The number of daily active Claude users on mobile devices in the US is growing, as is the number of new app installations after the company's conflict with the Pentagon, UNN reports with reference to TechCrunch.
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After Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei refused to allow the US government to use its AI systems for mass surveillance of Americans or to create fully autonomous weapons, the provider of the AI models underlying Claude was flagged as a supply chain risk.
However, data shows that Anthropic's stance has led many consumers to prefer this model.
According to analytics firm Appfigures, the number of downloads of the Claude mobile app in the US continues to outpace ChatGPT downloads. The latest data from March 2 shows Claude with 149,000 daily downloads compared to ChatGPT's 124,000, according to company estimates.
While download data provides insight into how many new users are installing an app for the first time, active user data provides insight into how many people are actually using it.
In this regard, another market analytics provider, Similarweb, found that the Claude app on iOS and Android devices had 11.3 million daily active users on March 2, an increase of 183% from the beginning of the year, when usage was around 4 million, and more than 5 million daily active users.
The growth in Claude's usage has allowed it to overtake other AI-based apps in terms of daily active users, such as Perplexity and Microsoft Copilot, but not other leading competitors like ChatGPT. This is partly due to the fact that the surge in Claude's usage began later this month, coinciding with news of Anthropic's tense negotiations with the Pentagon. If these trends continue throughout March, the app could rank higher.
Of course, ChatGPT still significantly dominates the market, with 250.5 million daily active users on iOS and Android on March 2.
Similarweb also reports an increase in Claude's web traffic.
While Claude's web traffic volume still lags significantly behind other leading AI providers, its traffic grew by 43% in February compared to the previous month and by 297.7% compared to the same period last year. At least part of this growth may be due to a 6.5% decrease in ChatGPT's web traffic during the same period. Gemini also showed a small increase of 2.1%, which is slower than in previous months.
Anthropic itself praises Claude's progress, noting that its AI chatbot now registers over 1 million times a day after becoming the #1 app in the US App Store last weekend - a position it still holds. The app also ranks first in 15 other countries, including Austria, Belgium, Canada, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, New Zealand, Norway, Portugal, Singapore, Switzerland, and the UK.
The company also noted that Claude breaks its own record for registrations every day since the beginning of last week in all countries where it is available.
Meanwhile, according to an earlier report, the number of ChatGPT app deletions is growing.
Anthropic said it does not comment on third-party data, but a company representative noted that the number of daily active users has more than tripled since the beginning of 2026, and the number of paid subscribers has doubled.
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