---
title: "Importance of information accuracy — Knowledge data 2026"
url: https://survey.stackoverflow.co/2026/knowledge/data/knowledge-acc
year: 2026
chapter: "knowledge"
question: "KnowledgeAcc"
section: "Knowledge sources and trust"
licence: "ODbL 1.0 (https://opendatacommons.org/licenses/odbl/1-0/)"
---

# Importance of information accuracy

Accuracy is the expectation for official docs, API documentation, and code repos; chat tools and Stack Overflow face lower accuracy expectations.

Asked as: For each source, how important is it that information you use to operate is accurate? (`KnowledgeAcc`, scale, optional, v2026.1)

## Results

### All Respondents

n = 14,049

|  | Important | Least important | Not very important | Somewhat important | Very important |
| --- | ---: | ---: | ---: | ---: | ---: |
| Code repositories or code comments | 27.6% | 0.1% | 0.7% | 6.3% | 65.2% |
| Coworkers or teammates | 34.1% | 0.1% | 0.7% | 8.4% | 56.7% |
| Customer, support, or sales information | 28.9% | 0.9% | 2.6% | 17.1% | 50.6% |
| Internal chat tools, such as Slack or Teams | 43.8% | 0.3% | 2.3% | 18.6% | 35.0% |
| Internal documentation (i.e. Design, product, or planning docs), wiki, or knowledge base | 35.9% | 0.2% | 1.2% | 11.9% | 50.9% |
| Manager or leadership | 30.8% | 0.1% | 0.8% | 8.6% | 59.6% |
| Meeting notes or transcripts | 37.0% | 0.9% | 3.8% | 23.8% | 34.5% |
| None of these | 14.3% | 9.2% | 5.1% | 16.3% | 55.1% |
| Not sure | 17.4% | 9.4% | 4.7% | 25.5% | 43.0% |
| Official docs | 21.7% | 0.1% | 0.7% | 5.0% | 72.5% |
| Past decisions or architecture records | 37.4% | 0.2% | 3.7% | 20.3% | 38.4% |
| Product, vendor, or API documentation | 25.3% | 0.0% | 0.8% | 5.5% | 68.4% |
| Project management or ticketing tools | 41.2% | 0.4% | 2.0% | 15.2% | 41.2% |
| Stack Overflow | 40.9% | 0.7% | 3.4% | 25.0% | 30.0% |
| Vendor forum | 36.0% | 0.5% | 3.2% | 22.1% | 38.2% |

In context: https://survey.stackoverflow.co/2026/knowledge/data.md