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Boycott of ChatGPT growing
An organization called QuitGPT claims that as of this week, more than 2.5 million people have either cancelled their ChatGPT subscriptions, pledged to stop using the app or shared news of their boycott on social media.
SAN FRANCISCO - A growing online movement is calling for users to abandon ChatGPT, the popular artificial intelligence chatbot developed by San Francisco-based OpenAI, which counts more than 900 million weekly users.
By the numbers:
An organization called QuitGPT claims that as of this week, more than 2.5 million people have either canceled their ChatGPT subscriptions, pledged to stop using the app or shared news of their boycott on social media.
The backlash intensified approximately one week ago, following a high-profile dispute between OpenAI's chief competitor, Anthropic, and the Trump administration's Department of Defense.
The backstory:
Anthropic had sought legal guarantees that its technology would not be used for the mass surveillance of Americans or for fully autonomous weapons — systems capable of killing without human oversight. The Trump administration declined to agree to those specific terms and labeled Anthropic a "supply chain risk."
Demonstrators tied to the group QuitGPT gathered outside OpenAI headquarters in San Francisco, just days after the company entered into a contract with the Pentagon. March 3, 2026
Within hours of that breakdown, OpenAI announced it would fill the void left by its competitor, striking its own deal with the Department of Defense.
In a statement, OpenAI's chief executive said the company had built "technical safeguards" into the contract to prevent abuse — a claim that was met with widespread skepticism and helped fuel the boycott.
What you can do:
Tech analysts are advising users who wish to leave the platform to first download and save their previous interactions with ChatGPT using the app's built-in export function, and to then delete their chat history.
Anthropic, meanwhile, has seen a surge in new users over the past week, climbing to the top spot on Apple's App Store.