Anthropic’s chatbot Claude has climbed to the top of the free app rankings in Apple’s U.S. App Store, overtaking OpenAI’s ChatGPT amid heightened attention surrounding the company’s dispute with the Pentagon.
The surge was first reported by CNBC. Data from SensorTower shows Claude rose from outside the top 100 at the end of January to first place on the weekend, after climbing steadily through the rankings during February.
A company spokesperson said daily signups have reached record highs each day this week. Free users have increased more than 60% since January, while paid subscriptions have more than doubled this year.
The spike in downloads follows a standoff between Anthropic and the U.S. Defense Department over safeguards related to domestic surveillance and autonomous weapons use.
President Donald Trump directed federal agencies to stop using Anthropic’s products, and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth designated the company a supply-chain threat.
Shortly after, OpenAI announced its own agreement with the Pentagon, which CEO Sam Altman said includes similar safety guardrails.
