ChatGPT Drives Over $2.5bn In GenAI App Revenue

ChatGPT accounted for more than $2.5 billion of global in-app purchase (IAP) revenue generated by generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) applications in the first half of 2026, underscoring the growing commercial value of consumer AI services.

The figure was contained in Sensor Tower’s State of AI 2026 report, which estimated that GenAI applications collectively generated more than $4 billion in IAP revenue globally during the first half of the year.

According to the report, the GenAI app market continued to expand despite slower download growth than the rapid acceleration recorded in 2025. Global GenAI app downloads were projected to reach 2.3 billion in H1 2026, representing seven per cent growth over the preceding half-year.

The revenue, a consequence, with global IAP revenue from AI applications projected to rise 36 per cent half-on-half to more than $4 billion.

Sensor Tower said ChatGPT, alongside competitors including Claude, Grok and Perplexity, has increasingly focused on monetisation through subscriptions and other premium offerings, helping to sustain growth in consumer spending on AI applications.

The broader market for applications featuring AI-related terms is also expanding. Such apps are projected to generate about $12 billion in IAP revenue in H1 2026, representing a 61 per cent year-on-year increase, with GenAI applications accounting for roughly $4 billion of the total.

The report further showed that consumer engagement with GenAI applications has risen sharply. Global time spent on such apps was projected to reach 36 billion hours in H1 2026, more than double the 17.2 billion hours recorded in the corresponding period a year earlier.

Total sessions were also projected to reach 965 billion during the period, more than 12 times the level recorded two years earlier, indicating that AI applications are increasingly becoming part of consumers’ routine digital activities.

Despite the revenue lead enjoyed by ChatGPT, competition within the AI assistant market has intensified. Sensor Tower reported that ChatGPT remained the leading AI assistant by monthly active users across most major markets, while Google Gemini recorded strong growth across several regions and Claude also expanded its user base.

The report said ChatGPT’s share of the global AI assistant market, measured by monthly users across 25 markets, fell below 50 per cent in March 2026, reaching 46 per cent by May. Google Gemini followed with 28 per cent, while Claude accounted for 10 per cent.

Meanwhile, the commercialisation of AI applications is increasingly shifting towards professional and premium use cases. Sensor Tower noted that users are becoming more willing to pay for AI services as the technology moves beyond experimentation into research, productivity, content creation and other specialised workflows.

The development comes as the global AI ecosystem continues to expand, with consumer adoption, enterprise deployment and AI-powered applications driving increased demand for computing infrastructure and digital services.

For markets such as Nigeria, where smartphone and internet adoption continue to underpin digital-service growth, the expanding AI application economy could create opportunities for locally developed applications, while also raising questions around affordability, data costs, digital skills and the ability of domestic developers to compete in an increasingly concentrated global market.