For Stephen, who had already been tinkering with other chatbots, learning about Brockman\u2019s donation was the final straw. \u201cThat\u2019s really the straw that broke the camel\u2019s back,\u201d he says. When he canceled his ChatGPT subscription, a survey popped up asking what OpenAI could have done to keep his subscription. \u201cDon\u2019t support the fascist regime,\u201d he wrote.<\/p>\n
QuitGPT is one of the latest salvos in a growing movement by activists and disaffected users to cancel their subscriptions. In just the past few weeks, users have flooded Reddit with stories about quitting the chatbot. Many lamented the performance of GPT-5.2, the latest model. Others shared memes parodying the chatbot\u2019s sycophancy. Some planned a \u201cMass Cancellation Party<\/a>\u201d in San Francisco, a sardonic nod to the GPT-4o funeral<\/a> that an OpenAI employee had floated, poking fun at users who are mourning the model\u2019s impending retirement. Still, others are protesting against what they see as a deepening entanglement between OpenAI and the Trump administration.<\/p>\n OpenAI did not respond to a request for comment.<\/p>\n As of December 2025, ChatGPT had nearly 900 million weekly active users, according to The Information<\/a>. While it\u2019s unclear how many users have joined the boycott, QuitGPT is getting attention. A recent Instagram post<\/a> from the campaign has more than 36 million views and 1.3 million likes. And the organizers say that more than 17,000 people have signed up on the campaign\u2019s website, which asks people whether they canceled their subscriptions, will commit to stop using ChatGPT, or will share the campaign on social media.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThere are lots of examples of failed campaigns like this, but we have seen a lot of effectiveness,\u201d says Dana Fisher, a sociologist at American University. A wave of canceled subscriptions rarely sways a company\u2019s behavior, unless it reaches a critical mass, she says. \u201cThe place where there\u2019s a pressure point that might work is where the consumer behavior is if enough people actually use their \u2026 money to express their political opinions.\u201d<\/p>\n MIT Technology Review reached out to three employees at OpenAI, none of whom said they were familiar with the campaign.\u00a0<\/p>\n Dozens of left-leaning teens and twentysomethings scattered across the US came together to organize QuitGPT in late January. They range from pro-democracy activists and climate organizers to techies and self-proclaimed cyber libertarians, many of them seasoned grassroots campaigners. They were inspired by a viral video<\/a> posted by Scott Galloway, a marketing professor at New York University and host of The Prof G Pod. He argued that the best way to stop ICE was to persuade people to cancel their ChatGPT subscriptions. Denting OpenAI\u2019s subscriber base could ripple through the stock market and threaten an economic downturn that would nudge Trump, he said.<\/p>\n