Claude’s daily active users are increasing on mobile devices, as are new app installs, following the company’s impact with the Pentagon. After Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei refused to allow the government to use its AI systems for mass surveillance of Americans or to power fully autonomous weapons, the AI model provider behind Claude was branded a supply chain risk.
However, Anthropic’s stance has led many consumers to favor the model, according to the data.
Application intelligence provider Appfigures reports that Claude’s mobile app downloads in the US continue to outpace those of ChatGPT. The most recent figures from March 2 show Claude with 149,000 daily downloads, compared to 124,000 for ChatGPT, according to company estimates.
While download numbers offer a window into how many new users are installing the app for the first time, active users offer insight into how many people are actually using it.
On this front, another market intelligence provider, Similar Webfound that Claude’s app on iOS and Android devices had 11.3 million daily active users as of March 2, up 183% from the start of the year, when usage was around 4 million, and from 5 million daily active users in early February.
Claude’s development put it ahead of other AI apps from daily active users, such as Perplexity and Microsoft Copilot, but not other top contenders such as ChatGPT. That’s partly because the jump in Claude’s use began later in the month, timed around news of Anthropic’s strained negotiations with the Pentagon. If these trends continue throughout March, it could rank higher.
Of course, ChatGPT still dominates the market by a significant margin, as its daily active users on March 2 were 250.5 million on iOS and Android.
Similarweb also reports that Claude’s web traffic is increasing.
While still lagging far behind other top AI providers in terms of web traffic, Claude’s web traffic grew 43% month-over-month in February and 297.7% year-over-year. At least some of that growth could be at the expense of ChatGPT, whose web traffic fell 6.5% month-over-month over the same time period. Gemini also posted a slight increase of 2.1%, which is slower growth than in previous months.
Anthropic itself has been touting Claude’s progress, noting that its AI chatbot is now watching more than 1 million registrations per day after becoming the No. 1 app in the US App Store last weekend — a position it still holds. The app is also #1 in 15 other countries including Austria, Belgium, Canada, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, New Zealand, Norway, Portugal, Singapore, Switzerland, United Kingdom
The company also noted that Claude has broken its own registration record every day since early last week in every country where Claude is available.
ChatGPT app uninstalls, meanwhile, are on the rise, according to an earlier report.
Anthropic said it does not comment on third-party data, but a spokesperson noted that daily active users have more than tripled since early 2026 and paid subscribers have doubled.
Updated with Anthropic’s comment after publication.
