Anthropic’s Claude has been steadily winning over paying consumers, according to new data from credit card transaction analysis firm Indagari. This marks a significant shift, as the AI lab has typically been seen as a niche player serving enterprise clients and startup developers using Claude Code.
Indagari analyzes billions of anonymized credit card transactions from approximately 28 million U.S. consumers. While this sample cannot provide absolute revenue or customer totals for Anthropic, it is large enough to reveal clear trends—and the trend for Claude is firmly upward.
Steady Growth in Consumer Adoption
The data covers weekly transactions from early 2025 through May 10, 2026, including payments for subscriptions and API tokens. It shows Claude’s paying consumer base and revenue growing month over month, with a roughly 75% increase since January 2026 alone.
Momentum Unbroken After Controversy
Notably, Claude’s growth continued even after a significant spike in March 2026, when Anthropic refused to allow its models to be used by the Trump administration for mass surveillance of Americans and autonomous weapons. This principled stand appears to have resonated with consumers, driving further adoption rather than deterring it.
As of mid-2026, Claude is increasingly challenging ChatGPT’s dominance in the paid consumer AI market, suggesting that Anthropic’s customer base is broader and healthier than previously understood.
via TechCrunch AI