The average AI user now works with 3.0 general AI assistants, up from 2.2 a year earlier, according to Menlo Ventures. Paying is another story: Andreessen Horowitz cites Yipit data showing that only 9% of consumers pay for more than one subscription across ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude and Cursor.
How many AI assistants do people use today?
Menlo Ventures puts the average at 3.0 general AI assistants per user, up from 2.2 a year earlier. The same Menlo Ventures report gives ChatGPT a reach of 60% among AI users, Gemini 58% and Claude 20%, and finds that Claude users are more likely to pay, with 82% of them paying for it.
Each assistant also answers the same question very differently. In seven SmophyAI Difference Tests (DT-01, DT-02, DT-03, DT-04, DT-07, DT-09 and DT-10, one run each, mode Detailed, no word limit), Gemini 3.8 Flash wrote the longest answer every time, between 375 and 723 words, while DeepSeek V4 Pro and GPT-6 Astra stayed between 16 and 35 words. The Detailed mode asks for comprehensive answers.
Why do people switch and keep several assistants?
Switching is common. Recon Analytics asked 31,569 AI users, and 18% of them had changed their primary AI tool in the previous three months, an average of 6% a month.
Among 5,751 named switchers, Recon Analytics counted a net gain of 8% for ChatGPT, 4% for Claude and 3% for Gemini, and Claude gained 1.7 primary users for every user it lost.
Every trial of a new model in its own app means a new account, a new interface and a new place where your past work lives.
Do people pay for more than one AI subscription?
Mostly not. Andreessen Horowitz cites Yipit data showing that only 9% of consumers pay for more than one subscription across ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude and Cursor.
Subscribers of Google's paid AI plans are a separate group. YipitData found that 37.8% of people in its U.S. email receipt panel with an active Google One AI Pro or Ultra plan also paid for Claude, ChatGPT or Perplexity, with Claude at 24.5%, ChatGPT at 19.3% and Perplexity at 6.7%.
Dual payers were followed over time too. YipitData Research followed US panelists who paid for ChatGPT: among those who also paid for Claude, 72.5% still kept ChatGPT after six months, against 80.4% of people who paid for ChatGPT only. Of 2,439 dual subscribers in the YipitData Research panel, 24.7% kept only Claude and 5.0% kept only ChatGPT.
In that panel, people who paid for both plans dropped ChatGPT more often than people who paid for ChatGPT alone.
What does running three assistants cost you?
The bill is only part of the cost. With three assistants you copy the same prompt between tabs, read three answers in three windows and keep three histories that know nothing about each other.
You also lose the comparison itself. When one model answers confidently and another disagrees, the disagreement tells you where to check, and it is easy to miss when the answers sit in different apps and you read them minutes apart.
Plans make the comparison uneven too. When you pay for one assistant and use the others on a different plan, you compare them under different conditions, so the comparison tells you less than it seems.
How do you use several AI models without several subscriptions?
SmophyAI is an AI workspace where ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Grok, Perplexity and DeepSeek answer the same prompt side by side in one subscription. Here is how it changes the routine:
- Write the prompt once in Multi-Chat and send it to all six models at the same time.
- Keep live web search on, as it is by default, when the question depends on current facts, so every model works from sources instead of memory.
- Read where the answers disagree before you act on any of them.
- Use Best Answer to combine the strongest information from all six answers into one.
- Let Smophy Mode route everyday tasks to the model best suited for each one when you do not need a comparison.
New models appear in Multi-Chat next to the ones you already use, so trying the next release does not mean opening another account or another subscription.
What should you check before adding another assistant?
Count the jobs, not the tools. Write down the three or four tasks you do with AI every week and note which assistant gives you the answer you keep for each one.
If the answers for the same task change from model to model, you need a comparison, not another subscription. If one model wins every time for a task, keep it for that task and stop testing.
Check the bill every few months. Menlo Ventures' numbers show the average setup grew from 2.2 to 3.0 assistants in a year, so count what each assistant adds before you pay for another one.
Common questions
How many AI assistants does the average person use?
Menlo Ventures reports that the average AI user works with 3.0 general AI assistants, up from 2.2 a year earlier. Menlo Ventures puts the reach of ChatGPT at 60% of AI users, Gemini at 58% and Claude at 20%.
How many people pay for more than one AI subscription?
Andreessen Horowitz cites Yipit data showing that only 9% of consumers pay for more than one subscription across ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude and Cursor.
How often do people switch their main AI assistant?
Recon Analytics found that 18% of 31,569 AI users changed their primary AI tool in the previous three months, about 6% a month.
Can I use ChatGPT, Claude and Gemini in one place?
Yes. SmophyAI puts ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Grok, Perplexity and DeepSeek side by side in one subscription, with live web search and Best Answer.
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About SmophyAI
SmophyAI is an AI workspace where ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Grok, Perplexity and DeepSeek answer the same prompt side by side in one subscription, with Best Answer, Smophy Mode routing and studios for images, video and writing. Try Multi-Chat
About the author. Kamil Kępiński is the founder of Smophy Labs Inc. and builder of SmophyAI.
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