Claude surpassed ChatGPT in revenue for the first time

According to data published on Reddit by Tech Times and further analyzed by the r/FiveThirtyEight community, Anthropic reached annualized revenue of over 30 billion dollars (roughly 690 billion CZK) in April 2026. That's a dramatic jump from approximately 9 billion dollars at the end of 2025. OpenAI in the same period reported annualized revenue in the range of 24 to 25 billion dollars.

This is a historic milestone — for the very first time since the emergence of commercial generative AI, someone other than OpenAI has taken the top spot by revenue. This growth is primarily driven by the February Series G funding round, in which Anthropic raised 30 billion dollars, enabling the company to massively expand in the enterprise segment. As Forbes Česko wrote at the time, Anthropic's key investor has long been Amazon, which had previously invested 4 billion dollars into the company.

Enterprise customers are choosing Claude

Claude's lead is even more pronounced in the number of paying enterprise customers. In April 2026, according to Tech Times, more American companies were paying for Claude than for ChatGPT. Anthropic currently has over 1,000 enterprise clients spending more than one million dollars annually on its products. This number doubled in less than two months since the February Series G round. Eight of the ten largest Fortune 10 companies are already using Claude.

There are two reasons for this. First, Anthropic bet on a B2B strategy — while OpenAI built on ChatGPT's mass popularity among regular users, Claude deliberately offers specialized tools for developers and businesses. Products like Claude Code (a developer assistant), Claude for lawyers, or financial agents represent concrete enterprise solutions that companies are willing to pay high amounts for. Second, businesses appreciate Anthropic's safety-focused approach — Claude is designed with an emphasis on risk mitigation, which is crucial for regulated sectors like banking, insurance, or law.

Mobile apps: ChatGPT is losing steam

According to data from Sensor Tower, reported by The Verge, ChatGPT's growth rate is slowing. While in January 2026 the number of ChatGPT's monthly active users grew by 168 percent year-over-year, by April it was just 78 percent. The year-over-year increase in ChatGPT uninstalls reached 132 percent in April — and in March, after the announcement of OpenAI's partnership with the Pentagon, it jumped to as high as 413 percent.

In contrast, Claude recorded an elevenfold increase in downloads over the same period. Although ChatGPT still has a "substantially larger user base," as Sensor Tower notes, the trend is clear: users are increasingly turning to alternatives.

OpenAI admits pressure: internal memo and IPO concerns

That OpenAI itself does not take this situation lightly is evidenced by an internal memo sent in mid-April by Chief Revenue Officer Denise Dresser, published by The Verge. "The market is as competitive as I've ever experienced it," Dresser wrote, acknowledging that Anthropic, thanks to its focus on developers and programming, "got an early lead."

At the same time, however, Dresser accused Anthropic of inflating revenue in her memo — according to OpenAI, the reported annual revenue of 30 billion dollars is overstated by approximately 8 billion dollars, because Anthropic includes revenue shares from sales through Amazon and Google. OpenAI, on the other hand, reports Microsoft revenue on a "net" basis that better aligns with the standards of publicly traded companies. Regardless of the accounting debate, it is clear that competitive pressure on OpenAI is intensifying.

The situation is further complicated by OpenAI's upcoming IPO. According to The Wall Street Journal, the company recently missed its own internal targets for new users and revenue. CFO Sarah Friar reportedly warned that "the company may not be able to pay future compute contracts if revenue does not grow fast enough."

Everyday users: ChatGPT still reigns supreme

It is only fair to add, however, that in terms of daily active users, ChatGPT remains firmly in first place. According to data mentioned in the Reddit discussion by user Cagnazzo82, in terms of daily traffic, ChatGPT ranks above Reddit and X (Twitter), with only Google, YouTube, Facebook, and Instagram ahead of it. Claude didn't even make it into the top twenty. Yet.

This difference reflects the differing strategies of both companies: OpenAI bets on the mass market and a free version, while Anthropic bets on specialized and more expensive enterprise products. The question remains which strategy will pay off more in the long run.

What does this mean for the Czech Republic and Europe?

For Czech businesses, this development is clearly positive — competition among AI providers means better prices and higher-quality services. Both Claude and ChatGPT support Czech and both models are available in the European market. Claude also offers specialized products for lawyers and the financial sector, which may interest Czech law firms or banking institutions.

From a regulatory standpoint, Anthropic is in a slightly more advantageous position in the EU — its philosophy of "safe AI" and emphasis on responsible development resonates better with the strict requirements of the EU AI Act, which came into force in 2025. European companies that must comply with stringent regulatory requirements may therefore perceive Claude as a safer choice.