OpenAI has published a country-by-country look at how people actually use ChatGPT. The headline finding: it is turning into a work tool.
The release, made public on August 6, 2026, covers work activity across 100 countries. For a product many people first met as a homework helper or trivia machine, the data suggests a quieter career change is underway.
What the data shows
OpenAI describes this as its first comprehensive country-level analysis of individual ChatGPT usage. It arrives as part of what the company calls its OpenAI Signals individual data update.
The dataset spans July 2024 to June 2026. That is two full years of behavior, long enough to separate lasting habits from novelty clicks.
It pulls from four account tiers: Free, Go, Plus and Pro.
The central finding concerns what people are doing in the chat window. In work contexts, the rate of task completion and creation runs at more than 2x the rate seen in personal use.
Personal usage, according to the findings, is still dominated by information-seeking.
The headline coverage is 100 countries, though the research notes survey coverage that extends to as many as 147 countries.
Who is using it, and where
The geographic story is about catch-up. According to the findings, users in Latin America, Africa and Oceania are rapidly narrowing the gap with earlier adopters.
The age profile is shifting too. Messages sent by users aged 35 and older have risen in nearly every country tracked.
Some countries saw particularly sharp moves. France and Czechia each recorded a rise of more than 10 percentage points in this older user segment.
Then there is multimedia. Image generation and other non-text interactions now make up 7.8% of all messages globally.
In some markets, that share is notably higher. Brazil and Colombia both exceed 10%, putting them well above the global figure.
Background: the ChatGPT Work launch
The timing lines up with a product move. OpenAI launched ChatGPT Work in July 2026, positioning it as a tool for handling multi-step professional tasks.
The research suggests a correlation between that launch and the rise in work-focused functionality. Correlation is the operative word. The release of more capable tools and the shift toward productivity appear to move together, but the data does not prove one caused the other.
The full dataset has been made publicly available. OpenAI frames it as a resource that policymakers and researchers can use to follow how AI adoption is evolving.
What this means
For businesses, the most useful signal is the gap between work and personal behavior. If people complete and create at more than double the rate when working, then the value of these tools is being captured on the clock, not on the couch.
The age data cuts against a common assumption. A broad rise among users 35 and older suggests mid-career and senior workers are picking it up too.
The high multimedia share in Brazil and Colombia hints that product priorities may differ by market, with some regions leaning harder into visual tools.
There are limits worth keeping in mind. This is data published by OpenAI about OpenAI’s own product. It describes how ChatGPT users behave, not how everyone uses AI.
Disclosure: This article was edited by Diego Almada Lopez. For more information on how we create and review content, see our Editorial Policy.