65.9%About 2 in 3of developers use AI coding assistants or coding agents at work (Stack Overflow 2026 survey)
65.9% of developers in Stack Overflow's 2026 survey use AI coding assistants or coding agents at work, 62.5% use general AI chat tools, and 17.2% use no AI tools. 73% of coding assistant users use them daily.
SurveyChecked at source, 23 Oct 2026All sizesGlobalWeb and software development · AI tools
Developers using AI coding assistants or agents, by experience
Group
Use AI coding assistants or agents
1 to 5 years
57.8%
6 to 15 years
72.7%
16+ years
69.6%
All respondents
65.9%
Source: Stack Overflow, Stack Overflow Developer SurveyStack Overflow Developer Survey 2026, question AISelect (multi-select). Work experience groups are the survey's own.digitaltreed.com/statistics
In plain words
What this number really says
Two in three developers in Stack Overflow's 2026 survey use an AI coding assistant or coding agent at work. Most of them use it every day, but they still check its work.
65.9%
use AI coding assistants or coding agents at work
73%
of coding assistant users use them daily
48%
trust AI output only when they can easily verify it
Why you can trust it. This is a self-selected online survey of 30,903 people, mostly Stack Overflow users. It shows direction well but is not a random sample of all developers.
Key terms
AI coding assistant A tool that suggests or writes code inside your editor, such as GitHub Copilot.
Coding agent An AI tool that can plan and carry out multi-step coding tasks, such as Claude Code or OpenAI Codex.
Self-selected survey People choose to take part, so results lean toward engaged users.
Vibe coding Building software mainly by prompting AI and accepting what it writes, with little line-by-line review.
The same 65.9% means something different for each group.
Mid-career developers
72.7%Highest use
Developers with 6 to 15 years of work experience use coding assistants most.
Early-career developers
57.8%Lowest use
Developers with 1 to 5 years of experience use them least, and 19.0% use no AI tools.
Gains and risks
What firms gain, and what can go wrong
Numbers from studies and surveys, each with its source.
Gains
30.9%
of daily AI users spend four or more hours a day working with AI tools.Stack Overflow Developer Survey 2026, AI tool usage daily
62%
of respondents are favorable toward AI tools at work (31.6% very, 30.4% somewhat).Stack Overflow Developer Survey 2026, attitudes
Risks
12.3%
do not trust AI output for most work tasks; only 6.6% trust it for important decisions.Stack Overflow Developer Survey 2026, trust in AI tools
56%
average security pass rate of AI-written code across 100+ models, so about 4 in 10 tasks fail.Veracode GenAI Code Security Report 2026 (vendor)
Where it shows
Where this number has an impact
Small teams and freelancers
Freelance or self-employed answers rose to 10.5% from 3.9%. Stack Overflow links this partly to developers using AI agents to work alone.
Code review
With AI writing more code, review and testing matter more: only 6.6% trust AI output for important work decisions.
The future
What this number says about what comes next
Forecasts below are made by others and linked to where they were published. Our own reading of the data is marked as ours.
Our reading, not a forecast
What the data suggests
Use is now normal, trust is conditional. Almost half trust AI output only when they can check it. Teams that add tests and review keep the speed without the risk.
Agents are the new default tool. Claude Code (65.5%) and GitHub Copilot (58.7%) lead among coding-agent users, a shift from editor autocomplete to agents.
Where it already is: the benchmarks
Use AI coding assistants or agents
65.9%
Use general AI chat tools
62.5%
Use AI agents or automated workflows
26.2%
Use no AI tools
17.2%
What to watch next
Full 2026 Stack Overflow data set (promised for download in a few weeks).
GitHub Octoverse 2026.
New METR productivity results.
The data
All the numbers in one table
As published by Stack Overflow, Stack Overflow Developer Survey, Jun to Aug 2026. Standard errors are shown where the source gives them.
