Sunil GillWhatsApp has more than 3 billion monthly users, a figure Mark Zuckerberg gave on Meta's first-quarter 2025 earnings call in April 2025, with more than 100 million of them in the United States. It is the largest messaging app outside China and, on Meta's own numbers, as large as Instagram. In June 2025 it also became an advertising business for the first time, with ads in the Status feed of the Updates tab, which 1.5 billion people open every day.
This report sticks to what Meta and WhatsApp have stated themselves, plus the two independent surveys that measure WhatsApp use in the US and UK. Every figure has its date.
WhatsApp statistics: the key figures
- More than 3 billion monthly active users worldwide (Meta, April 2025), up from 2 billion in February 2020.
- More than 100 million monthly users in the United States (Meta, April 2025).
- 1.5 billion people a day use the Updates tab, where Status, Channels and now ads live (Meta, June 2025).
- The WhatsApp Business app passed 200 million monthly users in June 2023, up from 50 million in 2020 (Meta).
- 92% of UK adult smartphone users used WhatsApp in May 2025, more than any other app, for an average of 17 minutes a day (Ofcom).
- 32% of US adults use WhatsApp, up from 23% in 2021 (Pew Research Center, 2025).
- WhatsApp is the world's favourite social platform: 17.4% of users name it first, ahead of Instagram at 16.4% (GWI, via DataReportal).
How many people use WhatsApp
Meta reports users for its family of apps as a whole, 3.60 billion daily active people in June 2026, and gives per-app figures only occasionally as milestones. For WhatsApp those milestones are the best data there is.
View as table
| Period | Value |
|---|---|
| Feb 2014 | 450M |
| Feb 2016 | 1,000M |
| Jan 2018 | 1,500M |
| Feb 2020 | 2,000M |
| Apr 2025 | 3,000M+ |
Source: WhatsApp and Meta announcements
| Date | Monthly active users | Source |
|---|---|---|
| February 2014 | 450 million | Facebook, on announcing the acquisition |
| February 2016 | 1 billion | WhatsApp blog |
| January 2018 | 1.5 billion | Meta Q4 2017 earnings call |
| February 2020 | 2 billion | WhatsApp blog |
| April 2025 | 3 billion+ | Meta Q1 2025 earnings call |
The pace is remarkably steady: roughly half a billion new users every two years for a decade. It took WhatsApp six years to go from one billion to two and five more to reach three. On that trend the four billion mark arrives around 2029, though by then it will be limited by the number of people with phones outside China, where WhatsApp is blocked.
Where WhatsApp is used
WhatsApp does not publish users by country. What exists is a pair of regulator and survey measurements at either end of the adoption spectrum.
In the UK, Ofcom's metered panel found WhatsApp used by 92% of adult smartphone users in May 2025, up from 91%, making it the most-used app in the country ahead of Facebook (85%) and Google Maps (77%). Users spent 17 minutes a day on it. The UK is typical of Europe, Latin America, India and much of Africa, where WhatsApp is the default way to message anyone.
The US is the exception. Pew found 32% of American adults using WhatsApp in 2025, which puts it fifth behind YouTube, Facebook, Instagram and TikTok. But the number was 23% in 2021, so it is one of the fastest-growing platforms in the country, and Meta's figure of 100 million US monthly users says the same thing. Use is highest among Hispanic adults and people with a college degree.
Globally, GWI's survey for DataReportal's Digital 2026 report finds 54.0% of internet users aged 16 and over using WhatsApp each month, fourth behind Facebook, YouTube and Instagram, and first when people are asked which platform they like most.
WhatsApp Business
WhatsApp's revenue comes from businesses, not users. There are two products. The free WhatsApp Business app for small firms passed 200 million monthly users in June 2023, a fourfold rise from 50 million in 2020. The WhatsApp Business Platform, used by larger companies, charges for conversations, and Meta sells "click-to-WhatsApp" ads on Facebook and Instagram that open a chat. Meta does not disclose WhatsApp's revenue separately; it sits inside the family of apps' "other" revenue line and inside advertising.
Ads, channels and subscriptions
On June 16, 2025, Meta announced three ways to make money from the Updates tab, the part of WhatsApp that holds Status and Channels and which 1.5 billion people use every day:
- Ads in Status, shown between people's updates and targeted using country or city, language, the channels a user follows and their interaction with ads, plus Accounts Center data for users who have opted in.
