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Pew Teens AI Schoolwork Survey: 1 in 10 Do Most of It With AI
The Pew teens AI schoolwork survey: 54% use chatbots for school and 1 in 10 do most of it with AI, 1 in 5 in lower-income homes. What it means and what helps.
One in ten American teenagers say they do all or most of their schoolwork with an AI chatbot’s help. That’s the headline from the Pew teens AI schoolwork findings published in February 2026, from a survey of 1,458 teens aged 13 to 17 and their parents. But the full picture is more useful than the headline. Almost half of teens don’t use chatbots for school at all. Heavy reliance is concentrated: one in five teens in households earning under $30,000 do most of their schoolwork with AI, compared with 7% in higher-income homes. And parents underestimate use: 51% say their teen uses chatbots, while 64% of teens say they do. Here is what the numbers show, what they can’t tell us, and what helps.
Key Takeaways
- 54% of US teens have used chatbots for schoolwork help; 10% say they do all or most of their schoolwork with AI, 21% some, 23% a little, and 45% none (Pew, survey Sept–Oct 2025).
- Heavy use is uneven: 20% of teens in households under $30,000 do all or most schoolwork with AI, versus 7% in higher-income households; Black and Hispanic teens report heavier use than White teens.
- 59% of teens think AI cheating is common at their school, a perception rather than a measurement of actual cheating.
- Parents undercount: 51% of parents say their teen uses chatbots, versus 64% of teens; about four in ten parents haven’t talked to their teen about chatbots.
- The research on learning suggests the key question is how AI is used: for explanations and hints, or to produce the work.
What the Pew teens AI schoolwork survey found
The Pew Research Center’s “How Teens Use and View AI”, published February 24, 2026, surveyed 1,458 US teens and their parents online from September 25 to October 9, 2025, through Ipsos’s KnowledgePanel. Results represent US teens aged 13 to 17 living with their parents, with a margin of error of plus or minus 3.3 percentage points.
Schoolwork is one of teens’ top reasons for using chatbots. 57% have used them to search for information, 54% for schoolwork help, and 47% for fun. Pew then asked how much of their schoolwork chatbots help with:
| How much schoolwork teens do with chatbots’ help | Share of US teens |
|---|---|
| All or most | 10% |
| Some | 21% |
| A little | 23% |
| None (haven’t used them this way) | 45% |
The kinds of help vary. About four in ten or more have used chatbots to research a topic or solve math problems; 35% have used them to edit something they wrote. About a quarter of all teens say chatbots have been extremely or very helpful for schoolwork, and another 25% say somewhat helpful. Only 3% say they were of little or no help.
The trend is steep. In a January 2025 Pew short read, 26% of teens said they had used ChatGPT for schoolwork in fall 2024, up from 13% in 2023. That question was about ChatGPT specifically, so the numbers aren’t directly comparable with the 2026 “chatbots” question, but the direction is clear.
Who leans on AI most
Pew’s demographic analysis shows heavy reliance is not evenly spread.
By household income: “One-in-five teens living in households making less than $30,000 a year say they do all or most of their schoolwork with AI chatbots’ help.” A similar share applies in households earning $30,000 to under $75,000. In higher-earning households, 7% say the same.
By race and ethnicity: About six in ten Black and Hispanic teens have used chatbots for schoolwork help, compared with roughly half of White teens. Black and Hispanic teens are also more likely to say chatbots have been very helpful and to do all or most of their schoolwork with them. (Pew’s sample didn’t include enough Asian teens for a separate analysis.)
Pew reports these differences without explaining them, and it’s worth being careful here. Possible explanations include differences in access to other help, such as tutors, a parent with time and subject knowledge, or a quiet place to work, but the survey doesn’t test any of them. What the data do say is that the families least likely to have other homework support are the most likely to depend on AI for it.
That pattern matters because of what other research found. In Stanford trials of an AI reading tutor reported in 2026, the students who used it on their own tended to be the higher-achieving ones, and the lead researcher warned against “treating AI tutoring as an equity solution.” Put that next to Pew’s numbers and you get an uncomfortable picture: lower-income teens rely more on general chatbots, which are the tools with the weakest evidence for learning, while well-designed tutors may disproportionately reach kids who are already doing well.
What heavy reliance can and can’t tell us about learning
“Does most of my schoolwork with AI’s help” can mean very different things. A teen who asks a chatbot to explain each problem before solving it is in a different place from one who pastes in assignments and copies answers. Pew’s question doesn’t separate them.
The research on learning gives a clue about which matters. In a large field experiment published in PNAS in 2025, high school students who used a plain GPT-4 chatbot on practice problems scored 48% higher in practice but 17% lower on a later exam without AI, while students using a version designed to give hints rather than answers showed no exam drop. The most common thing students asked the plain chatbot was “What is the answer?”
Stanford SCALE’s 2026 review of the evidence on AI in K–12 summarized the broader pattern: AI improves performance while students have access, but effects without AI support “are mixed,” and “easier doesn’t mean better.”
So the honest reading of “1 in 10” is: a meaningful minority of teens now route most of their schoolwork through a tool that can either teach them or do it for them. Which one is happening depends on habits, not on the tool’s existence.
