ChatGPT surpasses 500M weekly users, prompting 2.5B daily queries

ChatGPT’s rapid rise to 500 million weekly users comes amid conflicting usage statistics, growing environmental concerns, and increased regulatory scrutiny.

Back in April, Forbes reported that OpenAI CEO Sam Altman told attendees at TED 2025 that ChatGPT had hit 1 billion users, claiming the number had “doubled in just weeks.” That figure likely referred to cumulative or total registered users, rather than active weekly users, but it added to the confusion around how OpenAI measures its audience. While it’s improbable that hundreds of millions of users have disappeared, 500 million now appears to be the company’s official weekly active user count.

This comes as Altman continues his efforts in Washington, DC, where he’s meeting with lawmakers to influence how AI is regulated in the U.S. and globally. The discussions are part of a broader debate around ethical AI development, data privacy, misinformation risks, and the economic impacts of large language models.

However, ChatGPT’s rise also raises alarms about the environmental toll of generative AI. With billions of daily interactions, the cumulative energy and water use is no small matter. In a June blog post, Altman addressed these concerns directly, stating that, “The average query uses about 0.34 watt‑hours, about what an oven would use in a little over one second, or a high‑efficiency lightbulb would use in a couple of minutes. It also uses about 0.000085 gallons of water; roughly one-fifteenth of a teaspoon.”

At scale, this equals roughly 212,500 gallons of water per day, about half an Olympic-sized swimming pool, and 850 megawatt-hours of electricity daily, similar to what 28,000 U.S. households consume in a single day. These numbers have sparked growing concern among environmental advocates, especially as AI tools continue to expand in both consumer and enterprise settings.