Claude is experiencing a surge in daily active users and new mobile app installations following a contentious episode with the Pentagon. After Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei refused to permit the U.S. government to utilize its AI systems for mass domestic surveillance or to operate fully autonomous weapons, the company was designated as a supply-chain risk. Data indicates that this principled stance has resonated with many consumers, shifting sentiment in Claude's favor.

App intelligence firm Appfigures reports that Claude's mobile app continues to outpace ChatGPT in U.S. downloads. According to the company's estimates from March 2, Claude recorded approximately 149,000 daily downloads, compared to 124,000 for ChatGPT.

While download numbers reflect new user acquisition, active user counts reveal actual engagement. On this metric, market intelligence provider Similarweb found that Claude's iOS and Android app reached 11.3 million daily active users on March 2. This represents a substantial 183% increase from the start of the year, when usage was around 4 million, and a significant jump from 5 million daily active users at the beginning of February.

This growth has positioned Claude ahead of other AI apps like Perplexity and Microsoft Copilot in terms of daily active users, though it still trails behind top rivals such as ChatGPT. Part of this timing is attributed to Claude's usage spike occurring later in the month, coinciding with news of Anthropic's tense negotiations with the Pentagon. If these trends persist through March, Claude could climb even higher in the rankings.

It is important to note that ChatGPT continues to dominate the market by a wide margin, with 250.5 million daily active users across iOS and Android on March 2. Similarweb also reports growth in Claude's web traffic. Although it remains far behind leading AI providers in this area, Claude's web traffic increased by 43% month-over-month in February and surged 297.7% year-over-year.

Some of this expansion may be coming at ChatGPT's expense, as its web traffic declined by 6.5% month-over-month during the same period. Gemini also experienced a modest 2.1% increase, which represents slower growth than in previous months.

Anthropic has been highlighting Claude's advancements, announcing that its AI chatbot is now attracting more than 1 million new sign-ups daily. This follows the app becoming the number one download on the U.S. App Store over the past weekend, a position it still maintains. The app also holds the top spot in 15 other countries, including Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, New Zealand, Norway, Portugal, Singapore, Switzerland, and the U.K.

The company further noted that Claude has broken its own daily signup record consistently since early last week in every country where it is available. In contrast, an earlier report found that uninstalls of the ChatGPT app have been increasing. A request for comment from Anthropic was not available at the time of publication.