State of the Prompt

Rutgers University · School of Communication and Information

A year of what people ask AI

An opt-in panel of 73,852 people in the United States shared their ChatGPT conversations with researchers for twelve months. We study what they asked, who asked it, and when.

Each wedge is one hour of the day, in the panelist’s local time; its length is that hour’s share of the day’s conversations.

65,689adults in these figures
3.4 millionconversations analyzed
12 monthsJuly 2025 to June 2026
28subjects of conversation

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Type a question in plain words. The answer is written in your browser from published totals, and no conversation is ever shown.

Latest insights

Subjects

Health is the biggest subject

One conversation in ten is mainly about health and medicine, ahead of work and of making images.

October 2026 · Project team

Education

School questions follow the school calendar

Questions about schoolwork climb in late August, dip at Thanksgiving, fall by half over winter break, and fade again in the summer.

October 2026 · Project team

Time of day

Work fills the morning; health comes before dawn

Work questions peak in the middle of the morning, at about one conversation in nine. Health peaks around 5 and 6 am, at about one in eight.

October 2026 · Project team

Over the year

The year, in questions

Each line is a subject’s weekly share of conversations against its own yearly average. School follows the school calendar, sports follow the big games, and politics follows the news.

Swipe sideways to see the whole year; tap the chart to read a week.

Explore the data

Each square is one in every hundred conversations, colored by the category of its main subject.

Report 1

What Americans ask ChatGPT about health

October 2026

Read the report

Key takeaways

  • One conversation in ten is mainly about health and medicine (10.2%), the largest of 28 subjects.
  • Nearly half of the people in the study (49%) had at least one conversation that touched on health.
  • Four in five health conversations ask a question (80%); few ask ChatGPT to write or produce something (6%).

Report 2

Politics on ChatGPT

October 2026

Read the report

Key takeaways

  • About one conversation in thirteen involves politics, government or law (7.8%).
  • Personal matters outnumber public debate: 53% of political conversations concern the person’s own taxes, benefits, papers or legal situation, against 43% about society at large.
  • Nearly half of the people in the study (47%) had at least one political conversation.