OpenAI reveals the users of ChatGPT and their motivations
Big language models are still black boxes in terms of what goes on inside and the results they offer. Also, the who and how of their use remains somewhat of a mystery. But OpenAI, with some help from the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER), set out to better understand who uses them and for what. What they found was surprising: there is a lot of personal use, and among frequent users there is almost no gender gap.
The study conducted by the OpenAI Economic Research team and Harvard economist David Deming shows that around 80% of total ChatGPT usage can be classified into three categories: “Practical Guidance”, “Information Seeking”, and “Writing”. “Practical Guidance”, identified as the most common category of use, includes things like “tutorials, learning, tips on various topics, creative ideas,” and “Information Seeking” replaces traditional search as “Writing” includes automated email creation, document writing, communications, text editing, and translation. Writing, moreover, is the most used category related to work according to this study, representing 40% of work-related messages in June 2025, compared to only 4.2% of messages related to computer programming, so it seems that coding with ChatGPT is not that common.
Notably, the use of ChatGPT for work seems to be decreasing over time, according to people’s interactions with the chatbot. In June 2024, almost 47% of interactions were work-related, but now it’s only 27%, a trend also seen in studies showing that many companies fail to generate significant returns on their investments in AI. Meanwhile, interactions unrelated to work have increased from 53% to 73%.
Usage, Age, and Gender
While users seem to spend more time with ChatGPT in their personal time, the OpenAI study found that “a relatively small portion” of messages with the chatbot were from users seeking virtual companionship or discussing social-emotional issues. The company claims that around 2% of all messages were from people using ChatGPT as a therapist or friend, and only 0.4% of people talked to the chatbot about relationships and personal reflections, although it would be interesting to see if people who use a chatbot in this way generate more messages, and if usage becomes increasingly dependent.
Other research seems to believe that this usage is much more common than these figures suggest. For example, Common Sense Media found that teenagers use AI chatbots for social interaction and relationships. Another study found that almost half of all adult users have used a chatbot for “psychological support” in the past year. The figure for teenagers is significant considering that OpenAI saw its user base shifting towards younger users. The NBER study revealed that 46% of messages came from users identifying as between 18 and 25 years old (also excluding users under 18). These are the users most likely to use ChatGPT for personal use. Messages related to work increase with users’ age.
This study also found that more women are using ChatGPT, when initially the user base was mostly male. The company states that the percentage of users with male names has decreased from 80% in 2022 to 48% in June 2025, and that female names have increased to equal that percentage.
There is something to consider, depending on how much we trust in technology: OpenAI used AI to categorize the messages it analyzed. So, if you’re skeptical, alongside the figures from this study, you can put an asterisk.
