Congress spends 90% of AI budget on OpenAI's ChatGPT

A new CNBC report reveals that ChatGPT is far and away Congress's preferred AI tool when it comes to actual dollars spent. Analyzing House disbursement records from the year ending March 31, CNBC found that OpenAI received roughly 90% of all AI tool spending across House offices, committees, and institutional accounts. That translates to $100,580 across 798 transactions, out of at least $113,740 in total AI spending. ChatGPT's dominance is even more striking given that Anthropic's Claude—the second-place tool—accounted for just $13,160 across 37 transactions.

The spending breakdown also exposes a partisan gap: Democratic offices spent $54,165 on AI tools, more than three times the $15,782 spent by Republican offices. Notably, these figures only capture paid subscriptions, not free-tier usage or AI tools bundled into broader software contracts, meaning actual Congressional reliance on AI is likely higher. Staffers are reportedly using ChatGPT and similar tools for practical legislative work: writing memos, summarizing and analyzing bills, preparing hearing materials, sorting through policy research, drafting constituent responses, and even writing social media posts. While the total spend is modest in federal budget terms, the concentration on OpenAI signals that Congress is standardizing on one major AI provider for its day-to-day operations—a fact that could shape procurement policies and AI regulations as lawmakers grow more dependent on these systems.