Where technologists look for answers — Community data 2026 | Stack Overflow Developer Survey

Developer Survey 2026

Question

Which actions do you turn to first when trying to find answers to a problem? Select your top 3 choices.

multi select
Optional
v2026.1

Data

	Respondents	Percent
Use online search tools to find general guidance and/or discourse	13,774	82.7%
Ask an AI agent	11,643	69.9%
Go directly to a maintained repository or more than one and search within its contents (this could be a repository like Wikipedia or IMDB or GitHub projects)	7,288	43.7%
Send a message to a human I trust directly	4,803	28.8%
Post a message in a group text or private discussion among humans I know	2,462	14.8%
Post in a public online forum	1,327	8.0%
Send a message to a human that I don't know directly	276	1.7%

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Citation

Response data is released under the ODbL 1.0, which asks that you attribute it.

Stack Exchange Inc. (2026). “Where technologists look for answers”. Stack Overflow Developer Survey 2026. Licensed under ODbL 1.0. https://survey.stackoverflow.co/2026/community/data/answers

JSON

Structured for code, with the question, the year and the source url alongside the numbers.

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  "question": "Where technologists look for answers",
  "dataId": "Answers",
  "asked": "Which actions do you turn to first when trying to find answers to a problem? Select your top 3 choices.",
  "year": "2026",
  "url": "https://survey.stackoverflow.co/2026/community/data/answers",
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  "data": [
    {
      "response": "Use online search tools to find general guidance and/or discourse",
      "count": 13774,
      "pct": 0.827
    },
    {
      "response": "Ask an AI agent",
      "count": 11643,
      "pct": 0.699
    },
    {
      "response": "Go directly to a maintained repository or more than one and search within its contents (this could be a repository like Wikipedia or IMDB or GitHub projects)",
      "count": 7288,
      "pct": 0.437
    },
    {
      "response": "Send a message to a human I trust directly",
      "count": 4803,
      "pct": 0.288
    },
    {
      "response": "Post a message in a group text or private discussion among humans I know",
      "count": 2462,
      "pct": 0.148
    },
    {
      "response": "Post in a public online forum",
      "count": 1327,
      "pct": 0.08
    },
    {
      "response": "Send a message to a human that I don't know directly",
      "count": 276,
      "pct": 0.017
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}

Markdown

A formatted table, ready to paste into a document, an issue or a prompt.

|  | Respondents | Percent |
| --- | ---: | ---: |
| Use online search tools to find general guidance and/or discourse | 13,774 | 82.7% |
| Ask an AI agent | 11,643 | 69.9% |
| Go directly to a maintained repository or more than one and search within its contents (this could be a repository like Wikipedia or IMDB or GitHub projects) | 7,288 | 43.7% |
| Send a message to a human I trust directly | 4,803 | 28.8% |
| Post a message in a group text or private discussion among humans I know | 2,462 | 14.8% |
| Post in a public online forum | 1,327 | 8.0% |
| Send a message to a human that I don't know directly | 276 | 1.7% |

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