Truth Check/1 October 2026

“The median number of messages per active panelist, counting prompts and replies, rose from 14 in January 2023 to 36 in December 2025 ... The most active 10% of panelists sent 63% of prompts”

The claim as it travelled: Epoch AI, 1 Oct 2026.

Epoch's explorer page prints the 14-to-36 median and the 63% share, and states the panel is opt-in, unweighted and 2026 users only.

Checked Against

epoch.ai ↗Primary

Read the Check

The median ChatGPT user in a 5,000-person panel sends 36 messages a month, up from 14 in 2023, and the top 10% send 63% of all prompts, Epoch AI finds

Epoch AI's new usage explorer is built on the chat histories of 5,000 US YouGov panellists - 8.3 million messages - with the text stripped out. The panel is opt-in, older than ChatGPT's user base and only includes people still using it in 2026, so it shows how use intensified, not how many people use it.

Every claim we have checked, in the Ledger.