In the past year, the number of U.S. households with AI tool subscriptions rose 155%. That jump is notable, and the growth is real. But the reality is that we're still talking about a very small fraction of the country.
To put that in perspective, roughly 25% of households pay for streaming services. That gap highlights just how early this market really is.
PNC's data measures households that are actually paying for generative AI tools, not those using free versions. That distinction is important: free tiers can generate buzz, but they don't cover the high cost of building and running AI models. The 2% paid-subscription rate therefore shows how much room exists before AI tools reach the kind of household penetration that streaming already enjoys.
"Subscribers generally stay for months rather than canceling quickly. That suggests many users are finding ongoing value in these services rather than simply trying them out for a month or two," the report's authors said.
But the pricing ladder goes higher. OpenAI's ChatGPT offers a free tier, then an $8/month "Go" plan for more messages, a $20/month "Plus" plan with faster responses and early features, and a $100/month "Pro" plan for power users. Anthropic's Claude follows a similar pattern: a free version, a $17/month "Pro" plan that adds more memory and usage, and a $100/month "Max" plan.
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Here's a reality check on where we are: more households spend money on sports betting apps than on AI tools. PNC senior economist Brian LeBlanc noted that 5% of households pay for sports betting, while just 2% pay for AI. "We are growing quite rapidly, but we are still nowhere near streaming," LeBlanc said.
That gap makes sense. Streaming replaced something people already loved, while AI is asking people to pay for something they're still figuring out how to use.
The growth rate is strong, but it starts from a small base. The economics also matter. Building and running AI models is expensive, and companies are pouring money into infrastructure to support them.
"AI capital expenditure is fueling growth in the economy and a lot of investment is predicated on it eventually being profitable," LeBlanc said.
For now, using these tools is probably as cheap as it will ever get. LeBlanc expects free versions to remain for now, but companies will eventually need to recover costs, so prices will likely rise. "We're living in a time where it's cheapest to use these services," LeBlanc said.
He's watching what happens when companies start raising prices. "I'm curious, as time goes on, whether they'll start increasing prices, and what that will do to adoption rates," LeBlanc said.
Despite the rapid growth, the low penetration of AI subscriptions signals an early-stage market. The seven-month average retention suggests subscribers find genuine utility, which could encourage broader adoption as more use cases emerge and the technology improves. That early traction, combined with the small current base, leaves substantial room for expansion - if companies can balance affordability against high development costs.
The bottom line: If you've been thinking about trying an AI subscription, the current prices are probably the lowest you'll see. The tools are still finding their footing, and the companies behind them are betting that enough people will find the monthly cost worth it. Whether that bet pays off depends on how much value you and millions of others actually get from these services. While most still skip AI payments, the trend is clear: adoption is rising, and the window for cheap access may not stay open forever.
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