Generative AI Usage Statistics for the US
More than half of working-age Americans now use generative AI outside work. The rest will not go looking for it; it will arrive as a default.
The signal
- Company statementsGoogle put the Gemini app at 950M monthly users (Jul 2026); OpenAI put ChatGPT at 900M weekly users (Feb 2026). They count different things.
- LaunchesGemini 3.8 Live (17 Sept 2026) is an audio model, Google's launch number 4 in our feed since July.
- PewPew's survey fielded 17–23 Feb 2026 finds 44% of US adults use ChatGPT, rising to 61% of those aged 18–29 and falling to 19% at 65+.
54.8% of Americans aged 18–64 used generative AI outside work in Q2 2026, up from 36.0% in Q3 2024. The share passed half in Q1 2026.
Share of US adults aged 18–64 using generative AI for non-work purposes · quarterly, Q3 2024 – Q2 2026. Points are dated to the first day of each quarter, as on FRED.
Online panel survey; sample size per wave not captured. Latest quarter as published on FRED by 4 Aug 2026. Non-work use only; work use is a separate series. Survey shares, not company user counts.
Show the data (8 rows)
| Quarter | Share using generative AI outside work | Change vs previous quarter |
|---|---|---|
| Q3 2024 | 36.0% | – |
| Q4 2024 | 39.3% | +3.3 pts |
| Q1 2025 | 41.9% | +2.7 pts |
| Q2 2025 | 45.9% | +4.0 pts |
| Q3 2025 | 48.6% | +2.7 pts |
| Q4 2025 | 49.7% | +1.1 pts |
| Q1 2026 | 51.3% | +1.6 pts |
| Q2 2026 | 54.8% | +3.5 pts |
The Mode read
Google says the Gemini app has 950 million monthly users; OpenAI says ChatGPT has 900 million weekly users. Company counts measure different things and overlap. A cleaner question: what share of working-age Americans use generative AI at all?
The St. Louis Fed's Real-Time Population Survey answers it. Non-work use rose from 36.0% in Q3 2024 to 54.8% in Q2 2026, a gain of 18.8 points over 7 quarters, about 2.7 points a quarter. Growth slowed to 1.1 points in Q4 2025, then picked up: the latest quarter added 3.5 points, the largest rise since Q2 2025. The share passed half in Q1 2026.
Past half, the buyer changes. Most of the first 54.8% went looking for AI: they downloaded an app or opened a website. The remaining 45.2% will mostly meet it inside something they already use, on a phone, in a browser, in a bank or shopping app. For a startup, that makes the default slot the scarce asset. The founders who reach the late majority will do it through a partner who controls a default, not through an app-store listing.
Half of working-age America already uses generative AI. The other half will get it by default, not by download.
What we would back: Consumer AI that ships through a partner who owns a default slot: a phone maker, a carrier, a browser, a bank app.