For years, teachers have been frustrated as students have turned to chatbots like ChatGPT to do their homework. This reliance on AI tools has raised concerns about a decline in reading and writing skills among students in the US. The problem isn’t just at the elementary and high school levels; college professors are noticing a similar trend with incoming students showing weaker reading abilities.

Recent data from OpenRouter, an AI platform that tracks usage across many AI models, gives a clear picture of how student habits change with the school calendar. OpenRouter collects anonymous data from its 2.5 million users and shows a big drop in ChatGPT activity when schools are out for the summer. The peak usage was on May 27, with nearly 97.4 billion tokens processed in a single day. That’s a huge amount of data, especially since it was during finals week when students often use AI to help with studying.

During the same period in June, when schools are closed, daily ChatGPT usage dropped to around 36.7 billion tokens. The data also shows smaller dips on weekends during the school year, suggesting that students stick to using AI mainly for school-related tasks. Although the data isn’t perfect, it’s one of the most comprehensive public sources showing how and when students use ChatGPT. Researchers and investors alike pay close attention to these trends.

This pattern isn’t new. Earlier reports in 2023 suggested that ChatGPT’s use declined during summer vacations. Mid-September, usage was back up, likely because students returned to school. A study by Rutgers University looked at 10,000 ChatGPT prompts and found that usage was strongly linked to the school calendar, with spring break and summer being quiet times. It seems that most of the AI’s use is tied to academic work.

Interestingly, this seasonal dip might actually help OpenAI financially. The company spent around $9 billion in 2024 to process AI data but only made $4 billion in revenue. That means it was spending more than twice what it earned, mainly on compute costs. As a result, OpenAI probably won’t turn a profit until 2029. Launching GPT-5 now could be a strategic move, as usage will likely stay lower during the summer months, keeping costs in check.

AI’s role in education is growing quickly. Back in July, reports emerged that Microsoft, OpenAI, and Anthropic had invested $23 million in partnerships with the American Federation of Teachers to bring AI into classrooms. Meanwhile, the Trump administration had previously awarded OpenAI a massive contract worth $500 billion, but federal education grants for struggling schools have been withheld—over $6 billion in total. This shows how intertwined AI development and education policy have become.

As students head back to school in September, it will be interesting to see how AI usage shifts. Will it rebound quickly with the new school year, or will reliance on AI tools continue to grow? The coming months will reveal a lot about AI’s place in education and how it shapes learning in the years ahead.

Inspired by

• https://futurism.com/openai-use-cheating-homework

Sources

• gmpg.org
• edtrust.org
• nytimes.com
• openrouter.ai
• puter.com