Anthropic’s Claude rises to No. 1 in the App Store following Pentagon dispute

Anthropic’s chatbot Claude appears to have benefited from the attention surrounding the company’s fraught negotiations with the Pentagon.

If first reported by CNBCClaude has risen to the top of the rankings of free apps in Apple’s US App Store. On Saturday night, it overtook OpenAI’s ChatGPT to claim the number one spot, a position it still held on Sunday morning.

According to data from SensorTowerClaude was just outside the top 100 at the end of January and has been somewhere in the top 20 for most of February. In recent days he has risen rapidly, from sixth place on Wednesday to fourth place on Thursday and then first on Saturday.

A company spokesperson said daily sign-ups have broken all-time records every day this week, free users have increased more than 60% since January and paid subscribers have more than doubled this year.

After Anthropic tried to negotiate safeguards that would prevent the Defense Department from using its AI models for mass domestic surveillance or fully autonomous weapons, President Donald Trump ordered federal agencies to stop using all Anthropic products. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said he labeled the company a threat to the supply chain.

OpenAI then announced its own agreement with the Pentagon, which CEO Sam Altman claimed includes safeguards regarding domestic surveillance and autonomous weapons.

This post was first published on February 28, 2026. It has been updated to reflect that Anthropic reached No. 1 and to include company growth figures.