State of the Prompt
The largest subject
Out of 28 subjects, health and medicine comes up most often as the main topic of a conversation. It edges out work and image making. Together, these three account for about a quarter of all conversations in the study.
The most common subjects
Share of conversations, by main subject
Who asks
Health questions come from across the panel, though some groups ask more than others. Women devote a larger share of their conversations to health than men do. By age, the share is highest among people 65 and over and dips in middle age, among people 35 to 54.
By age
Share of each group’s conversations about health
By gender
Share of each group’s conversations about health
Income tells a different story. Health takes up a similar share of conversations at every income level, but higher-income panelists were more likely to ask about it at all. Part of this gap may reflect how much each group uses ChatGPT, since people with more conversations have more chances to ask about anything.
Asking at least once, by household income
Share of people with at least one conversation mainly about health
What people want
Most health conversations are requests for information. Four in five ask a question. About one in seven describe a situation or a feeling without asking anything, and about one in sixteen ask ChatGPT to produce something, such as a letter or a plan. Few are for work (3.9%) or for school (3.5%).
What health conversations do
Share of health conversations by type of request
What comes with it
Some health conversations touch on a second subject as well. The most common companions are fitness and nutrition, mental health, and money. Mental health is coded as its own subject, so conversations mainly about it are not counted as health in this report.
Second subjects in health conversations
Share of health conversations that also touch on each subject
Over the year
The share of conversations about health was fairly steady, between 9.6% and 10.8% each month. It drifted upward over the year and peaked in April 2026.
Health conversations by month
Share of each month’s conversations
About the data
This report draws on 3.4 million ChatGPT conversations by 65,689 adults on an opt-in US research panel, July 2025 to June 2026, through a collaboration with MFour Data Research. Conversations from before a panelist turned 18, and from panelists with no recorded age, are not included.
A language model read the person’s side of each conversation and assigned its main subject from a list of 28, plus up to two secondary subjects, or marked the subject as unclear or not on the list. Creative writing was added to the list afterward, so its share is a lower bound. Images people shared are not part of the data. Months and hours are in the panelist’s local time.
Shares are of conversations unless noted, so people who use ChatGPT heavily count for more. The panel is not a random sample of the country, so the figures are best read as comparisons between groups.
Suggested citation: Ognyanova, K., Garimella, K., Aakhus, M., Jhaver, S., Lee, E. G., Li, J., & Shugars, S. (2026). What Americans ask ChatGPT about health (State of the Prompt Report No. 1). Rutgers University.