By Aijaz Alam
How many developers use AI coding tools?
65.9% of developers in Stack Overflow's 2026 Developer Survey use AI coding assistants or coding agents at work (survey run June to August 2026). Use is highest among developers with 6 to 15 years of experience (72.7%) and lowest among those with 1 to 5 years (57.8%). 17.2% use no AI tools at work.
- 65.9%Use AI coding assistants or coding agents at workStack Overflow 2026, 11,509 of 17,464 who answered
- 73%Of coding-assistant users use them every dayStack Overflow 2026
- 57.8%Of developers with 1 to 5 years' experience use them, the lowest groupStack Overflow 2026, n = 4,094
- 65.5%Of coding-agent users used Claude Code; 58.7% used GitHub CopilotStack Overflow 2026, past year
- 80%Of new GitHub developers use Copilot in their first weekGitHub Octoverse, Sep 2024 to Aug 2025
The numbers
The full breakdown
AI tools developers use at work, 2026
| AI tool type | Respondents | Share |
|---|---|---|
| AI coding assistants or coding agents | 11,509 | 65.9% |
| General-purpose AI chat tools | 10,920 | 62.5% |
| AI agents or automated workflows | 4,582 | 26.2% |
| Internal AI tools built by my company | 3,115 | 17.8% |
| I don't use AI tools | 3,003 | 17.2% |
Question AISelect, 17,464 respondents. People could pick more than one answer, so the shares add up to more than 100%.
Developers using AI coding assistants or agents, by work experience
| Work experience | Use AI coding assistants or agents |
|---|---|
| 1 to 5 years | 57.8% |
| 6 to 15 years | 72.7% |
| 16 years or more | 69.6% |
| All respondents | 65.9% |
Stack Overflow Developer Survey 2026. The experience groups are the survey's own; the 1 to 5 years group has 4,094 respondents.
Coding agents and assistants developers used in the past year
| Tool | Respondents | Share of coding-agent users |
|---|---|---|
| Claude Code | 8,030 | 65.5% |
| GitHub Copilot | 7,196 | 58.7% |
| OpenAI Codex | 3,620 | 29.5% |
| Cursor | 3,127 | 25.5% |
| Google Antigravity | 1,956 | 16.0% |
| Gemini Code Assist | 1,789 | 14.6% |
| Open Code | 1,662 | 13.6% |
| JetBrains AI | 1,569 | 12.8% |
Base: 12,255 respondents who used any coding agent or assistant in the past year. Multi-select.
Daily use and trust in AI output
| Measure | Share | Survey |
|---|---|---|
| Coding-assistant users who use them every day | 73% | 2026 |
| Trust AI output when they can easily verify it | 48% | 2026 |
| Trust AI output for many tasks, including important work decisions | 6.6% | 2026 |
| Trust the accuracy of AI tools | 33% | 2025 |
| Distrust the accuracy of AI tools | 46% | 2025 |
The 2026 trust answers are new options, not the 2025 five-point scale, so the 2025 and 2026 rows are not a trend.
AI use on GitHub, Sep 2024 to Aug 2025
| Measure | Value |
|---|---|
| New GitHub developers who use Copilot in their first week | 80% |
| Developers on GitHub | 180 million+ |
| New developers who joined in the year | 36 million+ |
GitHub Octoverse 2025. Platform data from GitHub users only; GitHub's year runs 1 Sep to 31 Aug.
Over time
Stack Overflow survey: AI use in each year we have
| Survey year | Share | What was asked |
|---|---|---|
| 2024 | 76% | Use or plan to use AI tools in the development process |
| 2025 | 84% | Use or plan to use AI tools in the development process |
| 2026 | 65.9% | Use AI coding assistants or coding agents at work (new question) |
The 2026 survey asked a different question, so the move from 84% to 65.9% is not a fall in use. 2024 and 2025 can be compared with each other.
