# What do people actually use ChatGPT for? OpenAI provides some numbers. - Ars Technica

<https://arstechnica.com/ai/2025/09/seven-things-we-learned-from-openais-first-study-on-chatgpt-usage/>

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## What Jamie wrote

Some super interesting usage data from OpenAI about ChatGPT.

- ChatGPT added over 300M active users in the last 6 months? That is incredible. Nearly doubled!
- Interesting how heavily male the user base was in the beginning and is now close to even.
- 72% of requests to ChatGPT are "non-work" related.
- Over 50% of the usage is either Helping with Writing or "Practical Guidance".
- Only 7% of usage is "multimedia" which is something I do a lot of.

Most recent data I've seen says ChatGPT standalone is a $2B recurring revenue business. Given that growth in the last 6 months I wouldn't be surprised if it is now $4B standalone.

## Facts

- Kind: [Page](https://links.thingelstad.xyz/kinds/page/)

## Appears in

- [WT327: Weekly Thing 327 / Prototypes, Tahoe, UTF-8](https://weekly.thingelstad.com/archive/327/), Notable

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