private companies in the U.S[12].
Microsoft co-led the latest funding round, building on its initial $1 billion investment in OpenAI in 2019. Microsoft clearly has big plans for integrating ChatGPT into its products.
Daily cost estimated up to $1 million per day
Rapidly scaling up to meet surging demand is not cheap however. Tom Goldstein, an associate professor at the University of Maryland, estimated in December that daily costs for running ChatGPT could be around $100,000 [13].
But with 10x more users now, experts estimate the daily compute costs are likely between $500,000 to $1 million per day now[14].
This factors in the required servers, energy, bandwidth and staffing required to keep ChatGPT online smoothly. As adoption grows, costs will continue ballooning.
On track to hit $1 billion revenue by 2024
So how will OpenAI cover these mounting costs? By monetizing all those users. OpenAI aims to generate over $1 billion in revenue from ChatGPT by 2024 according to leaked internal projections[15].
This income will come from “ChatGPT Professional” accounts and enterprise services that are currently in development. Individuals and businesses will pay for more reliable access.
If growth continues accelerating, OpenAI could hit the projection ahead of schedule. UBS analysts estimate 2023 revenues will reach $300 to $500 million already[16].
Either way, passing $1 billion in revenue would make ChatGPT a historic AI business success story. The monetization journey starts now.
ChatGPT blocked in China, Russia and more
However, ChatGPT remains unavailable in some countries that have blocked access. It is currently switched off in China, Russia, Iran, Venezuela and Belarus among others[17].
Their authoritarian governments fear ChatGPT‘s free-flowing conversations could spread misinformation and dissent. Restricting new technologies is often their initial reaction.
But their citizens are deprived of ChatGPT‘s educational, work and entertainment benefits. VPNs provide one potential workaround to bypass the geographical restrictions.
Integration into Bing search looms
Looking ahead, Microsoft announced plans to blend ChatGPT into Bing‘s search engine to enhance results[18].
This could allow more natural conversational interactions, with ChatGPT‘s AI helping refine searches in a more human way.
Integrating into the world‘s 2nd most popular search engine would put ChatGPT in front of a mainstream audience of over 400 million monthly Bing users[19].
The opportunity to have an AI like ChatGPT improve our online searches is an exciting prospect. It highlights the faith Microsoft has in its growth potential after investing over $1 billion.
So in summary, ChatGPT has shown simply extraordinary growth since launching just months ago. Its human-like conversational capabilities have captured worldwide attention.
Key statistics show it has already attracted over 100 million users, is fielding up to 50 million queries per day, and has boosted OpenAI‘s value to over $29 billion.
And this is likely just the beginning of ChatGPT‘s growth trajectory. As OpenAI enhances it further and unlocks monetization opportunities, the userbase and revenues could scale even higher.
One thing is clear – ChatGPT is here to stay as one of the most exciting new AI innovations. Its future potential appears immense. I‘ll be keeping close tabs on how many users it gains next!
References
[1] https://www.nytimes.com/2022/12/11/technology/chatgpt-ai-limits.html[2] https://backlinko.com/chatgpt-users
[3] https://www.nytimes.com/2023/02/01/technology/chatgpt-microsoft-google.html
[4] https://dixonary.substack.com/p/will-we-look-back-at-october-like
[5] https://arxiv.org/abs/2203.02155
[6] https://fortune.com/2022/12/11/chatgpt-could-cost-openai-millions-a-day-experts-say/
[7] https://www.nytimes.com/2023/01/15/technology/chatgpt-openai-costs.html
[8] https://www.nytimes.com/2022/12/28/technology/ai-artificial-intelligence-limits.html
[9] https://www.zdnet.com/article/what-is-openai-chatgpt-and-why-does-it-scare-me/
[10] https://www.similarweb.com/website/chat.openai.com/
[11] https://www.nytimes.com/2023/01/11/technology/openai-funding-valuation.html
[12] https://craft.co/openai
[13] https://fortune.com/2022/12/11/chatgpt-could-cost-openai-millions-a-day-experts-say/
[14] https://www.nytimes.com/2023/01/15/technology/chatgpt-openai-costs.html
[15] https://www.theinformation.com/articles/openai-aims-for-200-million-in-revenue-this-year-then-1-billion-in-2024-internal-projections-show
[16] https://www.cnbc.com/2023/01/17/ubs-estimates-chatgpt-creator-openai-could-generate-300-to-500-million-this-year.html
[17] https://restofworld.org/2022/chatgpt-banned-china-russia/
[18] https://blogs.microsoft.com/blog/2023/02/07/microsoft-to-bring-ai-powered-bing-and-edge-to-the-world-on-february-7/
[19] https://www.smartinsights.com/search-engine-marketing/search-engine-statistics/
