Anthropic’s Claude Sees Surge in Subscriptions

Anthropic’s artificial intelligence tool is reportedly enjoying record levels of popularity among consumers.

That’s according to a report Saturday (March 28) from TechCrunch, based on an examination of credit card transactions from about 28 million U.S. consumers, conducted for the publication by consumer transaction analysis company Indagari.

The findings show Anthropic’s Claude enjoying record numbers of paying subscribers, though the report noted there are some caveats. For one, the data doesn’t include every consumer, meaning it can’t measure Anthropic’s total current or new user base. It also doesn’t include Claude’s all-important enterprise business or its free-tier users.

Anthropic, the report added, has not disclosed its total consumer Claude users, and estimates have ranged from 18 million to 30 million. The company did say that paid subscriptions to Claude have more than doubled this year, TechCrunch said.

What’s noteworthy, the report argued, is that consumers began spending in record numbers between January and February. Indagari also found record levels of previous Claude users returning to the service in February.

The report noted that the popularity of Claude coincided with Anthropic’s Super Bowl ad, as well as with news coverage of the company’s dispute with the Pentagon.

That disagreement centered around the military’s use of Claude for autonomous weapons and domestic surveillance. The Pentagon labeled Anthropic a supply chain risk, leading the company to take the government to court.

In other Anthropic news, PYMNTS wrote last week about the company’s recent promotion doubling usage limits during off-peak hours amid heavier demand.

“AI usage limits are essentially spending caps on computing power. Every message a user sends, and every response a system generates, consumes a measurable amount of processing resources.

“When a user reaches the ceiling, the platform either cuts off access to its best models or stops responding altogether until the clock resets.”

AI companies, the report said, are “now managing consumer demand by rationing, and temporary expansions have become a tool for softening that reality.”

Meanwhile, last week saw a report that Anthropic executives are considering taking the company public as early as the fourth quarter.

According to a report from The Information, some bankers expect the startup to raise more than $60 billion in its initial public offering. Anthropic was valued at $380 billion in a Series G funding round announced last month, in which it raised $30 billion.

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