Most teenagers now use AI chatbots for schoolwork, and many parents don’t know.
This answer covers AI chatbots in general. ChatGPT is the one most teenagers use, so it’s the name parents search for, but Google’s Gemini, Microsoft Copilot and the rest raise the same questions.
How many are?
- In the US, 54% of 13- to 17-year-olds used chatbots such as ChatGPT or Microsoft Copilot for schoolwork in autumn 2025, double the year before. One in ten did all or most of their schoolwork with one. That’s from Pew Research Center, which surveyed 1,458 teenagers.
- In the UK, 8 in 10 13- to 18-year-olds said they use AI tools for schoolwork, in a 2025 survey for Oxford University Press. Ofcom, the UK’s communications regulator, found in 2026 that more than half of 8- to 17-year-olds use AI tools, often for schoolwork.
Parents tend to underestimate it. Pew found about half of parents think their teenager uses chatbots. Nearly two in three teenagers said they do.
Is it cheating?
It depends on the school’s rules and on what they did with it. Teenagers themselves can’t agree. In the Oxford University Press research, only 44% thought using AI to do all their homework was cheating, while almost one in five thought asking it for a tip was. In the US, 59% of teenagers told Pew that students at their school cheat with chatbots at least fairly often.
Most use is somewhere in between: researching a topic, checking maths, tidying up a piece of writing.
Does it hurt their learning?
Using it instead of thinking does. In a 2025 classroom experiment with 405 14- and 15-year-olds in England, by Cambridge University Press & Assessment and Microsoft Research, students who took their own notes understood and remembered a text better three days later than those who only used a chatbot. Students who used the chatbot and took notes as well also beat chatbot-only. Most students preferred the chatbot anyway.
The tools can make the shortcut the easy option. When Common Sense Media tested ChatGPT’s teen version in 2026, its study mode offered a “Show me the answer” button in 43% of responses on a 13-year-old’s account linked to a parent, and 90% on a 17-year-old’s that wasn’t.
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What’s left to you
Ask, without the accusation. “Do you use ChatGPT for homework?” will get a yes from most teenagers if they don’t think they’re in trouble. The useful follow-up is “show me how”.
The test is whether they can explain the answer with the chatbot closed.
Find out what the school allows. Rules vary by school and by subject.
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See how ChatGPT rates at each age in the scorecard.
Checked 6 November 2026.
Sources:
- Pew Research Center, How teens use and view AI, 24 February 2026
- Oxford University Press, Teenagers are divided over AI use for schoolwork, 9 June 2026
- Ofcom, Children’s media use and attitudes, 21 May 2026
- Kreijkes et al., Effects of LLM use and note-taking on reading comprehension and memory, Computers & Education, December 2025
- Common Sense Media, ChatGPT for Teens risk assessment, 7 October 2026
