4 November 2026
Open model usage grows fast; ChatGPT passes 1.2 billion weekly users
First reported
Big Technology ran this on , a day before the next source picked it up.
- Open AI models, which anyone can download and run, are handling rapidly rising volumes of requests across several hosting companies.
- One analysis projects open model usage could exceed 100 trillion tokens a day by fall, comparing it against Google's reported totals.
- OpenAI, which makes ChatGPT, says the chatbot added 200 million weekly users in two months, reaching 1.2 billion.
Our read
Only 2 of 30 newsletters covered this story, Interconnects and Big Technology, with Big Technology reporting it first on 2026-11-03. Big Technology treated OpenAI's search comparison as a company claim rather than independently checked, while Interconnects focused on open models against closed providers.
Earlier on this story
Written by Newskeryx from which newsletters covered this story and from our own archive.
Where they differ
Interconnectsfocuses on the growth of open AI models relative to closed providers like OpenAI and Anthropic.
Big Technologyfocuses on ChatGPT's user numbers and treats OpenAI's search comparison as a company claim rather than independently checked.
What each one covered
Open model inference token volumes from startups, Fireworks' conference figures, a comparison with Google's token totals, and hyperscaler gaps
User growth figures, search volume compared with Google and Bing, and how search queries are counted