UK consumer spending on AI products has grown from almost nothing in early 2023 to a billion-pound annual market, according to new analysis. Who Pays for AI? has been published by the University of Warwick's Centre for Competitive Advantage in the Global Economy (CAGE) and shows that an estimated one in 20 adults now take out personal paid subscriptions for artificial intelligence tools, with subscriber numbers roughly doubling each year.
The researchers at the University of Warwick and Imperial Business School used anonymised bank and card transactions to explore who pays for AI, how the average subscriber is changing, and how competition between providers is reshaping the market. The study finds that overall:
- under-30s are five times as likely to pay for AI than over-60s,
- men are 27% more likely to subscribe than women,
- the top fifth of earners are almost twice as likely to subscribe than the bottom fifth
- Personal subscriptions are more common in office-based roles, with 16% subscribing to an AI tool, compared to 2.5% of nurses and midwives.
But the data also showed big changes in the demographic of more recent subscribers, with a broader cross-section of the population now signing up to paid AI for the first time.
- After being outnumbered by men three to one among early subscribers, women are now nearly drawing level, with the gap in 2026 falling to just 1.2 to one.
- Early subscribers earned 70% above the average worker's pay, but this premium has dropped to 30% among more recent new subscribers.
The research also examined which AI tools are the most popular in the UK. They found that ChatGPT remains the market leader, but Claude has gained ground rapidly, increasing its share of subscription spending from 7% to 29% between December 2025 and July 2026. ChatGPT's share fell from 74% to 53% over the same period. Claude's growth also reflects uptake of more expensive plans, particularly among people working in technical and professional roles.
Commenting on their results, Dr Peter Lambert from University of Warwick's Department of Economics said: "Millions of people are now putting their hands into their own pockets to pay for AI every month. In little more than three years, these tools have become a billion-pound consumer market in the UK. This surge has been phenomenal and with only one in twenty adults currently subscribing, there's still room for further growth. The big question is how many people currently using free AI tools will eventually decide they are worth paying for."
Dr Nikhil Datta from the University of Warwick's Department of Economics added: "People whose jobs involve tasks that AI can help with are more likely to pay for it themselves, so that suggests people are buying these tools partly for what they can do for them at work. The first paying customers were disproportionately men and high earners, but that picture is changing rapidly with women now making up nearly half of new subscribers."
Dr Patrick Schneider from Imperial Business School said: "Like many early-stage markets, the picture can change very quickly. ChatGPT still leads at present, but its early dominance is shrinking. Claude captured almost a third of consumer subscription spending by July, up from just 7% seven months earlier."
