ChatGPT captures 90% of Congress AI spending
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- OpenAI's ChatGPT received roughly 90% of all AI tool spending by House offices, committees, and institutional accounts during the year ending March 31, per House disbursement records reviewed by CNBC.
- Congress spent approximately $100,580 across 798 ChatGPT transactions, out of at least $113,740 in total identified AI spending.
- Anthropic's Claude ranked a distant second with $13,160 across 37 transactions.
- Democratic offices accounted for $54,165 in AI purchases — roughly three times the $15,782 spent by Republican offices.
- The spending figures exclude any Congressional AI use through free accounts or AI tools bundled into broader software contracts.
- Congressional staffers use ChatGPT and similar tools to draft memos, summarize and analyze legislation, respond to constituents, prepare hearing materials, sort through policy research, and write social media posts.
Why it matters: Congress directed nearly all of its $113,740 in identified AI spending to a single vendor — ChatGPT at roughly 90% — concentrating legislative workflow tools in one company's hands. A 3-to-1 Democratic-over-Republican spending split ($54,165 vs. $15,782) shows Democratic offices have adopted paid AI tools more aggressively than Republican ones, putting their staff operations on measurably different footing.
