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# About half of US high school students surveyed use generative AI for research, editing essays or brainstorming
- URL: https://aiadoption.org/data/us-high-school-students-genai-uses/
- Published: 2026-10-19T17:21:53.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-21T06:06:01.000Z
- Description: In College Board surveys in 2025, 50.75% of US high school students used generative AI to research and find sources, 50.5% to edit essays and 50.25% to brainstorm. 17.75% used it to write code.
- Author: Manu
- Tags: Data, AI in Education, Generative AI, AI in the US, #chart, #ai-index-2026, #hub-education, #country-us, #topic-generative-ai

50.75%

#1 of 7

US high school students surveyed who use generative AI for research and finding sources, 2025, the most common use

Research and sources50.7%

Editing or revising essays50.5%

Brainstorming ideas50.2%

## What the chart shows

Research and finding sources is the most common use of generative AI for schoolwork among US high school students in College Board’s 2025 surveys, at 50.75%, just ahead of editing or revising essays (50.5%) and brainstorming ideas (50.25%).

Fewer use it to explain complex topics (40.75%) or learn languages (30%), and 17.75% use it to write code. The AI Index notes that university students in a separate survey are more likely to use AI to understand a concept.

## Key numbers

| Measure                                 | Value  |
| --------------------------------------- | ------ |
| Conducting research and finding sources | 50.75% |
| Editing or revising essays              | 50.50% |
| Brainstorming ideas                     | 50.25% |
| Explaining complex topics               | 40.75% |
| Writing code                            | 17.75% |

## How to read it

- Average across College Board’s four survey administrations in 2025, as the AI Index reports. Students could choose several uses. The chart rounds to one decimal place.
- US high school students only. Other surveys put the share of students using AI for schoolwork at between about 50% and 84%, according to the AI Index.

**Source:** [College Board](https://aiadoption.org/sources/#college-board-ai-brief), 2025, via the AI Index Report 2026 (Stanford HAI), figure 7.3.17: *High school students’ GenAI uses for schoolwork, 2025*. Chart and text by AI Adoption.  
Numbers checked against the published data on 20 October 2026.  
[Download the data (CSV)](https://charts.aiadoption.org/ai-index/csv/us-high-school-students-genai-uses.csv?ref=aiadoption.org) · [Cite this chart](#source)