Paid subscriptions for Anthropic's Claude chatbot have more than doubled this year as new productivity features attract users and public controversies boost brand awareness. Analysis of billions of anonymized credit card transactions shows record numbers of consumers signing up for the $20 monthly Pro tier between January and February, with growth continuing into early March.
The surge coincides with Anthropic's public dispute with the U.S. Department of Defense over military AI use and the company's Super Bowl ads mocking ChatGPT's advertising approach. Consumer spending on Claude subscriptions rose sharply during the period when media coverage of the DoD feud intensified, suggesting controversy may have influenced adoption patterns.
New features released in recent months appear to be driving conversions from free to paid users. Claude Code and Claude Cowork tools launched in January target developers and productivity workflows, while this week's Computer Use feature allows the AI to handle computers independently by clicking, scrolling, and performing tasks. These advanced capabilities remain exclusive to paying subscribers.
Most new subscribers opt for the entry-level $20 Pro plan rather than higher-priced tiers costing up to $200 monthly. Transaction data from about 28 million U.S. consumers indicates both new user acquisition and returning users contributed to the growth spike, though enterprise clients and free-tier users aren't captured in these consumer-focused metrics.
Separately, a configuration error in Anthropic's content management system revealed details about an unreleased model called Claude Mythos currently being piloted with early customers. The company confirmed engineers have finished training what it calls "the most capable we've built to date," with internal testing showing dramatic improvements over current flagship Claude 4.6 Opus for programming tasks and reasoning use cases.
The leaked documents indicate Mythos will introduce a fourth product tier priced above existing offerings, with a Capybara edition specifically excelling at finding cybersecurity vulnerabilities. Shares of CrowdStrike Holdings Inc., Palo Alto Networks Inc., and other major cybersecurity providers dropped more than 5% following news that Anthropic's upcoming model could give it competitive edge in vulnerability detection.
Anthropic recently entered the cybersecurity segment last month with Claude Code Security, a tool powered by Claude Opus 4.6 that has already discovered more than 500 high-severity exploits in open-source projects. The company plans precautions for Mythos release given its potential to "exploit vulnerabilities in ways that far outpace the efforts of defenders," according to draft materials obtained by Fortune.
Despite consumer momentum, Claude remains behind ChatGPT in overall market share, though transaction data shows OpenAI continues gaining paid subscribers rapidly even after announcing its DoD partnership, a move that contrasted with Anthropic's refusal to allow lethal autonomous operations or mass surveillance using its AI.
