BGAD AI Adoption Index

The only global index tracking AI adoption across consumers and developers, monthly

September 2026 edition

The month in brief

The BGAD AI Adoption Index reached 11,970 in September 2026, up 13.4% on August and 171% higher than a year ago, meaning global AI adoption is now running at roughly 120 times its level when ChatGPT launched. Developers led again: the Developer sub-index rose 14.5% as monthly SDK downloads passed 340 million, nearly eight times the level of a year ago. Public attention rose 10.4%, with Wikipedia views of the core AI articles up by a fifth. The Consumer sub-index rose 13.8%, but much of that step is a recalibration rather than a one-month jump in usage: at its DevDay event on 29 September, OpenAI disclosed more than 1.2 billion weekly ChatGPT users, and the series has been reset to that figure, which captures growth since the one billion milestone confirmed at the end of July. Gemini and Claude are extended on trend. The curve is still steepening,

Key findings, September 2026

• Total Index: 11,970, +13.4% month on month and +171% year on year.
• Consumer Use: 9,239, +13.8% month on month.
• Developer Use: 133,288, +14.5% month on month.
• Attention: 316, +10.4% month on month.

The index since launch

The past 12 months

Monthly and year-on-year change

How the index is built

Three sub-indices, each rebased to December 2022 = 100, combined as a weighted geometric mean: Consumer Use (45%, disclosed monthly active users of ChatGPT, Gemini and Claude, weekly actives converted at 1.5x), Developer Use (35%, npm downloads of the openai, @anthropic-ai/sdk and langchain packages) and Attention (20%, Hacker News stories with "AI" in the title and Wikipedia pageviews for the core AI articles). Consumer figures are interpolated between disclosures and reset when a new official figure lands. The index is a relative measure of momentum, not an absolute count. Charts and data are free to republish with attribution to BGAD Consulting.