What teens think about cheating, and what parents think is OK
Teens see AI cheating as common. 59% think using AI to cheat happens at least somewhat often at their school, and about a third say extremely or very often. Among teens who use chatbots for schoolwork, 76% say students at their school cheat with them at least sometimes. This is perception, not measurement. In a separate 2026 Dartmouth survey of college students, self-reported AI cheating was around 8 to 11% while about half believed their peers did it. We look at that gap in how many students really cheat with AI.
Parents, meanwhile, are less aware than they think. In Pew’s parent report, 51% of parents said their teen uses chatbots, 18% said they don’t, and about three in ten weren’t sure. Teens’ own figure was 64%. Just over half of parents have ever talked to their teen about chatbots; about four in ten haven’t. Parents in households earning $75,000 or more were more likely than those under $30,000 to have had that conversation (56% versus 43%).
On what’s acceptable, about six in ten parents would be okay with their teen using chatbots for schoolwork help, and about eight in ten for searching for information.
What helps at home
Ask how, not just whether
The useful conversation isn’t “Do you use AI for homework?” It’s “Show me how you used it on last night’s assignment.” Look at the chat. Did your teen ask for explanations and check their own work, or ask for answers? That one look tells you more than any survey.
Set a hints-not-answers default
For teens who rely on chatbots, the change with the strongest evidence is switching from answers to hints. A simple opening instruction, “Don’t give me the answer; give me one hint at a time,” shifts how the tool behaves. Our guide on how to use an AI tutor so it helps has the full set of rules.
Check learning with the device closed
After AI-assisted homework, ask for one similar problem done alone or a quick explanation. If your teen can’t do it, the AI did the learning.
Look for the gap AI is filling
If your teen leans heavily on AI, ask what they’d do without it. If the honest answer is “I’d have no one to ask,” the fix is more support, not less AI: a teacher’s office hours, a school tutoring program, a study group or a library homework help service. AI can be one part of that, used well.
What not to do: ban AI without replacing the help
For a teen who uses AI because no one else is available to help, a ban removes their only support. The research suggests changing how it’s used, and adding human help where possible, is better than taking it away. For more on handling this conversation, see our guide on what to do when your kid uses ChatGPT for homework.
What to Watch For Over the Next 3 Months
- Week 4: Have the “show me how you used it” conversation at least once. Note whether your teen uses AI for explanations, checking, or answers.
- Month 2 red flags: Homework quality rising while test scores don’t, your teen unable to explain work they turned in, or using AI on nearly every assignment by default.
- Month 3 self-check: Has your teen’s use shifted toward hints and explanations? Do they have at least one human source of homework help? Have you talked about where your family draws the line?
Frequently Asked Questions
How many teens use AI for schoolwork?
According to Pew’s 2026 report, from a fall 2025 survey of 1,458 US teens, 54% have used chatbots to get help with schoolwork. 10% say they do all or most of their schoolwork with chatbots’ help, 21% some, 23% a little, and 45% none.
Which teens rely on AI most for schoolwork?
Heavy reliance is more common in lower-income households: 20% of teens in households under $30,000 a year do all or most of their schoolwork with AI, compared with 7% in higher-income homes. Black and Hispanic teens are more likely than White teens to use chatbots for schoolwork and to rely on them heavily.
Is using AI for most schoolwork the same as cheating?
Not necessarily. Pew’s question covers any help, from explanations to full answers. Whether it’s cheating depends on the teacher’s rules and how AI was used. For learning, research suggests the difference that matters is whether AI gives hints and explanations or produces the work.
Do parents know how much their teens use AI?
Many don’t. In Pew’s survey, 51% of parents said their teen uses chatbots, while 64% of teens said they do, and about three in ten parents weren’t sure. About four in ten parents had never talked with their teen about chatbots.
What should I do if my teen does most schoolwork with AI?
Start by looking at how they use it. Encourage a hints-not-answers approach, check learning with the device closed, and find out whether AI is filling a gap in other support. If it is, add human help, such as teacher office hours or a tutoring program, rather than simply banning the tool.
About the author
Ricky Flores is the founder of HiWave Makers and an electrical engineer with 15+ years of experience building consumer technology at Apple, Samsung, and Texas Instruments. He writes about how kids learn to build, think, and create in a tech-saturated world. Read more at hiwavemakers.com.
Sources
- Pew Research Center. (2026, February 24). “How Teens Use and View AI.” https://www.pewresearch.org/internet/2026/02/24/how-teens-use-and-view-ai/
- Pew Research Center. (2026, February 24). “Demographic differences in how teens use and view AI.” https://www.pewresearch.org/internet/2026/02/24/demographic-differences-in-how-teens-use-and-view-ai/
- Pew Research Center. (2026, February 24). “What parents say about their teen’s AI use.” https://www.pewresearch.org/internet/2026/02/24/what-parents-say-about-their-teens-ai-use/
- Pew Research Center. (2025, January 15). “About a quarter of U.S. teens have used ChatGPT for schoolwork, double the share in 2023.” https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2025/01/15/about-a-quarter-of-us-teens-have-used-chatgpt-for-schoolwork-double-the-share-in-2023/
- Bastani, H., et al. (2025). “Generative AI without guardrails can harm learning: Evidence from high school mathematics.” PNAS, 122(26). https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2422633122
- Fesler, L., Martinez Claeys, J. P., Agnew, C., & Loeb, S. (2026). “The Evidence Base on AI in K-12: A 2026 Review.” Stanford SCALE Initiative. https://scale.stanford.edu/sites/default/files/The%20Evidence%20Base%20on%20AI%20in%20K-12%20Report.pdf
