Claude is on the rise: Crisis and advertising accelerated the number of subscribers

Anthropic gained strong momentum for Claude after the tension with the Pentagon and the Super Bowl commercials. While paid subscriptions increased rapidly throughout January and February, old users began to return to the platform. This table Claude subscription increase, AI competition and revealed a significant break in terms of user preferences.

While the picture was more balanced in January, user mobility accelerated significantly towards February. Billions of anonymous credit card transactions analyzed by Indagari revealed that a record level was reached on the paid subscription side. However, the data excluded free users and enterprise customers.

On the other hand, although the data obtained did not represent the entire user base, it clearly showed the direction of the trend. Estimates put Claude’s total number of users ranging between 18 million and 30 million. However, the company did not officially share these figures.

In February, not only new users but also users who had previously left the platform returned. Thus, both the number of new subscriptions and regained users reached their peak. This development revealed that there was a significant change in user behavior in a short time.

Tension between Anthropic and the US Department of Defense accelerated user growth

The dispute between Anthropic and the Pentagon became public in the last days of January. As the process progressed, the debate became more visible and technology moved to the center of the agenda.

The company did not allow the use of artificial intelligence models in lethal autonomous systems and rejected mass surveillance scenarios. CEO Dario Amodei clearly stated these limits in his statement on February 26.

Immediately after this, the Ministry of Defense evaluated Anthropic as a supply risk, and this decision became official in a short time. The process went to trial, and a federal judge issued a temporary restraining order.

While these developments were taking place, user growth accelerated especially between the end of January and the end of February. With the news in the media, the interest in the platform increased significantly.

In addition, the company’s Super Bowl commercials reached large audiences and increased awareness. OpenAI and ChatGPT were indirectly targeted in the ads.

A significant portion of the growth on the subscription side came from the $20 per month Pro plan. Although there were higher priced packages available, it was observed that users preferred the entry level.

By the beginning of March, the growth trend continued and new subscriptions continued to increase. It was stated that the trend continued because the data was processed with a two-week delay.

On the other hand, innovations on the product side directly affected user interest. Claude Code and Claude Cowork tools were launched in January and have created new areas of use, especially for developers.

However, the Computer Use feature enabled Claude to perform operations on the computer. The system directly handled operations such as clicking, scrolling, and task execution.

Dispatch integration made it possible to assign tasks via mobile devices. These features were only available to paid users and affected the subscription decision.

On the OpenAI side, growth continued and the platform maintained its leadership. Although ChatGPT experienced a short-term loss of users after the DoD agreement, it continued to gain new subscribers.