OpenAI’s ChatGPT was the world’s No. 1 grossing app in the third quarter of 2026, passing TikTok for the first time, according to Sensor Tower’s Q3 2026 Digital Market Index, published on 10 November. Global in-app purchase revenue in the quarter was $45 billion, up 4.4% from a year earlier.
Sensor Tower put the growth of in-app spending on generative AI apps at 103% from a year earlier. That is about 23 times the growth rate of all in-app purchase revenue, by our arithmetic. In 2025 as a whole, Sensor Tower had ranked ChatGPT third, behind TikTok and Google One.
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The key insight: As we read Sensor Tower’s index, ChatGPT reached No. 1 in a market that barely grew: generative AI in-app spending rose 103% while all in-app revenue rose 4.4% and downloads 0.1%, a gap of about 23 times by our arithmetic.
Sensor Tower wrote that ChatGPT “climbed to the #1 grossing app worldwide for the first time, officially dethroning longtime revenue leader TikTok in global consumer spend”. It said ChatGPT also took the top in-app purchase revenue spot in the United States, Japan, the United Kingdom, France and Brazil.
The ranking is by in-app purchase revenue, the money users spend inside apps such as subscriptions. Sensor Tower’s blog post does not give ChatGPT’s or TikTok’s revenue for the third quarter, only the order.
Anthropic’s Claude “climbed two spots to solidify its top ten position at #8 globally”, Sensor Tower said. Global downloads were 37.6 billion, up 0.1% from a year earlier.
Year-over-year growth in the third quarter of 2026 by category, from Sensor Tower’s Q3 2026 Digital Market Index of 10 November. Sensor Tower ranked ChatGPT the No. 1 grossing app worldwide in the quarter, ahead of TikTok. The 23-times comparison is our arithmetic.
How Fast AI App Spending Grew
Among non-game categories, Sensor Tower listed social media up 11%, movies and TV up 8%, utilities up 27% and generative AI up 103% from a year earlier, growth it said “absorbed contraction in mobile gaming”.
In its second-quarter index, published on 11 August, Sensor Tower put generative AI spending growth at 108% and total in-app purchase revenue at $43.6 billion, up 5.3%. It said ChatGPT “reached $1.4 billion in quarterly revenue (+82% YoY)” in that quarter.
That $1.4 billion was about 3.2% of all in-app purchase revenue worldwide in the second quarter, by our arithmetic, and about $5.6 billion a year at that pace. These are Sensor Tower’s estimates of app-store spending, not OpenAI’s reported revenue.
Sensor Tower Says Its Forecast Came True
In its State of Mobile 2026 report in January, Sensor Tower chief executive Oliver Yeh said: “ChatGPT was the third-highest grossing app of 2025 behind TikTok and Google One, signaling a decisive shift in both consumer spend and attention”.
Sensor Tower’s 2026 predictions said it expected generative AI app revenue to exceed $10 billion “and for ChatGPT to become the top-earning app”. In the third-quarter index it wrote that “Seeing that forecast materialize this quarter underscores just how rapidly generative AI has evolved from an experimental utility into an everyday commercial powerhouse”.
The same index says tracked ad spend on ChatGPT rose 165% from the second quarter, lifting its share of US digital ad spend “from under 0.2% to nearly 0.5%”. Shopping’s share of ChatGPT ad impressions fell from 33% to 22% as software, financial services and travel advertisers grew.
Sensor Tower named Expedia as the No. 1 advertiser on ChatGPT, Capital One No. 2, Booking Holdings No. 3 and Intuit No. 5. Social networks still took 55.8% of US digital ad spend. We covered early ChatGPT ad results on 11 November.
The Structural Read
As we read the ranking, ChatGPT moved from third place for 2025 to first in the third quarter of 2026 on Sensor Tower’s estimates, overtaking an app that Sensor Tower calls the longtime revenue leader.
As we read the ad data, Sensor Tower now measures spending on ChatGPT on two lines: in-app purchases, where it ranks first, and tracked ad spend, which rose 165% in the quarter to nearly 0.5% of US digital ad spend.
Oliver Yeh, CEO and co-founder of Sensor Tower, State of Mobile 2026 release, 21 January 2026
“This has primed the market for Gen AI apps, which not only saw mass adoption, but also experienced significant revenuegrowth.”
Three Implications
FOR OPENAI Sensor Tower estimated ChatGPT’s in-app revenue at $1.4 billion in the second quarter, up 82% from a year earlier; for the third quarter its blog gives a rank, not a figure.
FOR TIKTOK Sensor Tower called TikTok the longtime revenue leader; social media in-app spending still grew 11% in the third quarter.
FOR ANTHROPIC Sensor Tower said Claude climbed two spots to No. 8 globally in the third quarter.
The framework says: “The subscription is a call option on token deflation.”
As we read it, Sensor Tower’s ranking measures the consumer side of that subscription: people paying through app stores, with ChatGPT now first by that measure. The framework predates this index and does not discuss Sensor Tower’s data.
Year-over-year growth of generative AI in-app spending against all in-app purchase revenue in the second and third quarters of 2026, from Sensor Tower’s Digital Market Index blog posts of 11 August and 10 November. Sensor Tower’s estimates.
What Is Not Established
Sensor Tower’s blog post does not state ChatGPT’s or TikTok’s third-quarter revenue, the gap between them, or which app stores and countries its global figure covers. Its figures are estimates. We did not contact OpenAI or TikTok.
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Sensor Tower ranks ChatGPT the No. 1 grossing app worldwide in the third quarter of 2026, ahead of TikTok for the first time, in a $45 billion quarter for in-app spending. Generative AI app spending grew 103%, about 23 times the 4.4% growth of the whole market, by our arithmetic.
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A note on sourcing. The ranking and growth figures come from Sensor Tower’s Q3 2026 Digital Market Index blog post of 10 November and its Q2 2026 index of 11 August, read in full, with the 2025 ranking from its State of Mobile 2026 release. They are Sensor Tower’s estimates of app-store spending. Ratios and annualised figures are our arithmetic. We first saw the ranking in an X post that cited Sensor Tower. OpenAI and TikTok were not contacted for this piece.
Gennaro Cuofano is a CRO and tech executive who has worked in AI since late 2015, starting with bringing NLP, natural-language generation, voice and chatbot products to the marketing industry. His background is in law and finance: he holds a Master's degree in Law and an International MBA with an emphasis on corporate finance (LUISS Business School and the University of San Diego, 2012), and worked as a financial analyst at a real-estate investment firm in San Diego and as an assistant controller. His work focuses on business model strategy, business engineering and, more broadly, structural analysis: how companies make money, read from their own filings. He created FourWeekMBA and leads research there and at The Business Engineer, his newsletter on AI and business strategy, with over 95,000 subscribers and more than 1,000 published analyses. His writing has also appeared on Entrepreneur (for example, How to Digitize a Family Business in Europe) and HackerNoon. Find him on LinkedIn and Substack. See how we source.
