{ "question": "How many developers use AI coding tools?", "answer": "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.", "period": "Jun to Aug 2026", "key_numbers": [ { "value": "65.9%", "label": "Use AI coding assistants or coding agents at work", "note": "Stack Overflow 2026, 11,509 of 17,464 who answered", "stat": "web-development/developers-using-ai-coding-assistants-2026" }, { "value": "73%", "label": "Of coding-assistant users use them every day", "note": "Stack Overflow 2026", "stat": "web-development/developers-daily-use-of-ai-coding-assistants" }, { "value": "57.8%", "label": "Of developers with 1 to 5 years' experience use them, the lowest group", "note": "Stack Overflow 2026, n = 4,094", "stat": "web-development/developers-using-ai-coding-assistants-early-career" }, { "value": "65.5%", "label": "Of coding-agent users used Claude Code; 58.7% used GitHub Copilot", "note": "Stack Overflow 2026, past year", "stat": "web-development/developers-using-claude-code" }, { "value": "80%", "label": "Of new GitHub developers use Copilot in their first week", "note": "GitHub Octoverse, Sep 2024 to Aug 2025", "stat": "web-development/new-github-developers-using-copilot-first-week" } ], "tables": [ { "id": "by-tool-type", "title": "AI tools developers use at work, 2026", "columns": [ "AI tool type", "Respondents", "Share" ], "rows": [ [ "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%" ] ], "row_ids": [ "coding-assistants", "chat-tools", "ai-agents", "internal-tools", "no-ai" ], "note": "Question AISelect, 17,464 respondents. People could pick more than one answer, so the shares add up to more than 100%.", "source": "stack-overflow" }, { "id": "by-experience", "title": "Developers using AI coding assistants or agents, by work experience", "columns": [ "Work experience", "Use AI coding assistants or agents" ], "rows": [ [ "1 to 5 years", "57.8%" ], [ "6 to 15 years", "72.7%" ], [ "16 years or more", "69.6%" ], [ "All respondents", "65.9%" ] ], "row_ids": [ "exp-1-5", "exp-6-15", "exp-16-plus", "exp-all" ], "note": "Stack Overflow Developer Survey 2026. The experience groups are the survey's own; the 1 to 5 years group has 4,094 respondents.", "source": "stack-overflow" }, { "id": "by-tool", "title": "Coding agents and assistants developers used in the past year", "columns": [ "Tool", "Respondents", "Share of coding-agent users" ], "rows": [ [ "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%" ] ], "row_ids": [ "claude-code", "github-copilot", "openai-codex", "cursor", "google-antigravity", "gemini-code-assist", "open-code", "jetbrains-ai" ], "note": "Base: 12,255 respondents who used any coding agent or assistant in the past year. Multi-select.", "source": "stack-overflow" }, { "id": "use-and-trust", "title": "Daily use and trust in AI output", "columns": [ "Measure", "Share", "Survey" ], "rows": [ [ "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" ] ], "row_ids": [ "daily-use", "trust-verifiable", "trust-important", "trust-2025", "distrust-2025" ], "note": "The 2026 trust answers are new options, not the 2025 five-point scale, so the 2025 and 2026 rows are not a trend.", "source": "stack-overflow" }, { "id": "github", "title": "AI use on GitHub, Sep 2024 to Aug 2025", "columns": [ "Measure", "Value" ], "rows": [ [ "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+" ] ], "row_ids": [ "copilot-first-week", "github-total", "github-new" ], "note": "GitHub Octoverse 2025. Platform data from GitHub users only; GitHub's year runs 1 Sep to 31 Aug.", "source": "github" }, { "id": "history", "title": "Stack Overflow survey: AI use in each year we have", "columns": [ "Survey year", "Share", "What was asked" ], "rows": [ [ "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)" ] ], "row_ids": [ "so-2024", "use-or-plan-2025", "so-2026" ], "note": "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.", "source": "stack-overflow" } ], "sources": [ { "name": "Stack Overflow Developer Survey", "publisher": "Stack Overflow", "type": "survey", "url": "https://stackoverflow.co/" }, { "name": "Octoverse", "publisher": "GitHub", "type": "vendor", "url": "https://github.blog/" } ], "content_changed_on": "2026-10-30", "page_url": "https://digitaltreed.com/statistics/web-development/developers-using-ai", "csv_url": "https://digitaltreed.com/statistics/web-development/developers-using-ai.csv" }