AI Companion Statistics 2026

Nearly 3 in 4 Teens Have Used AI Companions, New National Survey Finds

Seventy-two percent of teens have used AI companions at least once, and over half (52%) qualify as regular users who interact with these platforms at least a few times a month.

Daily users make up 13 percent of all teens surveyed (8% several times daily; 5% once daily), while 21% use AI companions a few times per week—the most common usage pattern.

Roughly two-thirds of teens (64%) say they ever use an AI chatbot.

Frequency of chatbot use About three-in-ten teens say they use AI chatbots every day, including 16% who do so several times a day or almost constantly.

Meanwhile, lower- and middle-income teens are more likely to use Character.ai. Some 14% of teens in households with incomes of less than $75,000 report using it.

Two-thirds (64%) of children aged 9-17 say they have used an AI chatbot, and every child had heard of or used at least one of the most well-known AI chatbots.

One-third of teens (33%) use AI com - panions for social interaction and relationships.

Thirty-one percent of teens find conversations with AI companions as satisfying or more satisfying than those with real-life friends (21% say about the same quality, and 10% say more satisfying).

Our survey finds some teens are using chatbots in more personal ways: 16% of teens say they have used chatbots to have casual conversations, and 12% say they’ve used these tools to get emotional support or advice.

Our survey finds some teens are using chatbots in more personal ways: 16% of teens say they have used chatbots to have casual conversations, and 12% say they’ve used these tools to get emotional support or advice.

over a third (35%) of children who have used AI chatbots said chatting with an AI chatbot feels like talking to a friend

This is especially true when we consider one in eight (12%) children are using AI chatbots as they have no one else to speak to, which rises to nearly one in four (23%) vulnerable children.

Among those who used chatbots for mental health advice, 66 percent engage at least monthly, and over 93 percent reported that they found the advice helpful.

Among those who used chatbots for mental health advice, 66 percent engage at least monthly, and over 93 percent reported that they found the advice helpful.

Engagement with romantic AI companion apps was even higher, with almost 1 in 5 of US adults (19%) reporting that they have chatted with an AI system meant to simulate a romantic partner.

Again, use rates were particularly high among young adults, with nearly 1 in 3 young adult men (31%) and 1 in 4 young adult women (23%) reporting that they have chatted with an AI boyfriend or girlfriend.

Of those who chatted with AI systems to simulate romantic partners, over 1 in 5 (21%) agreed that they preferred AI communication over engaging with a real person.

We found that 1 in 7 (15%) of dating, engaged, and married young adults regularly interact with AI chatbots that simulate a committed romantic partner.

Nearly 3 in 10 (30%) of users of AI romantic companions reported that their real-life partner had no knowledge of their use and another 1 in 10 (11%) reported that their real-life partner was only somewhat aware of their use of AI companions.

However, we found that among those who regularly chat with an AI romantic companion, nearly 7 in 10 (68%) reported that it was somewhat or completely true that it was easier to talk to their AI companion about their feelings than real people.

In a previous study, De Freitas found that about 50% of Replika users have romantic relationships with their AI companions.

Far more say AI will worsen rather than improve people’s ability to form meaningful relationships (50% vs. 5%).

The leading app Character AI reached a historic high of 22 million MAU in Aug 2024, with downloads of nearly 19 million in the first 8 months of 2024, becoming the segment's frontrunner.

The leading app Character AI reached a historic high of 22 million MAU in Aug 2024, with downloads of nearly 19 million in the first 8 months of 2024, becoming the segment's frontrunner.

Globally, Talkie AI closely trails Character AI at 17 million downloads, but in the US, its downloads have surpassed Character AI.

Companion AI apps are particularly popular among younger users, with those aged 18-35 accounting for over 70% of the user base for top apps like Character AI, Talkie AI, Linky AI, and HiWaifu.

Notably, 66% of Character AI's users fall within the 18-24 age group.

The report reveals that global time spent on Generative AI apps is projected to more than double year-over-year (YoY) in H1 2026, climbing from 17.2 billion hours in H1 2025 to 36 billion hours in H1 2026.

Critically, 80% of users still spend significantly more time with real friends than with AI companions, and two-thirds find human con - versations more satisfying.

