Stack Overflow's forums are on the verge of disappearing due to AI, but the company itself is still thriving thanks to AI.
The technical Q&A site Stack Overflow has lost prominence due to the rise of generative AI, and the number of questions has decreased significantly. On the other hand, it is known that Stack Overflow itself is maintaining its revenue by utilizing generative AI.
Stack Overflow's forum is dead thanks to AI, but the company's still kicking... thanks to AI - Sherwood News
The number of questions on Stack Overflow steadily increased since its launch in 2008, maintaining a high level from around 2014 until around 2020, when the COVID-19 pandemic hit. However, with the emergence of generative AI such as ChatGPT, the number gradually decreased, and by April 2026, it had fallen to almost the same level as when the service first launched.
Technology media outlet DEVCLASS points out that this is because people have started using AI tools to avoid the hassle of asking questions to humans and the risk of receiving aggressive responses.
While Stack Overflow as a Q&A forum seems to be dying, the company itself appears to be somehow managing to survive.
According to the company's financial results, annual revenue has been on an upward trend since the launch of ChatGPT in 2022, nearly doubling in about four years. Losses have also shrunk, decreasing from $84 million (approximately 13.374 billion yen) in fiscal year 2023 to $22 million (approximately 3.503 billion yen) in fiscal year 2025.
Stack Overflow, which once relied on advertising revenue from its vibrant forums, now primarily generates revenue from enterprise solutions like 'Stack Internal' at the time of writing. Stack Internal offers a generative AI add-on enhanced by millions of questions and answers accumulated on the site over the years, and is used by 25,000 companies worldwide.
Stack Overflow also generates revenue through licensing agreements that allow AI companies to use its data. Stack Overflow's strength lies in 'trust built by its community,' and while individuals complete their information exchanges within the closed space of chat AI, its presence as a collective intelligence accessible to anyone on the internet is significant, playing a role as a data source for AI to learn from.
When asked, 'Even in an era where ChatGPT does everything, will Stack Overflow still be able to attract new users?', Stack Overflow CEO Prashant Chandrasekhar
One noteworthy piece of data is a survey showing that while over 80% of Stack Overflow users are already using AI or are interested in it, only 29% actually trust that AI is useful.
Stack Overflow is introducing AI-powered interactive assistance features, but it also prohibits users from posting AI-generated answers directly, thus maintaining Stack Overflow's value as a 'forum for human-to-human dialogue.'
CEO Chandrasekhar stated, 'When we saw a decrease in the number of questions in early 2023, we realized that most of those questions were very simple. Complex questions are still being posted on Stack Overflow because there isn't a suitable place for them. Ultimately, we aim to be a trusted and important source of information for technologists, both inside and outside the company.'
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