In reversal of early trend, women now make up majority of ChatGPT’s 700M weekly users

OpenAI has released its first comprehensive study on ChatGPT usage patterns, revealing that women now make up more than half of the platform’s 700 million weekly active users as of June 2025. The research also shows a dramatic shift toward personal use, with 73% of conversations now being non-work-related—up from 53% just a year ago—suggesting AI chatbots are becoming deeply integrated into everyday life rather than primarily serving as workplace productivity tools.

The big picture: ChatGPT has evolved from a predominantly male, work-focused user base to a more diverse platform where personal conversations dominate, with OpenAI claiming 10% of the global adult population now uses the service weekly.

Key demographic shifts: The user base has undergone significant changes since ChatGPT’s early adoption phase.

• Women, classified by researchers as those with “typically female first names,” now represent more than half of weekly active users, reversing the male-dominated early adopter trend.
• Nearly half (46%) of users are between ages 18-25, indicating strong adoption among younger demographics.
• Usage is expanding rapidly across both genders and countries, according to OpenAI’s data.

What people are talking about: The most common conversation topics reveal how users actually engage with the AI assistant.

• “Practical guidance,” “seeking information,” and “writing” account for 78% of all conversations.
• Writing emerges as the top work-related task when users do engage ChatGPT for professional purposes.
• Coding requests represent only 4.2% of messages, suggesting programmers may prefer specialized tools like Claude or Replit, an AI-powered coding platform.
• Self-expression activities like “greetings and chitchat, relationships and personal reflection, [and] games and roleplay” remain surprisingly low, which researchers view as positive given concerns about unhealthy AI relationships.

Why this matters: OpenAI’s economists are using these findings to argue for ChatGPT’s broader economic value beyond workplace productivity.

• The research aims to demonstrate economic impact through “decision support” rather than direct work applications.
• “Our findings suggest that ChatGPT has a broad-based impact on the global economy,” the report states.
• The shift toward personal use indicates “welfare gains from generative AI usage could be substantial,” according to the authors.

Important methodology details: The 63-page study analyzed a random selection of messages from ChatGPT’s consumer plans between May 2024 and June 2025.

• Data comes from ChatGPT Free, Plus, and Pro users, excluding enterprise and education accounts.
• Researchers did not personally read user messages to maintain privacy.
• The study was led by Aaron Chatterji, OpenAI’s chief economist and Duke University professor, Tom Cunningham, an OpenAI economic researcher, and David Deming, a Harvard political economist.