OpenAI Study Reveals Top 3 Uses of ChatGPT

ChatGPT remains one of the world’s most widely used AI chatbots, attracting hundreds of millions of users every week. While its coding and reasoning skills often grab headlines, a new large-scale study by OpenAI’s Economic Research team—conducted with Harvard economist David Deming—reveals that coding isn’t even among the top three reasons people use ChatGPT.

ChatGPT

The research, which analysed 1.5 million conversations in a privacy-preserving way, found that most interactions fall into three main categories: Asking, Doing, and Expressing.

• Asking (49%) – Nearly half of all messages are users seeking advice, clarifications, or answers to information queries. OpenAI says people value ChatGPT most as a digital advisor.

• Doing (40%) – A significant share of conversations involve task completion, such as drafting emails, preparing documents, planning, or programming. Writing tasks dominate this category, while coding accounts for only a small fraction.

• Expressing (11%) – Users also turn to ChatGPT for personal reflection, creative exploration, or casual, playful chats.

The study highlights how ChatGPT has become an everyday tool across diverse demographics. Early gender gaps in adoption have narrowed, and usage now reflects the general adult population. Growth has been especially strong in low- and middle-income countries, with adoption rates four times higher than in wealthier regions.

India stands out as one of ChatGPT’s biggest markets, now the second-largest user base globally, making up 8.7% of total traffic—more than half the size of the U.S. audience.

This research marks the largest user study on ChatGPT to date, showing that while AI excels at coding, users rely on it far more for guidance, productivity, and everyday advice.