MANILA, Philippines — ChatGPT is quickly turning into a go-to digital companion for Filipinos as the Philippines ranked among its highest users in the world.
The Digital 2026 report, released by media and consumer intelligence company Meltwater and creative agency We Are Social, found that 42.4 percent of Filipino internet users have used ChatGPT in the past month.
It was the sixth highest among countries included in the report, after Kenya (49.5 percent), Brazil (49.1 percent), Israel (49 percent), Malaysia (48.4 percent) and United Arab Emirates (44.7 percent).
ChatGPT use in the Philippines was significantly higher than the global average of 26.5 percent.
The data was based on the broad survey of internet users aged 16 and above conducted by London-based GWI in the second quarter of 2025.
Launched in late 2022, ChatGPT became the fastest-growing consumer software application in a matter of months.
It uses a large language model to generate text and images based on user prompts.
According to the Digital 2026 report, unique visitors to ChatGPT’s website increased from 192 million in August 2023 to an estimated 489 million in August 2025.
Most common uses included seeking specific information, editing or critiquing user-provided text, tutoring or teaching, seeking “how to” advice, help with personal writing or communication and health, fitness, beauty or self-care.
ChatGPT is also being used for translation, creating images, computer programming, creative ideation, argument or summary generation and mathematical calculation.
It remains the most popular among various artificial intelligence tools, which also includes Google Gemini, DeepSeek, Perplexity, Grok, Microsoft Copilot and Claude.
Despite the relative high usage of ChatGPT in the Philippines, the report noted that “excitement” about AI in the country is lower than the global average.
Some 47.2 percent of Filipino internet users said they are excited about AI, slightly below the global average of 48.7 percent.
At least 23 countries have more than half of their internet users excited about AI, with Nigeria at top with 77 percent.
A separate survey cited in the report found that therapy and companionship are the most popular uses of generative AI tools and large language models.
It was followed by organizing one’s life, finding purpose, enhanced learning, generating codes, generating ideas, fun and nonsense, improving codes, creativity, healthier living, preparing for interviews, generating images, specific search and simple explainers.