Why sources differ
Same question, different answers
| Number | When | Who measured | Why it differs |
|---|---|---|---|
| 65.9% | Jun to Aug 2026 | Stack Overflow Developer Survey 2026 | Asks which AI tools you use at work; counts coding assistants or agents only |
| 84% | 2025 | Stack Overflow Developer Survey 2025 | Counts anyone who uses or plans to use any AI tool in development |
| 80% | Sep 2024 to Aug 2025 | GitHub Octoverse 2025 | Only new GitHub accounts, measured by Copilot use in their first week |
| 73% daily | Jun to Aug 2026 | Stack Overflow Developer Survey 2026 | Base is only developers who already use coding assistants |
The figures differ because they count different people and ask different questions. The 84% from 2025 includes developers who only plan to use AI, and it covers any AI tool, including chat tools. The 2026 survey replaced that question with a list of tool types, so 65.9% counts only coding assistants and agents, and a developer who uses only a chat tool is not in it. GitHub's 80% is not a survey at all: it comes from platform data on new accounts, who meet Copilot inside GitHub from day one. The 73% daily figure is a share of people who already use coding assistants, not of all developers. Both Stack Overflow surveys are self-selected online samples, mostly of Stack Overflow users, so they lean toward engaged developers.
What it means
How to use these numbers
AI coding tools are now normal at work. Two in three developers in the 2026 survey use a coding assistant or agent, and most of those use it every day. If you hire a developer or an agency, assume AI is part of how the code gets written, and ask how they review and test it.
Use is not the same as trust. 48% say they trust AI output when they can easily verify it, and just 6.6% trust it for important work decisions. For a small business, the safe reading is that AI can speed up routine code, but someone still has to read it before it reaches customers.
The gap by experience matters for hiring. Developers with 1 to 5 years of experience use these tools least (57.8%), and mid-career developers use them most (72.7%). Do not assume junior staff are the heavy users.
For journalists: do not compare 84% (2025) with 65.9% (2026) as a decline. The question changed between the two surveys.
Method and sources
How it was measured
Method
- Publisher
- Stack Overflow, Developer Survey 2026
- Sample
- 30,903 valid responses from 169 countries, collected 23 Jun to 5 Aug 2026. Self-selected online survey, mostly Stack Overflow users; each question has its own base (17,464 answered the AI tools question)
- Question
- Which AI tools do you use at work? (AISelect, multi-select). "AI coding assistants or coding agents" is one answer; "general-purpose AI chat tools" is a separate one
- Second source
- GitHub Octoverse 2025: platform data for 1 Sep 2024 to 31 Aug 2025
- Checked at source
- 23 Oct 2026, survey.stackoverflow.co 2026 AI data pages and the GitHub Octoverse post
- Next release
- Stack Overflow runs the survey once a year; the 2026 results came out on 6 Oct 2026
- Last changed
- 30 Oct 2026
- Data files
- CSV · JSON (stable links)
Sources
- Stack Overflow Developer Survey, Stack Overflow Survey
- Octoverse, GitHub Vendor data
Cite this page
APA
MLA
HTML link
FAQ
More questions people ask
Which AI coding tool do developers use most?
Among developers who used a coding agent or assistant in the past year, 65.5% used Claude Code and 58.7% used GitHub Copilot, followed by OpenAI Codex (29.5%) and Cursor (25.5%). Many use more than one.
Do junior developers use AI more than senior developers?
No. In 2026, 57.8% of developers with 1 to 5 years of experience used AI coding assistants or agents, against 72.7% with 6 to 15 years and 69.6% with 16 years or more.
Did developer AI use fall from 84% in 2025 to 65.9% in 2026?
No. 84% counted people who used or planned to use any AI tool. The 2026 survey asked which tools people use at work, and 65.9% is the share picking coding assistants or agents. The two numbers answer different questions.
How many developers use no AI tools?
17.2% of the 17,464 developers who answered the 2026 question said they use no AI tools at work (3,003 people).
Every number on this page was checked at its original source (Stack Overflow, GitHub). Free to cite with a link to this page.