OpenAI reportedly narrows Anthropic’s lead among US business AI users in Q3

Ramp’s data, drawn from 70 000 US businesses, shows that OpenAI has cut Anthropic’s lead from four percentage points in July to a narrower gap in early Q3. The shift follows Anthropic’s May surge, which briefly gave it a two-point advantage. Neither company has held the lead for more than a few months, indicating that enterprise customers are quick to switch when a rival releases a stronger model.

The volatility is a warning for investors. Enterprise AI spending is expanding, 56 % of Ramp’s customers now pay for AI, but the revenue is not sticky. Businesses are treating AI providers as interchangeable, flipping between OpenAI and Anthropic as each releases new models. Without long-term contracts or integration lock-in, neither company can count on sustained market share.

Ramp’s sample is skewed toward tech-heavy Silicon Valley firms, so the data may not reflect broader enterprise trends. It also excludes large corporations that use spend-management tools from other providers. Still, the sample size is large enough to show that Anthropic’s early lead is not insurmountable, and OpenAI’s recent growth suggests it can recover ground quickly.

Anthropic’s higher-end model tier, Fable, has faced pushback over price and data-retention policies, while OpenAI’s latest model is gaining traction among developers. The contrast highlights how quickly enterprise preferences can shift: a single model update or policy change can swing market share. For now, neither company has built the kind of moat that would make switching costly for customers.