How ChatGPT Adoption Broadened in Early 2026

In Q1 2026, consumer ChatGPT usage expanded beyond the early adopter base to a wider population. By message share, the proportion of users with feminine-coded names grew larger, and the share of users aged 35 and older also increased.

By country, when comparing message counts relative to population, the most notable rank increases were seen in the Latin America & Caribbean, Asia-Pacific, and Africa regions. Countries with fast-rising ranks included the Dominican Republic, Haiti, Japan, Mexico, Tanzania, Brazil, Costa Rica, Myanmar, Papua New Guinea, and Austria.

For work-related use, writing documents and creating visual materials remained central but declined in share, while more specialized tasks such as content creation, health-related documentation, and information lookup grew rapidly. However, this analysis only covers consumer plans such as Free, Go, Plus, and Pro, excluding Codex and enterprise/education products, so overall work- and study-related usage is likely undercounted.