ChatGPT Is Pulling In 90% of Congress's AI Spending
House disbursement records show lawmakers spent around $100,580 on ChatGPT in a single year, dwarfing all other AI tools combined. Anthropic's Claude came second, at a distant $13,160.
Key points
- House offices spent roughly $100,580 on ChatGPT, a popular AI chatbot made by OpenAI, in the year ending 31 March 2026, across 798 separate transactions.
- That figure represents about 90% of at least $113,740 in total AI tool spending by Congress during the same period.
- Anthropic's Claude, a rival AI chatbot, came second with $13,160 across 37 transactions.
- Democratic offices outspent Republican offices on AI tools by roughly three to one: $54,165 versus $15,782.
- The figures cover only paid accounts and exclude AI features bundled inside larger software contracts.
Congress has a favourite AI chatbot, and it is not a close race.
House offices, committees and institutional accounts spent roughly $100,580 on ChatGPT, the AI chatbot made by OpenAI, during the year ending 31 March 2026. That is about 90 cents of every dollar Congress put into AI tools over that period, according to public House disbursement records first reported by TechCrunch AI.
The runner-up was Claude, an AI chatbot made by Anthropic, which collected $13,160 across 37 transactions. Total AI spending across all tools came to at least $113,740.
What are staffers actually doing with these tools?
They are using them for the same writing and research tasks that eat up hours in any busy office. Congressional staff are drafting memos, summarising long bills, responding to constituent letters, preparing hearing materials and sorting through policy research. Some are using AI chatbots to write social media posts.
In short: a technology that many people already use at home or at work has quietly found a home in the US legislature too.
Does the partisan split tell us anything?
Democratic offices spent $54,165 on AI tools during the period, roughly three times the $15,782 spent by Republican offices. Why the gap exists is not clear from the records alone. It could reflect different staffing levels, different office sizes, or simply different attitudes toward adopting new software.
One important caveat: these numbers only capture paid subscriptions taken out directly by House offices. Any staffer using a free ChatGPT account, or any AI feature tucked inside a broader software contract (like Microsoft 365, which now includes AI writing tools), would not show up here. The real level of AI use in Congress is almost certainly higher.
| Tool | Total Spent | Transactions |
|---|---|---|
| ChatGPT (OpenAI) | $100,580 | 798 |
| Claude (Anthropic) | $13,160 | 37 |
| All other AI tools | ~$0 to $1,000 | not specified |
| Total AI spending | $113,740+ | 835+ |
What does this mean for ordinary people?
If your senator's office sends you a reply letter, or if a committee publishes a bill summary, there is now a real chance an AI chatbot helped write the first draft. That is not necessarily alarming. Staffers have always used word processors, templates and research assistants. AI is a faster version of the same idea.
What it does mean is that the quality and accuracy of AI tools now matters to everyone, not just tech workers. Chatbots can make confident-sounding mistakes. Offices relying heavily on them for policy research or constituent communication will need humans checking the output carefully.
