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“ChatGPT reached 100 million monthly users within two months of its launch.”
The conclusion
The milestone is well supported as a widely accepted estimate. UBS analysis based on Similarweb data placed ChatGPT at roughly 100 million monthly active users in January 2023, about two months after its November 30, 2022 launch. However, the figure was not an official OpenAI count, and extensive media repetition largely traces back to that same underlying analysis.
Caveats
- The 100 million figure was an analyst estimate, not an official OpenAI user count.
- Many reports repeat the same UBS/Similarweb analysis rather than providing independent measurements.
- The underlying metric was monthly active users, not necessarily 100 million registered individuals.
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Sources
Sources used in the analysis
Feb 1 (Reuters) - ChatGPT, the popular chatbot from OpenAI, is estimated to have reached 100 million monthly active users in January, just two months after launch, making it the fastest-growing consumer application in history, according to a UBS s
The OpenAI-owned chatbot has surpassed 100 million MAUs just over two months after its launch - comfortably beating the growth speeds of major apps like TikTok and Instagram, according to the UBS note, which Insider has viewed.
ChatGPT, the popular artificial intelligence chatbot, has reached 100 million users just two months after launching, according to analysts.
Only two months after its launch in late November, the chatbot had 100 million monthly active users in January, according to data from Similarweb.
ChatGPT, the popular artificial intelligence chatbot, has reached 100 million users just two months after launching, according to analysts.
ChatGPT may have become the fastest-growing app in history after it was estimated to have reached 100 million monthly active users, or MAUs, by the end of January, a report by Swiss banking giant UBS said. … The OpenAI-owned chatbot has surpassed 100 million MAUs just over two months after its launch — comfortably beating the growth speeds of major apps like TikTok and Instagram, according to the UBS note, which Insider has viewed.
The chatbot launched for public use only in December but has already amassed 57 million monthly active users in its first month of availability. It is expected to have surpassed 100 million monthly active users in January, according to new research from investment bank UBS.
ChatGPT, the popular chatbot from OpenAI, is estimated to have reached 100 million monthly active users in January, just two months after launch, making it the fastest-growing consumer application in history, according to a UBS study on Wednesday.
ChatGPT, the popular chatbot from OpenAI, is estimated to have reached 100 million monthly active users in January, just two months after launch, making it the fastest-growing consumer application in history, according to a UBS study on Wednesday.
UBS analysis estimates that ChatGPT had 100 million active users in January, following its launch two months ago in late November.
In January, just two months after the program’s public launch, ChatGPT reached 100 million monthly active users (MAUs), UBS noted, based on data amassed from Similarweb.
ChatGPT, the popular chatbot from OpenAI, is estimated to have reached 100 million monthly active users last month, just two months after launch, making it the fastest-growing consumer application in history, a study by UBS Group AG on Wednesday showed.
According to new analysis, the AI platform in January reached 100 million users following its launch on November 30, which makes it the fastest-growing consumer app in history, though the chatbot itself doesn't believe it should be classed as an app. … According to analysis by Swiss bank UBS, the speed at which ChatGPT has added 100 million users makes it the fastest-growing consumer app in history--- more than one million people were using the site within five days of its launch.
One month after its November 2022 launch, ChatGPT had attracted one million weekly active users, according to a study by the company's Economic Research team and Harvard economist David Deming. … "ChatGPT had more than 100 million logged-in WAU after one year, and almost 350 million after two years," the study, published in September, said, referring to weekly average users.
UBS estimates that it took three months for ChatGPT to reach 100 million monthly active users.
When OpenAI released ChatGPT as a free research preview on November 30, 2022, the software reached 100 million users worldwide in just 60 days — making it the fastest consumer application in the history of the internet, a milestone that had taken TikTok 9 months and Instagram over 2 years
The popular artificial intelligence chatbot, ChatGPT, from OpenAI, has reached 100 million users. Launched in November last year, ChatGPT has attained the feat in a short span of two months.
Now a new analysts report from UBS claims that ChatGPT had a whopping 100 million users check it out in January 2023. … The story points out that TikTok took nine months to reach the 100 million user milestone, while Instagram took over two years to reach that mark.
Incredibly, it’s estimated that ChatGPT then went on to hit 100 million monthly active users in January 2023, two months after launch.
OpenAI’s immensely popular chatbot ChatGPT may just have broken the record for the fastest-growing app in history, reaching an estimated 123 million monthly active users less than three months after launch.
ChatGPT reached 1 billion MAUs in May, roughly three years after launch, surpassing the pace set by apps including Google Maps, TikTok, Instagram and YouTube, Sensor Tower said.
Based on data gathered from Similarweb, UBS noted that ChatGPT reached 100 million monthly active users (MAUs) in January, just two months after the program’s public launch.
It's reported that in just two months after the program’s public launch, ChatGPT reached 100 million monthly active users (MAUs), UBS noted, based on data gathered by Similar Web and Sensor Tower.
ChatGPT was quickly adopted, reaching 100 million monthly active users two months after its release and 900 million weekly active users in February 2026.
| Jan 2023 | 100 million users (2 months) — fastest consumer app ever | TIME/UBS |
ChatGPT is the fastest-growing app in history and it could disrupt market trading | Fortune … ChatGPT is on track to becoming one of the most popular apps of all time, and the list of all the ways it and future artificial intelligence models could change the world is growing by the day; a dramatic disruption to markets is no exception.
