ChatGPT statistics 2026

How many people use ChatGPT?

1.2 billion a week. That's the number OpenAI gave at its developer conference on September 29, 2026, up from more than 900 million in February (OpenAI).

How many people pay for ChatGPT?

More than 50 million. That's how many consumer subscribers OpenAI reported in February 2026, when January and February were on track to be its biggest months ever for new subscribers (OpenAI).

More than 9 million paying business users use ChatGPT for work, too. And weekly users of Codex, OpenAI's coding agent, more than tripled in the first two months of the year, to 1.6 million.

How many Americans use ChatGPT?

44% of US adults, far more than any other chatbot. About half of Americans, 49%, now use an AI chatbot, up from a third in 2024 (Pew Research Center).

US adults who use each AI chatbot (%)

1ChatGPT

44%

2Gemini

24%

3Copilot

17%

4Meta AI

14%

5Grok

8%

6Claude

6%

7Character.ai

3%

Pew Research Center, Americans and AI 2026 · 5,119 US adults, February 17 to 23, 2026

Age makes a big difference. Adults under 50 are about twice as likely as older adults to use ChatGPT, 57% against 28%.

What do people use ChatGPT for?

Advice more than anything. {{sg\_top\_n}} of messages in {{sg\_last}} asked for practical guidance, like how-to help, tutoring and ideas, up from {{sg\_top\_first}} two years earlier (OpenAI Signals).

What people use ChatGPT for (% of messages)

1Practical guidance

32.1%

2Writing

22.3%

3Looking things up

18.8%

4Self-expression

8.9%

5Images and media

7.8%

6Other

6%

7Technical help

4.2%

OpenAI Signals, How people use ChatGPT · consumer plans, June 2026

Writing used to lead. It fell from {{sg\_writing\_first}} of messages to {{sg\_writing}}, while images and media grew from {{sg\_media\_first}} to {{sg\_media}}. Technical help dropped from {{sg\_tech\_first}} to {{sg\_tech}}, but these numbers leave out Codex, OpenAI's coding agent, where OpenAI says technical work is likely moving.

Write better prompts for any of these with my free ChatGPT prompt generator.

Do people use ChatGPT for work?

Less and less, as a share. {{sg\_work}} of messages on ChatGPT's personal plans were about work in {{sg\_last}}, down from {{sg\_work\_first}} in {{sg\_first}}. The rest, {{sg\_personal}}, were personal (OpenAI Signals).

ChatGPT messages about work, by plan (%)

1Free

25.8%

2Go

42.1%

3Plus

46.2%

4Pro

58%

OpenAI Signals, How people use ChatGPT · the latest month for each plan

The more people pay, the more they use it for work: {{sg\_pro\_work}} of Pro messages are about work, against {{sg\_free\_work}} on the free plan. These numbers leave out ChatGPT's business and education plans, so they understate work use.

How people use it differs too. At work, {{sg\_do\_work}} of messages ask ChatGPT to do something, like write or edit. In personal use, {{sg\_ask\_personal}} ask it a question.

Who uses ChatGPT the most?

Young adults. {{sg\_young}} of messages in {{sg\_last}} came from people under 35 (OpenAI Signals).

ChatGPT messages by age (% of messages)

118 to 24

30.7%

225 to 34

35.9%

335 to 44

18.5%

445 to 54

8.9%

555 to 64

3.7%

665 and older

2.5%

OpenAI Signals, How people use ChatGPT · self-reported age, June 2026

Older users are catching up: people 55 and older sent {{sg\_old}} of messages, up from {{sg\_old\_first}} in {{sg\_first}}. Users with typically feminine names now send {{sg\_fem}} of messages, up from {{sg\_fem\_first}}. OpenAI infers this from first names, so it's not how people describe themselves. Schoolwork makes up {{sg\_school}} of messages.

Which countries use ChatGPT the most?

{{sg\_c1}}. It sent the most ChatGPT messages per person in {{sg\_quarter}}, out of {{sg\_ranked}} countries OpenAI ranked (OpenAI Signals).

Rank	Country
1	Singapore
2	Malta
3	Netherlands
4	Montenegro
5	Latvia
6	United Arab Emirates
7	Estonia
8	Lithuania
9	Azerbaijan
10	Luxembourg

The US ranks {{sg\_us\_rank}}. Within the US, District of Columbia, Virginia, New York, California and Florida sent the most messages per person in 2025.

If you work from anywhere, see where the internet is fastest in my digital nomad statistics.

How many websites block ChatGPT?

More block its training than its answers. {{cr\_gpt}} of the most-visited websites block GPTBot, which collects pages to train OpenAI's models. Only {{cr\_oai}} block OAI-SearchBot, which finds pages for ChatGPT search, and {{cr\_user}} block ChatGPT-User, which fetches a page when someone asks about it (Tranco top {{cr\_n}}, robots.txt).

See which AI crawlers your site lets in with my free AI crawler checker, and more in my AI in marketing statistics.

How to use these numbers

Before you plan around ChatGPT:

• Expect your customers to ask ChatGPT first: nearly half of US adults use it
• Write for questions: most messages ask for guidance or information
• Let OpenAI's search crawler in, so ChatGPT can cite and link to you
• Don't write only for young people: older users' share keeps growing
• Check these numbers again next quarter: OpenAI updates them every few months

Then ask ChatGPT the questions your customers ask, and see whether it mentions you.

Key takeaways

Here's what the ChatGPT statistics say:

• ChatGPT is huge – 1.2 billion people a week, and 50 million who pay.
• It leads every chatbot – 44% of US adults use it, against 24% for Gemini.
• It's mostly personal – 69.6% of messages aren't about work.
• Advice beats writing – practical guidance is now 32.1% of messages.
• Sites block training more than answers – 14.1% block GPTBot, 7.4% OpenAI's search crawler.

For more, see my AI statistics and AI in marketing statistics, and write better prompts with my free ChatGPT prompt generator.