AI tool type (multi-select)
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%
Why 84% in 2025 and 65.9% in 2026 are not a trend
In 2025 Stack Overflow asked whether people use or plan to use AI tools in their development process: 84% said yes.
In 2026 it asked which AI tools people use at work, and 65.9% picked coding assistants or agents while 17.2% said they use no AI tools. Different questions, different samples: read them side by side, not as a rise or fall.
Method and use
How it was measured, and how to use it
How it was measured
Publisher
Stack Overflow, Stack Overflow Developer Survey
Source type
Survey: Sampled survey with a published method
What it measures
65.9% of developers use AI coding assistants or coding agents at work (Stack Overflow 2026 survey)
Data period
Jun to Aug 2026 (ends 5 Aug 2026)
Published by the source
6 Oct 2026
Who is counted
30,903 valid responses from 169 countries, fielded 23 Jun to 5 Aug 2026; self-selected online survey. Each question has its own n.
In the source's words
AI coding assistants or coding agents | 11,509 | 65.9%
Checked at source
23 Oct 2026: Read on survey.stackoverflow.co 2026 results (Markdown edition of the AI data page). Question AISelect, all respondents n = 17,464. New 2026 stat.
Reuse
Survey data under the Open Database Licence (ODbL 1.0). Self-selected online survey, mostly Stack Overflow users; not a random sample of all developers. Question wording changes between years.
Next expected update
31 Oct 2027 (Stack Overflow, yearly (2026 results 6 Oct 2026))
No changes recorded yet. First checked at the source on 23 Oct 2026.
Cite this number
APA
Stack Overflow. (2026). 65.9% of developers use AI coding assistants or coding agents at work (Stack Overflow 2026 survey). Via digitaltreed, https://digitaltreed.com/statistics/web-development/developers-using-ai-coding-assistants-2026
MLA
"65.9% of developers use AI coding assistants or coding agents at work (Stack Overflow 2026 survey)." Stack Overflow, Stack Overflow Developer Survey, Jun to Aug 2026. digitaltreed, https://digitaltreed.com/statistics/web-development/developers-using-ai-coding-assistants-2026.
HTML link
<a href="https://digitaltreed.com/statistics/web-development/developers-using-ai-coding-assistants-2026">65.9% of developers use AI coding assistants or coding agents at work (Stack Overflow 2026 survey)</a> (Stack Overflow, Jun to Aug 2026)
Embed the chart
<iframe src="https://digitaltreed.com/statistics/embed/web-development-ai-coding-use-by-experience" width="640" height="420" loading="lazy" title="Developers using AI coding assistants or agents, by experience"></iframe>
<p>Source: <a href="https://digitaltreed.com/statistics/web-development/developers-using-ai-coding-assistants-2026">65.9% of developers use AI coding assistants or coding agents at work (Stack Overflow 2026 survey), digitaltreed</a></p>
Keep the source link under the chart. The chart updates when the number does.
FAQ
Questions about this number
What percentage of developers use AI coding tools in 2026?
65.9% of developers in Stack Overflow's 2026 survey use AI coding assistants or coding agents at work; 17.2% use no AI tools at all.
How many developers use AI every day?
73% of developers who use AI coding assistants use them daily, and 30.9% of daily AI users spend four or more hours a day with AI tools.
Which AI coding tools are most used?
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%).
Do developers trust AI-generated code?
Only partly. 48% trust AI output when they can easily verify it, 12.3% do not trust it for most tasks, and 6.6% trust it for important decisions.
Is AI coding use higher among senior developers?
Mid-career developers use it most: 72.7% of those with 6 to 15 years of experience, against 57.8% with 1 to 5 years.
Related
More Web and software development statistics
SurveyAll sizesGlobal
57.8%
of developers with 1 to 5 years of work experience use AI coding assistants or agents, the lowest of any experience group
Sample: n = 4,094 respondents with 1 to 5 years of work experience.
