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Stack Overflow Dev Survey 2026

Importance of current information

Our analysis

Recency/timestamps matter most for official docs and product/vendor docs; people tolerate stale human knowledge.
Importance of current informationAll Respondents · n = 13,678All RespondentsImportance of current informationImportantLeast importantNot very importantSomewhat importantVery importantCode and comments27%6%15%51%Coworkers or teammates30%4%12%23%30%Customer and sales info31%4%14%49%Internal chat tools34%7%21%36%Internal docs and wikis33%5%19%42%Manager or leadership31%3%9%20%36%Meeting notes33%6%16%43%None of these12%12%10%30%37%Not sure25%10%9%28%28%Official docs30%4%13%52%Past decisions31%8%24%35%Product and API docs31%4%13%51%Ticketing tools34%4%17%45%Stack Overflow33%9%22%34%Vendor forum30%7%20%43%13,678Data licensed under Open Database License (ODbL) 1.0
All Respondents · n = 13,678
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Format

Question

For each source, how important is it that information you use to operate is recent or clearly timestamped?
  • scale
  • Optional
  • v2026.1
  • Carries forward KnowledgeQ

Data

ImportantLeast importantNot very importantSomewhat importantVery important
Code repositories or code comments27.1%1.8%6.0%14.6%50.5%
Coworkers or teammates30.3%4.4%11.7%23.4%30.1%
Customer, support, or sales information31.1%1.2%4.4%14.4%49.0%
Internal chat tools, such as Slack or Teams34.1%1.7%7.3%21.2%35.8%
Internal documentation (i.e. Design, product, or planning docs), wiki, or knowledge base33.2%1.0%5.2%18.6%41.9%
Manager or leadership31.4%3.3%9.1%20.2%36.1%
Meeting notes or transcripts33.1%1.4%6.1%16.3%43.1%
None of these11.8%11.8%9.7%30.1%36.6%
Not sure25.0%10.4%9.0%27.8%27.8%
Official docs29.8%1.0%3.9%13.2%52.0%
Past decisions or architecture records30.8%1.9%8.3%23.6%35.4%
Product, vendor, or API documentation31.3%0.9%3.6%12.9%51.2%
Project management or ticketing tools33.6%1.0%4.2%16.8%44.5%
Stack Overflow33.3%2.3%8.5%22.2%33.7%
Vendor forum29.5%1.0%6.5%20.2%42.8%

Use this data

The Markdown table shows one column per segment; the CSV and JSON carry every measure.

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

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

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

Spreadsheet

.csv is a plain text format which most spreadsheet software can open.