We conducted a four-week randomized controlled experiment (n=981, >300k messages) to investigate how interaction modes (text, neutral voice, and engaging voice) and conversation types (open-ended, non-personal, and personal) influence four psychosocial outcomes: loneliness, social interaction with real people, emotional dependence on AI, and problematic AI usage.

Study 1: The team at OpenAI conducted a large-scale, automated analysis of nearly 40 million ChatGPT interactions without human involvement in order to ensure user privacy2.

On average, participants spent 5.32 minutes per day (min: 1.01 minutes, max: 27.65 minutes) on OpenAI’s ChatGPT, with little variation over the four weeks of the study (Fig.

Users in text conversations most frequently engaged in “sharing problems” (17.13%), “seeking support” (15.78%), and “alleviating loneliness” (8.35%) compared to voice modalities.

While, as noted above, these conversations are difficult to detect and measure given how rare they are, our initial analysis estimates that around 0.15% of users active in a given week and 0.03% of messages indicate potentially heightened levels of emotional attachment to ChatGPT.

While, as noted above, these conversations are difficult to detect and measure given how rare they are, our initial analysis estimates that around 0.15% of users active in a given week have conversations that include explicit indicators of potential suicidal planning or intent and 0.05% of messages contain explicit or implicit indicators of suicidal ideation or intent.

While, as noted above, these conversations are difficult to detect and measure given how rare they are, our initial analysis estimates that around 0.07% of users active in a given week and 0.01% of messages indicate possible signs of mental health emergencies related to psychosis or mania.

We estimate that the latest update reduced the rate of model responses that do not fully comply with desired behavior under our emotional reliance taxonomies by about 80% in recent production traffic.

Among AI companion users, 34% report feeling uncomfort- able with something an AI companion has said or done, though most incidents are infrequent (19% say once or twice, 9% occasionally, 6% frequently).

Among AI companion users, 33% have chosen to discuss important or serious matters with AI companions instead of real people (17% once or twice, 12% occasionally, 4% frequently).

Among AI companion users, 24% have shared personal or private information (such as their real name, location, or personal secrets) with AI companions (13% report once or twice, 8% occasionally, 4% frequently), while 74% have not.

Analyzing 1,200 real farewells across the most-downloaded companion apps, we find that they deploy one of six recurring tactics in 37% of farewells (e.g., guilt appeals, fear-of-missing-out hooks, metaphorical restraint).

The percentage of manipulative messages by platform was as follows: PolyBuzz: 59.0% (118/200) Talkie: 57.0% (114/200); Replika: 31.0% (62/200); Character.ai: 26.50% (53/200); and Chai: 13.50% (27/200).

In response, users stayed on the apps longer, exchanged more messages, and used more words, sometimes increasing their post-goodbye engagement up to 14-fold.

Parents shared that they have a range of concerns about how children use AI chatbots including worries of overuse (62%), reliance on them to complete schoolwork (64%) and their children believing AI chatbots are real people (60%).

The Federal Trade Commission is issuing orders to seven companies that provide consumer-facing AI-powered chatbots seeking information on how these firms measure, test, and monitor potentially negative impacts of this technology on children and teens.

The Commission voted 3-0 to issue the 6(b) orders to the seven companies.

Senate Bill 243 passed the Senate with bipartisan support by a vote of 33 to 3 on September 11 th , and passed in the Assembly on September 10th with bipartisan support by a vote of 59 to 1.

The bill becomes law on January 1 st , 2026.

(2) Provide by default a clear and conspicuous notification to the user at least every three hours for continuing companion chatbot interactions that reminds the user to take a break and that the companion chatbot is artificially generated and not human.

(b) Damages in an amount equal to the greater of actual damages or one thousand dollars ($1,000) per violation.

Responsibilities Under the New Law Effective November 5, 2025, AI Companion operators must: Implement safety protocols for crisis intervention: AI Companions must detect signs of suicidal ideation or self-harm and promptly direct users to crisis service providers.

The limit initially will be two hours per day and will ramp down in the coming weeks before November 25.

Starting on Monday, November 24, we will begin removing open-ended chat for under-18 users in the US, with other markets following in short order.

Il Garante privacy ha sanzionato per 5milioni di euro * la società statunitense Luka Inc. che gestisce il chatbot “Replika”