September 9, 2025

# OpenAI growth rebounds following GPT-5 launch

\
Ara Kharazian\
Lead Economist, Ramp

New Ramp data shows business AI adoption grew 1.2% in August, led by an increase in businesses paying for subscriptions and OpenAI releasing a new LLM model.

The [Ramp AI Index](https://ramp.com/data/ai-index) shows business AI adoption rose to 44.5% in August 2025, up from 43.3%. OpenAI, which launched its newest model GPT-5 in August, led AI companies in growth, with a 1.5% increase in businesses subscribed to OpenAI models and tools. Taking a closer look at different sectors, finance and manufacturing were the fastest-growing adopters of new AI spend, with adoption growing 3% and 2%, respectively. Adoption among technology firms remained flat at 72%.

OpenAI’s [GPT-5](https://openai.com/index/introducing-gpt-5/) release drove a sharp rebound for the company’s tools, with adoption growth outpacing main rival Anthropic for the first time since May. Growth in the finance and manufacturing verticals underscores how GPT-5’s improved reasoning and efficiency are expanding AI’s reach into industries that have historically been slower to adopt new technology.

## Highlights

- The 1.2% August increase is slightly slower than a 2% increase in July but continues the positive trend in AI adoption following a [brief slowdown](https://ramp.com/velocity/business-ai-adoption-grew-in-july) in May and June.
- The U.S. government measure of business AI adoption, from the U.S. Census Business Trends and Outlook Survey, increased to 9% from 8.4%, turning positive but still below its all-time-high of 9.3% in May and June 2025.
- We believe the government estimate, which relies on survey data, is underreporting actual AI adoption by U.S. businesses. Our [methodology](https://ramp.com/data/ai-index) explains why in detail.
- xAI held flat despite doubling its base of businesses in July. It was also one of our [fastest-growing vendors](https://ramp.com/velocity/top-saas-vendors-on-ramp-august-2025) that month.
- Anthropic grew business AI adoption 1% in August, a slight slowdown from its 1.5% growth in July.
- OpenAI remains the leader in business AI adoption, at 35%, up 1.5% from July.

For a deeper look at broader trends in AI adoption, check out our Q2 spending report.

[→ Download the Summer 2025 Ramp Business Spending Report](https://ramp.com/reports/2025-summer-spending-benchmarks)

For more analysis of Ramp spend data, follow me on [X](https://x.com/arakharazian) and [LinkedIn](https://www.linkedin.com/in/akharazian), and subscribe to my [newsletter](http://econlab.substack.com/). All data is available for download from [Ramp AI Index](https://ramp.com/data/ai-index).

### Ara Kharazian • Lead Economist, Ramp

Ara Kharazian is the lead economist at Ramp and writes the weekly newsletter [Econ Lab on Substack](https://econlab.substack.com/). His writing and analysis of AI, business spend, and the economy has been covered in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Financial Times, NBC News, ABC News, NPR's Planet Money, Bloomberg, the Guardian and more. Ara previously led economic research at Square and was an economic consultant at Cornerstone Research.

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