How many people ask ChatGPT what to buy? The numbers, with sources

How many messages does ChatGPT get a day?

The best public figure is about 2.5 billion messages a day. OpenAI told Axios this in July 2025, as TechCrunch reported on 21 July 2025. OpenAI said about 330 million of those daily messages came from users in the US.

OpenAI's own research paper, "How People Use ChatGPT" (Chatterji and others, OpenAI and Harvard, published 15 September 2025 and also released as NBER Working Paper 34255), backs this up. It says that by July 2025, 18 billion messages were being sent each week by 700 million users. Divided by seven, that is about 2.57 billion a day. The paper's Table 1 gives an exact count of 2.63 billion messages a day for June 2025, across all consumer plans.

We found no newer official daily or weekly message count from OpenAI in 2026. Articles quoting "2.5 billion a day in 2026" are reusing the July 2025 number, so treat it as a 2025 figure.

• About 2.5 billion a day: OpenAI, via TechCrunch, July 2025
• 18 billion a week: OpenAI research paper, September 2025
• 2.63 billion a day in June 2025: same paper, Table 1

What share of ChatGPT messages are about things to buy?

About 2.1%. OpenAI's research paper sorts conversations into topics, and one is "purchasable products", defined as "inquiries about products or services available for purchase." The paper's own example messages include "How much are Nikes?" and "Recommend a good laptop under $1000."

The 2.1% sits in a chart in the paper, based on a sample of about 1.1 million conversations from 15 May 2024 to 26 June 2025. Two outlets reported the figure from that research: eMarketer (Rachel Wolff, 24 October 2025) wrote that "just 2.1% of ChatGPT conversations involve purchasable products", slightly more than the share for greetings and chitchat. Marketplace Pulse reported the same 2.1% in late September 2025.

So shopping is a small slice of what people do in ChatGPT. Most use is for things like tutoring, how-to advice and writing. A small slice of a very large number is still a lot of questions.

How many shopping questions is that a day?

Roughly 50 million a day, on ChatGPT alone, in 2025. This is our own sum, not an OpenAI figure: 2.5 billion daily messages (OpenAI, July 2025) multiplied by 2.1% (OpenAI research, 2024 to 2025) comes to about 52 million. Using the paper's other daily counts gives about 54 million to 55 million.

We round down to 50 million because the inputs come from slightly different time periods and the 2.1% is an average across more than a year. It is a sense of scale, not a precise count.

• 2.5 billion × 2.1% = about 52 million a day
• 2.57 billion × 2.1% = about 54 million a day
• 2.63 billion × 2.1% = about 55 million a day

What these numbers don't tell you

They count messages, not people. One shopper comparing three laptops might send ten messages. So 50 million shopping messages a day is not 50 million shoppers, and nobody has published how many separate people ask ChatGPT about buying things.

They are global, not local. OpenAI said about 330 million of the 2.5 billion daily messages came from the US in July 2025. It has not published a figure for Australia or most other countries, and the 2.1% shopping share is not broken down by country either. Any "shopping questions per day in Australia" number you see would be a guess.

They are 2025 numbers, and the category is broad. The 2.1% covers services as well as products, and it comes from consumer plans and adult users only. It also says nothing about how many of those questions end in a sale, or which stores get named.

• Messages are not people
• Worldwide, not per country
• 2025 data, the latest official figures
• Products and services, not just physical goods

Is ChatGPT use growing since those figures?

Weekly users have grown, even though message counts haven't been updated. OpenAI's research paper put ChatGPT at 700 million weekly users in July 2025. OpenAI said it had more than 900 million weekly active users on 27 February 2026, and at its DevDay keynote on 29 September 2026 it cited 1.2 billion weekly users.

More users doesn't automatically mean the same share of shopping questions, so we won't guess at a 2026 daily figure. What the user numbers do show is that the 2025 message counts are unlikely to be the high point.

ChatGPT isn't the only place shoppers ask. Google said at I/O on 19 May 2026 that AI Overviews had over 2.5 billion monthly active users, and in August 2026 that the Gemini app had passed 1 billion monthly users.

What should a Shopify store do about it?

Treat AI assistants as a real place shoppers ask questions, and make your store easy to recommend. The paper's example messages are specific: a laptop under a set price, the cost of a brand. Shoppers ask in full sentences with needs and budgets, so your product pages should answer those questions plainly. Put who the product is for, what it's made of, sizes and price near the top of each description.

Check that AI can read your store. If your robots.txt blocks OAI-SearchBot, ChatGPT search may not show your pages. Blocking GPTBot only affects training, not answers. Then look at whether you're named at all: ask ChatGPT the questions your customers would ask and note who it recommends instead. Our free AI Visibility Checker does this for ChatGPT, Gemini and Perplexity if you'd rather not do it by hand.

Earn mentions honestly. AI assistants lean on other sites that talk about products, so pitching relevant reviewers and roundups helps. Fake reviews, posing as a customer on Reddit and buying links are against the platforms' rules and tend to hurt a store when caught.

• Write descriptions that answer real buying questions first
• Make sure OAI-SearchBot and Googlebot aren't blocked
• Ask AI your customers' questions and see who it names
• Measure AI traffic and ask buyers how they found you