The analysis found that approximately 2.8 million UK adults, or 5.1% of the adult population, were paying for an AI assistant in June 2026. That compares with 2.3% in June 2025, indicating that the proportion of adults purchasing AI subscriptions more than doubled over the year.
At July's spending levels, the researchers estimated that UK consumers were collectively paying for AI assistants at an annualized rate of £1.07 billion. The calculation includes estimated purchases processed through Apple's App Store and Google's Play Store, which cannot always be attributed to individual AI providers in banking records.
Claude's increase was consistent across the first seven months of 2026. Its share of directly billed subscription spending reached 8.1% in January, climbed to 15.9% in March and exceeded 21% in April. By June, Claude accounted for 27.6% of spending, before reaching 29.4% in July.
ChatGPT experienced the opposite trend, declining from 72.0% in January to 52.5% in July. Google's Gemini maintained a comparatively stable position, accounting for approximately 5% to 6% of direct spending throughout the period. Other AI subscription services collectively represented roughly 13% of the market.
However, the spending figures do not directly reflect the distribution of paying customers. ChatGPT continued to account for a substantially larger share of active subscribers, with 71.2% in July compared with Claude's 27.1%, according to the study.
One explanation for Claude's stronger spending performance is its concentration of customers on higher-priced subscription plans. The researchers found that 6.2% of Claude subscribers paid at least £80 per month, compared with just 0.3% of ChatGPT subscribers.
That difference helps explain how Claude could approach a third of direct subscription spending while maintaining a considerably smaller subscriber base. It also highlights the distinction between attracting more customers and generating more revenue per subscriber.
The study identified substantial differences in AI subscription adoption across occupations, with technical and professional workers among the most frequent paying users.
IT professionals recorded the highest adoption rate at 20.3%, followed by university and college lecturers at 16.0% and finance and insurance professionals at 15.8%. At the other end of the distribution, only 1.7% of social care workers had paid for an AI assistant, while nurses, midwives and firefighters each recorded rates of 2.5%.
Age was another significant factor. Among people in their twenties, 17.9% of accounts showed evidence of an AI subscription payment, compared with 3.0% among adults aged 60 and older. The researchers calculated that adults aged 20 to 29 were 5.9 times more likely to have purchased an AI subscription at some point. After accounting for income, sex and geographic differences, that disparity narrowed to 4.8 times.
Income and gender were also associated with subscription adoption. In July, the study recorded 62.2 paying male users per 1,000 adults, compared with 48.6 female users, making men approximately 28% more likely to pay for an AI assistant.
Among adults earning more than £4,000 per month, 18.8% had purchased an AI subscription, compared with 10.0% of those earning less than £1,500. That represents an 88% difference between the two income groups.
Geographic adoption showed a similar concentration. London led the UK in June with 78.5 paying subscribers per 1,000 adults, followed by the South East at 53.5 and the East of England at 50.0. The North East recorded the lowest rate at 37.6, compared with the national average of 50.6.
The researchers identified subscription payments by comparing banking transaction descriptions, billing amounts and product availability dates against a database containing more than 200 AI services. Their analysis focused on subscriptions purchased directly by consumers rather than AI software licenses provided through employers.
There are important limitations to the provider-level figures. Transactions processed through mobile app stores often do not identify the underlying AI service, so the primary market-share comparisons exclude those purchases. The researchers also omitted certain card issuers whose privacy protections obscured Claude's name in transaction records.
When estimated app store purchases are included, Claude's share of overall subscription spending falls to 22.8%, rather than the 29.4% recorded for direct payments. The distinction means the headline figures should not be interpreted as comprehensive market shares across every payment channel.
The findings arrive as both Anthropic and OpenAI pursue broader commercial expansion. Anthropic's amended IPO filing reports $17 billion in revenue, while OpenAI President Greg Brockman recently indicated that the company should be prepared for a public offering in 2027.
OpenAI has also reported continued growth in ChatGPT's overall audience. According to Adam Fry, the company's consumer product lead, ChatGPT reached 1.2 billion weekly users, compared with 1 billion approximately two months earlier. Those figures include the broader user base and are not directly comparable with the UK study's paid subscription data.
The research, supported by the University of Warwick's Centre for Competitive Advantage in the Global Economy, provides a detailed view of how consumers are paying for AI services rather than simply using them. While ChatGPT continues to lead UK consumer subscriptions, Claude's rising share of spending demonstrates how higher-priced plans and professional users are influencing the distribution of revenue in the paid AI assistant market.
This analysis is based on reporting from TNW.
Image courtesy of Claude.
This article was generated with AI assistance and reviewed for accuracy and quality.
