OpenAI has released its biggest analysis to date about the usage habits of ChatGPT. In a research paper courtesy of the company’s Economic Research team and Harvard economist David Deming, the company analyzed 1.5 million ChatGPT conversations, and it’s now shedding light on some interesting stats about how interactions with the AI chatbot unfold.
The who, why, and how much?
As of July 2025, ChatGPT had over 700 million users exchanging 18 billion messages each week, or 2.5 billion messages per day. And it seems people are using ChatGPT for work-related assistance more than anything else.
“Writing is by far the most common work use, accounting for 42% of work-related messages overall and more than half of all messages for users in management and business occupations,” says the research paper.
Compared to the early launch days, the gender gap has reversed, and more than half of users now have a female name. Additionally, nearly half of all ChatGPT users are under 26 years of age.
Practical guidance, writing, and seeking information are three of the biggest discussion areas with ChatGPT, accounting for 78% of all exchanges. In 49% of the messages, users were asking (of messages are users asking ChatGPT for guidance, advice, or information), while 40% accounted for doing (tasks connected into workflow), and
A few surprises
In the tech circle, it’s often said that programmers are at risk of losing their jobs to AI, more so than any other profession. Yet, questions about computer programming and coding only account for 4.2% of the analyzed chats.
Over the past few weeks, ChatGPT’s negative impact and a few deadly incidents have resulted in hot debates, prompting the company to build parental controls and warning systems for guardians. Yet, Relationships and Personal Reflection messages only accounted for 1.9% of the assessed conversations.
In only 1% of the analyzed conversations, users were expressing themselves to the AI chatbot. That’s pretty surprising, considering reports of how users can get sucked into romantic conversations with ChatGPT, a pattern that is even more evident with AI personality bots available on platforms such as Nomi, CharacterAI, and Replika.