Key facts
- Credit card transaction data from Indagari shows increasing consumer payments for Anthropic's Claude.
- Claude's revenue and paying consumer base have grown about 75% since January 2026.
- On the DataCamp platform, 'Claude' is now the most searched term, surpassing 'AI'.
- Consumer demand for Claude courses on DataCamp is three times higher than for ChatGPT.
- Despite Claude's growth, ChatGPT maintains a larger user base and market share.
- Anthropic's powerful cybersecurity models, Mythos 5 and Fable 5, were banned for non-American use.
Consumers are increasingly opting for Anthropic's Claude over OpenAI's ChatGPT for paid AI services, according to trend data from credit card transaction analysis firm Indagari. The data, which covers billions of anonymized transactions from millions of U.S. consumers, indicates that Claude's paying consumers and revenue have grown by approximately 75% since January 2026.
This growth trajectory suggests a broader and healthier customer base for Anthropic than previously assumed, extending beyond enterprise and startup developers. The upward trend has persisted even after Anthropic refused to allow its models to be used by the Trump Administration for mass surveillance and autonomous weapons, a decision that initially caused a spike in consumer growth in March.
Further evidence of Claude's rising consumer popularity comes from DataCamp, an online education platform with 20 million users. 'Claude' has become the most searched term on its site, surpassing 'AI' itself. While ChatGPT courses remain more popular for corporate training, DataCamp reports that consumer demand for Claude courses is outpacing ChatGPT by a three-to-one ratio, with demand increasing 18-fold in the past 30 days.
Despite Claude's impressive gains, ChatGPT continues to lead significantly in overall consumer popularity and paying users. Market intelligence firm Sensor Tower data shows Claude growing across platforms but still trailing ChatGPT considerably. However, the Indagari data suggests Claude is closing the gap in terms of consumer revenue and general awareness.
Anthropic's recent challenges include a ban on its powerful cybersecurity-focused models, Mythos 5 and Fable 5, for non-American use, prompting the AI lab to withdraw them from the market. Nevertheless, available data indicates continued growth for Anthropic across both consumer and business segments.