OpenAI is beginning to regain ground on Anthropic among business customers, according to new spending data from fintech company Ramp, highlighting how quickly corporate adoption is shifting between the two leading AI companies. Anthropic had moved ahead of OpenAI earlier this year, but the latest data indicates that the gap has narrowed as businesses continue experimenting with competing AI models and products.
Ramp’s data shows Anthropic held a clear lead among paying business customers in May and July, but OpenAI has been gaining ground more recently. The movement comes as both companies expand their enterprise offerings, compete for developers and roll out increasingly capable AI agents. The battle is particularly important because business customers can generate substantially higher and more recurring revenue than individual users.
OpenAI Narrows The Gap With Anthropic
Ramp’s AI Index tracks corporate spending using data from businesses that use its corporate card and expense-management platform. The data provides a real-world view of which AI providers companies are actually paying for rather than relying solely on surveys or self-reported adoption.
Anthropic first overtook OpenAI in Ramp’s business-adoption data in April. At that point, 34.4% of participating businesses were paying for Anthropic services, compared with 32.3% for OpenAI.
By May, Anthropic had increased its share of AI subscriptions paid for by Ramp customers to 41%, while OpenAI stood at 39.5%.
The latest July figures showed Anthropic at 42.4%, compared with 39.5% for OpenAI. That left Anthropic with a 2.9-percentage-point lead.
OpenAI Vs. Anthropic Business Adoption
| Period | OpenAI | Anthropic | Leader | Gap |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| March 2026 | 35.2% | 30.6% | OpenAI | 4.6 pts |
| April 2026 | 32.3% | 34.4% | Anthropic | 2.1 pts |
| May 2026 | 39.5% | 41.0% | Anthropic | 1.5 pts |
| July 2026 | 39.5% | 42.4% | Anthropic | 2.9 pts |
The figures should not be interpreted as total market share across every business worldwide. Ramp’s index measures adoption among businesses using its platform and is based on corporate-card and invoiced payments.
Anthropic Previously Took The Enterprise Lead
Anthropic’s rise has been one of the most notable developments in the enterprise AI market this year.
In March, Anthropic’s share of businesses paying for AI services climbed from 24.4% to 30.6%, while OpenAI remained ahead at 35.2%. Ramp said the gap had narrowed to 4.6 percentage points from 11 points in February.
Anthropic subsequently moved into first place in April, becoming the first AI lab to overtake OpenAI in Ramp’s business-adoption data. The shift was particularly significant because OpenAI had maintained a large lead during the earlier stages of enterprise AI adoption.
Ramp Data Shows A Rapidly Changing Market
| Metric | Earlier 2026 | Latest Reported Data |
|---|---|---|
| OpenAI business adoption | 35.2% in March | 39.5% in July |
| Anthropic business adoption | 30.6% in March | 42.4% in July |
| OpenAI position | Leader | Second |
| Anthropic position | Second | Leader |
| Anthropic gain | — | +11.8 pts from March |
Anthropic’s growth has been particularly strong in sectors such as finance, technology and professional services, according to Ramp economist Ara Kharazian. OpenAI continues to lead across some other groups, but the gap has narrowed.
Why Businesses Are Switching Between AI Providers
The movement in Ramp’s data suggests that corporate AI spending is not yet completely locked into one provider.
Businesses are increasingly evaluating AI models based on factors such as coding performance, reliability, pricing, privacy, model capabilities and how well the technology integrates with existing workflows.
This means a company may use OpenAI for some applications, Anthropic for others and increasingly combine proprietary, open-source and Chinese AI models depending on the task.
Key Factors Influencing Enterprise AI Choices
| Factor | Why It Matters To Businesses |
|---|---|
| Model performance | Determines quality of AI-generated work |
| Coding ability | Important for software and development teams |
| Price | Directly affects AI budgets |
| Data controls | Critical for sensitive corporate information |
| Reliability | Important for production workflows |
| Integrations | Determines how easily AI fits into existing systems |
| AI agents | Allows models to complete multi-step tasks |
| Developer tools | Helps companies build AI applications |
The growing importance of agents could make the competition even more significant because businesses are moving beyond using AI simply as a chatbot.
OpenAI Pushes Further Into Enterprise AI
OpenAI has been investing heavily in its business products and enterprise infrastructure.
The company said in November 2025 that more than 1 million business customers worldwide were directly using OpenAI, including organizations paying for ChatGPT for Work or consuming its models through the developer platform.
OpenAI has also reported that enterprise revenue represented more than 40% of its revenue in the first quarter of 2026 and was on track to reach parity with consumer revenue by the end of the year. At the time, the company said Codex had reached 3 million weekly active users and its APIs were processing more than 15 billion tokens per minute.
OpenAI Enterprise Indicators
| Indicator | Reported Figure |
|---|---|
| Business customers | 1 million+ |
| Enterprise share of revenue in Q1 2026 | 40%+ |
| Codex weekly active users | 3 million |
| API processing volume | 15 billion+ tokens/minute |
| Enterprise revenue target | Parity with consumer by end-2026 |
These figures demonstrate why enterprise adoption has become strategically important for OpenAI. The company already has a large installed base, but increasing the intensity of business usage could become more important than simply adding new customers.
OpenAI Is Expanding Agentic AI Across Businesses
One of the biggest changes in the enterprise AI market is the shift from AI assistance toward AI agents.
