The annual State of Mobile report from digital economy data firm Sensor Tower said consumer spending on in-app purchases and subscriptions to AI chatbot apps reached 1£893 million
Global spending on mobile apps featuring generative AI chatbots like ChatGPT tripled in 2024, reaching $1.1bn (£893m) in in-app purchases and subscriptions, according to Sensor Tower’s annual State of Mobile report.
The report highlighted that AI chatbot apps experienced a significant surge in interest, with users spending over 7.7 billion hours in these apps, while apps mentioning “AI” accumulated 17 billion downloads.
The increased availability of AI chatbots, such as Google’s Gemini and OpenAI’s ChatGPT, contributed to their growing ubiquity on mobile devices in 2024. The report also found that overall consumer spending on in-app purchases and subscriptions reached $150bn globally, a 13% increase from the previous year, with smartphone users logging 4.2 trillion hours of usage, up 5.8% year-over-year.
In contrast, the number of app downloads declined slightly to 136 billion in 2024, a 1% decrease from the previous year. In the UK, in-app purchase revenue rose to $55.1m (£48m) from $24.5m (£20m) in 2023, with downloads increasing to 30.8 million from 22.5 million in 2023.
Oliver Yeh, chief executive of Sensor Tower, said: “Apps continue to capture consumer attention, particularly in non-games. And as consumers spend more time on mobile, they are becoming far more comfortable making purchases on their devices.
“Apps have shifted their monetisation strategies to capitalise on this increased attention, finding innovative ways to streamline and improve consumers’ digital experience. As we look ahead, we expect to see more apps experiment with AI, finding novel and creative ways of incorporating the technology.””