Nearly 1 in 5 U.S. Adolescents and Young Adults Use AI Chatbots for Mental Health Advice | RAND
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Nearly 1 in 5 U.S. Adolescents and Young Adults Use AI Chatbots for Mental Health Advice
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Monday<br>June 1, 2026
Use for mental health advice has risen sharply in the past year, and most young people say they have not told anyone about turning to chatbots for help.
Use of artificial intelligence chatbots for mental health advice among U.S. adolescents and young adults rose by more than 40% over the past year, with nearly 1 in 5 now reporting they have used AI tools for support, according to a new study.
The study found that 19.2% of young people ages 12 to 21 said they had used AI chatbots such as ChatGPT, Gemini, Character.AI and Meta AI for advice or help when feeling sad, angry, nervous or stressed. That is up from 13.1% in a similar RAND survey conducted a year earlier and is similar to the 19.8% who reported receiving counseling from a mental health professional.
Researchers estimate that the 2025 figure represents about 8.2 million young people nationwide, suggesting that AI chatbots are becoming an increasingly common source of emotional and mental health support.
The findings come as the United States continues to face a youth mental health crisis and AI chatbots have become widely available and heavily used by teens and young adults.
“AI chatbots are already part of how many young people seek advice about their mental health,” said Ryan K. McBain, a senior policy researcher at RAND and lead author of the study. “The speed of growth is attention-grabbing, but so is the fact that most young people who use these tools for mental health advice say they are not telling anyone.”
Among adolescents and young adults who reported using AI chatbots for mental health advice, nearly two-thirds (63%) said they had not disclosed that use to anyone. At the same time, nearly 43% of users said they sought that advice at least monthly. A large majority, 92%, said the advice was somewhat or very helpful, though the researchers note that this may reflect chatbots' tendency to flatter users rather than the actual quality of guidance provided.
The study found that use was more common among females than males and more common among young adults ages 18 to 21 than among younger teens ages 12 to 17. Youth who had spoken with a physician about their mental health in the prior six months also were more likely to report using AI chatbots for mental health advice.
Researchers say the results highlight the need for parents, clinicians, and other trusted adults to ask young people whether they are using these tools and to help them understand both their potential benefits and limitations.
“Many young people appear to be using AI chatbots for mental health advice privately, without the knowledge of parents, clinicians or other adults,” said Jonathan H. Cantor, a RAND senior policy researcher and study co-author. “That makes it especially important for adults to start conversations about how AI tools are being used and the role they should and should not play.”
The study is based on a nationally representative survey of 1,009 adolescents and young adults ages 12 to 21, conducted in November 2025 through RAND's American Youth Panel.
The paper, “AI Chatbot Use and Disclosure for Mental Health Among US Adolescents and Young Adults,” was published in JAMA Pediatrics.
Other authors of the study are Joshua Breslau, Melissa Diliberti, Li Ang Zhang, Aaron Kofner and Bradley D. Stein of RAND; Fang Zhang, Benjamin Rader and Hao Yu of Harvard Medical School; Alyssa Burnett of the Harvard Pilgrim Health Care Institute; Pat Pataranutaporn of the MIT Media Lab; and Ateev Mehrotra of the Brown University School of Public Health.
Support for the study was provided by the National Institute of Mental Health.
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Topics
Adolescent Health<br>Artificial Intelligence<br>Depression<br>Mental Health Treatment<br>Young Adults
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