OpenAI’s latest enterprise research shows that weekly active enterprise Codex users have grown rapidly outside software engineering. Since February, weekly active enterprise Codex users increased 108 times in legal, 41 times in sales, 41 times in recruiting and 26 times in marketing, compared with five times in engineering.
The data indicates that businesses are increasingly using AI to perform tasks rather than simply generate answers.
Enterprise Codex Growth Since February
| Function | Growth In Weekly Active Users |
|---|---|
| Legal | 108x |
| Sales | 41x |
| Recruiting | 41x |
| Marketing | 26x |
| Engineering | 5x |
OpenAI also said that as of June 2026, agentic AI use accounted for 64% of combined Codex and ChatGPT output tokens among enterprise customers.
This shift could become an important competitive factor because companies may increasingly choose AI platforms based on how effectively they can execute complete workflows.
Anthropic Remains Strong In Enterprise AI
Despite OpenAI’s recent gains, Anthropic continues to hold the lead in Ramp’s latest reported business-adoption data.
The company has built a particularly strong position among professional users and developers, with its Claude models increasingly used for coding and other technical tasks.
Anthropic’s enterprise momentum has also translated into significant financial growth. Recent reports indicate that Anthropic’s revenue run rate had climbed above $65 billion by July, compared with roughly $40 billion for OpenAI, although these are revenue-run-rate figures rather than annual reported revenue.
The companies therefore present different pictures depending on the metric being examined: Ramp’s adoption data shows Anthropic ahead among its measured business customers, while OpenAI continues to have a much larger overall consumer footprint.
Data Privacy Is Becoming A Competitive Factor
Data governance is emerging as another important battleground in enterprise AI.
OpenAI recently previewed a system called Private Safety Processing that is designed to allow certain business and API customers to use advanced AI without OpenAI retaining their data. The system is intended to detect potential misuse while limiting the retention of sensitive customer information.
The move comes as Anthropic faces scrutiny over its enterprise data-retention approach. Reuters reported that Anthropic is planning to revise its enterprise data-retention policy to give customers greater control over their data.
Enterprise AI Competition
| Area | OpenAI | Anthropic |
|---|---|---|
| Business adoption | 39.5% in July Ramp data | 42.4% |
| Enterprise customers | 1 million+ reported | Strong enterprise focus |
| Developer focus | Codex and API | Claude and coding tools |
| Agentic AI | Rapid expansion | Strong coding/agent positioning |
| Data controls | Private Safety Processing | Revising enterprise retention policy |
| Consumer reach | Very large | Smaller than OpenAI |
The growing emphasis on privacy shows that enterprise AI competition is no longer only about which model produces the best answer. Security, governance, data handling and deployment options are increasingly part of purchasing decisions.
AI Spending Is Expanding Across Businesses
Ramp’s broader data also shows that corporate AI adoption is continuing to increase.
In March 2026, more than half of businesses on Ramp were paying for AI, with overall adoption reaching 50.4%. That was up from 35% a year earlier.
This provides important context for the OpenAI-Anthropic competition. Even if one company gains or loses a few percentage points of share, the overall market itself is expanding rapidly.
Business AI Adoption
| Period | Businesses Paying For AI |
|---|---|
| 2025 | 35% |
| March 2026 | 50.4% |
| Change | +15.4 percentage points |
The expansion of the overall market means both OpenAI and Anthropic can continue growing even while competing for relative share.
What The Latest Data Means For OpenAI
OpenAI’s improving position in the latest data suggests that the company has not lost its ability to compete for corporate spending.
Its large business customer base, developer ecosystem, ChatGPT adoption and growing agentic capabilities give it multiple ways to expand enterprise usage. The company is also increasingly positioning ChatGPT as a workplace platform rather than simply a consumer chatbot.
However, Anthropic’s lead in Ramp’s latest figures shows that OpenAI still faces a serious challenge in the business market.
The key question is whether OpenAI can turn its enormous user base and growing enterprise capabilities into higher business spending, while Anthropic attempts to preserve its lead among professional and technical users.
The Bigger Picture
The OpenAI-Anthropic competition is entering a phase in which enterprise adoption may matter as much as raw user numbers. Ramp’s data shows how quickly corporate preferences can change, with Anthropic moving from a distant challenger to the leading provider among Ramp’s measured businesses within months. OpenAI’s subsequent gains suggest the market is still highly competitive rather than permanently settled.
For businesses, the rivalry is creating more choice and potentially stronger negotiating power. Falling model costs, improving capabilities, better enterprise controls and expanding AI-agent functionality could accelerate adoption across departments. For OpenAI and Anthropic, however, the next challenge will be turning that adoption into durable, profitable enterprise relationships.
Looking Ahead
OpenAI will likely continue focusing on enterprise adoption, developer tools and agentic AI as it tries to close the remaining gap with Anthropic. The company’s rapid growth in Codex usage across legal, sales, recruiting and marketing suggests that enterprise AI is expanding beyond traditional technology teams. If those patterns continue, OpenAI could increase the amount of work businesses delegate to its systems even without immediately becoming the leader in the number of paying companies.
Anthropic, meanwhile, will need to defend its position among business customers while managing pricing, privacy requirements and the rapid pace of model competition. The latest Ramp figures show that neither company’s enterprise lead is secure. As companies increasingly use multiple AI providers, the long-term winner may be determined less by headline model benchmarks and more by which platform becomes most deeply embedded in everyday business workflows.
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