- Promoted channels in the channel directory.
- Channel subscriptions, a monthly fee for exclusive updates from a channel.
Meta's line, repeated throughout the announcement, is that personal chats stay end-to-end encrypted and are not used for ads, and that someone who only uses WhatsApp to message will see no change. The commercial logic is plain: 1.5 billion daily users of a feed that until then earned nothing.
What the numbers mean for app marketers
- Outside the US and China, WhatsApp is the channel. For support, order updates and reactivation in Europe, India, Latin America or Africa, a WhatsApp message reaches more of your users than email or push.
- In the US it is growing from a low base, 23% to 32% of adults in four years, and concentrated in communities with family abroad. Worth testing for apps that serve them; not yet a mass channel.
- Status ads are the first new reach inside WhatsApp in its history. Targeting is coarse by design, so they suit awareness more than performance.
- Click-to-WhatsApp ads turn Meta's ad platform into a lead channel that ends in a conversation rather than a landing page, which fits businesses that sell by talking.
How WhatsApp compares with other platforms by company-reported users is in the social media statistics report, and the broader category is covered in the messaging app statistics report.
How these figures are counted
User milestones are Meta's and WhatsApp's own statements on the dates given; Meta reports family-wide daily active people in its quarterly results and does not report WhatsApp's users or revenue separately. The Updates tab figure is from Meta's June 2025 announcement. Ofcom's UK figures come from its Ipsos iris metered panel for May 2025. Pew's US figures are from a survey of 5,022 adults between February and June 2025. GWI figures are survey-based and cover internet users aged 16 and over in 54 markets.
FAQs
How many people use WhatsApp?
More than 3 billion people a month, according to Mark Zuckerberg in April 2025. That is up from 2 billion in February 2020 and 1 billion in February 2016.
How many WhatsApp users are there in the US?
More than 100 million monthly users, per Meta in April 2025. Pew Research Center finds 32% of US adults use WhatsApp, up from 23% in 2021.
Which country uses WhatsApp the most?
WhatsApp does not publish figures by country. India is widely reported to have the largest user base, but the only measured national figure is the UK's, where Ofcom finds 92% of adult smartphone users on WhatsApp each month.
Does WhatsApp have ads?
Yes, since June 2025. Ads appear in Status, inside the Updates tab, alongside promoted channels and paid channel subscriptions. Meta says personal chats remain end-to-end encrypted and are not used for advertising.
How does WhatsApp make money?
Through businesses: the WhatsApp Business Platform charges companies for conversations, Meta sells click-to-WhatsApp ads on Facebook and Instagram, and since June 2025 there are ads and promoted channels in the Updates tab. Meta does not report WhatsApp's revenue on its own.
Who mainly uses WhatsApp?
Almost everyone with a smartphone in most of Europe, Latin America, India, the Middle East and Africa; in the UK it reaches 92% of adult smartphone users. In the US, where 32% of adults use it, use is highest among Hispanic adults and people with a college degree, according to Pew Research Center.
Why don't most Americans use WhatsApp?
The usual explanation is that Americans never needed it. US carriers bundled unlimited texting early, and iMessage covers the half of the country on iPhones, so there was no cost to avoid, which is what drove WhatsApp's adoption elsewhere. It is catching up: US adult use rose from 23% in 2021 to 32% in 2025, and Meta counts more than 100 million US users.
Sources
- Meta's 3 billion and 100 million US figures, April 2025, as reported by TechCrunch
- Meta: Helping you find more channels and businesses on WhatsApp, June 16, 2025 (Updates tab, ads, promoted channels, subscriptions)
- Meta's WhatsApp Business app figure, June 2023, as reported by PYMNTS
- Meta: Q2 2026 results (family daily active people)
- Ofcom: Online Nation 2025, December 2025
- Pew Research Center: Americans' Social Media Use 2025
- DataReportal: Digital 2026 Global Overview Report (GWI platform use and favourite platform)
Earlier milestones (2014, 2016, 2018, 2020) are WhatsApp's and Facebook's own announcements at the time. All current figures were checked against the sources above on October 6, 2026.