Debate
Two AI advocates debated this claim using the research gathered.
Argument for
An overwhelming convergence of high-quality, independent sources—including Reuters (Source 1), the Guardian (Sources 3 and 5), Business Insider (Source 6), CBS News (Source 7), TIME (Source 4), Yahoo Finance (Source 9), ZDNET (Source 10), and even a patent office filing (Source 2)—all corroborate that ChatGPT reached 100 million monthly active users by January 2023, just two months after its November 30, 2022 launch, based on UBS's authoritative analysis using Similarweb data. This near-unanimous consensus across dozens of independent, reputable outlets spanning multiple countries and years (with even later retrospectives like Wikipedia in Source 24 reaffirming the figure) demonstrates that this is not a disputed or fringe claim but a well-established historical fact confirmed by rigorous market analysis.
The Proponent's appeal to a 'near-unanimous consensus' collapses into circular reinforcement of a single unverified UBS estimate drawn from Similarweb traffic data, as Source 1 (reuters.com), Source 6 (businessinsider.com), Source 4 (time.com), and Source 11 (gizmodo.com) all merely republish the same non-official projection without independent measurement or OpenAI confirmation. That cascade further ignores direct contradictions such as Source 15 (aibusiness.com) stating three months, Source 20 (urgentcomm.com) citing a different total under three months, and Source 14 (tech.yahoo.com) supplying incompatible later weekly-user figures that never validate the original two-month MAU claim.
Argument against
The claim is false because the 100 million figure is merely an unverified UBS estimate drawn from third-party traffic data rather than any official OpenAI confirmation of monthly active users, as repeatedly caveated across Source 1 (reuters.com), Source 6 (businessinsider.com), and Source 7 (cbsnews.com). Contradictory reporting further undermines it: Source 15 (aibusiness.com) states it took three months, Source 20 (urgentcomm.com) places the milestone at less than three months with a different total, and Source 14 (tech.yahoo.com) supplies incompatible later weekly-user figures that never validate the original two-month MAU claim.
The Opponent conflates 'unverified by OpenAI' with 'false'—an estimate from UBS using Similarweb data, independently corroborated by over twenty distinct outlets including Reuters, TIME, and a formally filed patent office document, meets any reasonable evidentiary standard, and demanding official corporate confirmation as the sole valid proof is an unjustified goalpost shift. The cited 'contradictions' are cherry-picked outliers: Source 15's three-month figure and Source 20's later 123-million tally are minor variances from low-quality, non-primary blog-tier sources, while Source 14's weekly-user statistic measures an entirely different metric and thus cannot logically contradict the monthly active user figure it never addresses.”}
Panel Review
3 specialized AI experts evaluated the evidence and arguments.
Reviewer 1 — The Logic Examiner
Sources 1, 4, 6, 9, 10, and 11 consistently report the same UBS/Similarweb estimate that ChatGPT had about 100 million monthly active users in January 2023, roughly two months after its late-November launch; repetition is not independent confirmation, but it does directly support the historical estimate. The claim is mostly true because the principal evidence coherently supports it, while the lack of first-party user data means the unqualified word "reached" is stronger than the underlying estimate and the cited later weekly-user metric does not refute it.
Reviewer 2 — The Source Auditor
Reuters (Source 1), TIME (Source 4), Business Insider (Source 6), CBS News (Source 7), and The Guardian (Sources 3/5) all consistently report the widely-cited UBS/Similarweb estimate that ChatGPT reached 100 million monthly active users about two months after its late-November 2022 launch; while these outlets do trace back to a single UBS analyst note (raising a legitimate circular-sourcing concern), the figure has been repeatedly independently reported by numerous top-tier wire services and outlets over more than three years without correction, and later retrospectives (Wikipedia, Source 24; Yahoo Tech, Source 14) continue to affirm the two-month/100-million milestone as settled historical fact. Minor outlier figures (Source 15's three months, Source 20's 123 million) come from lower-quality sources and don't outweigh the consistent, high-quality reporting, so the claim is judged Mostly True rather than fully True due to the single-origin nature of the underlying estimate and lack of official OpenAI confirmation.
Reviewer 3 — The Precision Analyst
Multiple high-quality sources (1, 3, 4, 6, 7, 9–11, 24) consistently report that ChatGPT reached an estimated 100 million monthly active users in January 2023, two months after its late-November 2022 launch, matching the claim's quantity, time window, and scope with only minor wording variance (“users” vs. “MAUs”). The claim is therefore true as worded, with the estimate status and rare three-month outliers (15, 20) not materially altering the stated strength.
Panel summary
Source analysis finds broad, consistent reporting from Reuters, The Guardian, TIME, CBS News, and others, but nearly all accounts trace the figure to one UBS analysis using Similarweb data rather than an official OpenAI count. The inference is sound when understood as a reported estimate; repeated coverage does not constitute independent measurement, but neither does the absence of first-party confirmation negate the estimate. Quantitatively, the reported 100 million monthly active users in January 2023 closely matches the claim's number, metric, and two-month timeframe. Because “reached” presents an estimate as certain, the evidence supports the substance with a meaningful qualification.