The trend: Roughly one-quarter of ChatGPT’s 800 million global weekly active users submit a prompt about healthcare each week, per newly released OpenAI data. And about 5%—more than 40 million people—use it daily for health-related questions.

Why it matters: As genAI adoption grows, health searches are becoming a primary use case. More than 5% of all ChatGPT messages globally are health-related, averaging billions of messages each week, per OpenAI.

Users prioritize AI in health for quick answers, side-effect research, and appointment prep, according to a June 2025 Drip Hydration survey. OpenAI reinforces this trend by positioning ChatGPT as a solution to clinician shortages and limited care access—citing examples such as interpreting CT scans or managing endometriosis flares to provide patients with immediate medical guidance.

Beyond symptom checks, ChatGPT is serving as a critical resource for those lacking immediate professional healthcare support. According to the report’s anonymized ChatGPT message data:

• 7 in 10 healthcare conversations in ChatGPT happen outside of normal clinic hours.
• Between 1.6 million and 1.9 million ChatGPT messages per week focus on health insurance, including comparing plans, understanding prices and coverage, eligibility and enrollment, and handling claims and billing.
• And Wyoming, the least populated US state, generated the most ChatGPT health messages among “hospital desert” regions (defined as when the nearest hospital is at least 30 minutes away), suggesting AI use rises when access to care is limited.

The problem: Despite OpenAI’s optimism, the report glosses over the significant risk of medical misinformation. In reality, genAI chatbots sometimes deliver problematic or unsafe responses to users’ health questions, and often don’t include disclaimers that chatbots are not a substitute for a clinician’s advice. OpenAI did note that reliability increases when users provide "key context," such as clinical instructions or insurance plans, to ground the AI’s answers.

Implications for AI platforms: The internet has long been a source of health information, but genAI chatbots change the game by enabling personalized conversations about individual health concerns. Leading AI platforms should always clearly disclaim that their outputs don’t replace medical advice and focus more on helping users navigate “healthcare”—such as finding doctors or understanding hospital bills—rather than offering medical guidance that a doctor would typically provide.

Go deeper with our Health Trends to Watch in 2026 report, which explores how genAI will play a major role in consumers’ health journeys.