A new study found that UK consumers spend more than £1 billion ($1.4 billion) a year on AI subscriptions. The research analysed 14 million bank and card accounts.
As of July 2026, 5.1% of British adults paid for an AI subscription. That was roughly double the share a year earlier.
OpenAI’s ChatGPT still accounted for the largest share of direct consumer spending. From December 2025 to July 2026, Anthropic’s Claude increased its share from 7.4% to 29.4%, a fourfold rise. ChatGPT’s share fell from 73.5% to 52.5% over the same period.
Claude’s growth was partly driven by a higher proportion of users choosing more expensive subscription tiers.