OpenAI co-founder Greg Brockman estimates 1.5 billion people have tried ChatGPT

Roughly 1 to 1.5 billion people have given ChatGPT a spin at some point. Most of them didn’t stick around.

OpenAI co-founder and president Greg Brockman shared that estimate during a podcast appearance on September 8, offering a rare glimpse at the gap between ChatGPT’s cultural penetration and its ability to keep users coming back. The platform currently boasts over 1 billion weekly active users, which sounds massive until you realize it means hundreds of millions of people tried the product and walked away.

The billion-user milestone and what it hides

ChatGPT hit roughly 900 million weekly active users around early 2026, then crossed the 1 billion weekly active threshold by July 2026. Monthly users had already surpassed 1 billion around May or June, according to third-party tracking data.

If 1.5 billion people have tried the product and roughly 1 billion use it weekly, that leaves something like 500 million people who sampled ChatGPT and decided it wasn’t for them.

Brockman attributed the retention gap to misconceptions people form during their first interactions. Put simply: people try ChatGPT once, get a mediocre answer to a poorly worded prompt, and conclude the whole thing is overhyped.

The super app strategy

OpenAI is building a unified “super app” that bundles ChatGPT alongside other tools like Codex, its coding assistant, and Atlas, its research product.

OpenAI wants to shift users from passive, one-off interactions to what Brockman described as more agent-like functionalities, tools that actively solve specific problems rather than waiting for you to type a clever prompt.

The paid subscriber numbers suggest the strategy is gaining traction on the monetization front. OpenAI reportedly surpassed 50 million paid subscribers in early 2026. OpenAI serves over 2 million businesses, adding an enterprise revenue layer on top of consumer subscriptions.

Why Brockman is talking about this now

Brockman has taken on a more significant operational role in 2026, particularly in guiding product development.

OpenAI is reportedly preparing for a potential IPO, and its valuation now exceeds hundreds of billions of dollars. Every one of those dormant users already knows the brand, already created an account, already lowered the barrier to re-engagement.

The competitive landscape gets tighter

Google’s Gemini, Anthropic’s Claude, Meta’s Llama-based products, and a growing roster of open-source alternatives are all competing for the same users. Google, in particular, has the advantage of embedding AI directly into Search, Gmail, and Docs.

OpenAI’s super app approach consolidates its tools into a single platform. Converting even 10% of its lapsed users into paying subscribers would roughly double its paid user base overnight.

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