StackOverflow: From Developer Powerhouse to Decline in the AI Era

StackOverflow launched in 2008 (by Jeff Atwood & Joel Spolsky) as a community-driven Q&A site for programmers. It quickly became the “go-to” destination for coding questions: by 2014–2017, the site was handling 200,000+ new questions per month, and had over 10 million registered users. The platform rewarded detailed, definitive answers with reputation points and badges, creating a highly engaged contributor base. In fact, surveys show that even into the early 2020,s a large majority of developers kept accounts and visited frequently, e.,g. 76% of surveyed developers had a StackOverflow account, and 93% reported visiting at least monthly. In short, pre-AI StackOverflow was a thriving knowledge repository and active community where developers both asked and answered questions rapidly.

Before AI tools became common, StackOverflow model worked well for fast, factual problem-solving:

• One Question, One Answer: Each question aimed for a single correct solution, which made searching and indexing easy.
• Gamified Community: Earning reputation and badges encouraged expert participation.
• Massive Archive: Over 15 years, it accumulated tens of millions of questions and answers, covering virtually every programming topic.
• Free and Open: All content was CC-licensed and publicly indexed.

Together, these features helped StackOverflow dominate developer Q&A. For example, in 2014, the site saw over 200k questions per month, and by 2025 still had ~29 million users and 24M+ questions. Many developers describe it as the “holy grail” for coding help during the pre-AI era.

The AI Revolution and Its Impact

With the late 2022 release of ChatGPT and the emergence of other AI coding assistants, the search behavior of developers has drastically changed. Large Language Models (LLMs) have the ability to generate code solutions in natural language chat and do not have to post questions. Consequently, this has led to a number of developers skipping StackOverflow altogether. Key points:

• Rapid Adoption of AI Tools: By 2024, surveys showed that 62% of developers were actively using AI tools in their workflow (up from 44% in 2023), and 84% had used AI tools at all by 2025. In particular, 81% of developers were using GPT-based models. This high adoption means that ChatGPT and similar bots often answer coding questions before people consider posting them on StackOverflow.
• AI Accessibility 24/7: ChatGPT is always available and can produce answers (correct or not) without waiting. Developers appreciate instant feedback: one Reddit comment noted that AI gave them answers “without telling me my question was stupid“, addressing a common complaint about moderation.
• Search Engine Integration: Search engines now surface AI-generated summaries alongside results. Google and Microsoft integrate AI answers right on the search results page, so users may never click through to Stack Overflow.

In essence, LLMs replicate StackOverflow core value proposition (answering coding questions) more conversationally. This competition has supercharged any existing trends: as one analysis put it, ChatGPT “accelerated an existing decline“. Indeed, traffic and contributions began falling even before AI’s debut (around 2018), and AI tools simply hastened that shift.

Data on StackOverflow Decline

Recent metrics paint a stark picture of how StackOverflow active usage has plummeted:

• Question Volume Collapse: StackOverflow new-question volume has fallen roughly 95% from its peak. For example, by late 2025, the site was receiving under 10,000 questions per month, levels comparable to 2008 when the site was brand new. In December 2025, there were only 3,862 questions (a 78% drop from Dec 2024), versus over 200,000 per month in early 2014.
• Traffic Drop: Third-party analytics (e.g., SimilarWeb/ByteIota) indicate overall traffic has fallen ~75% from its peak. In other words, the site is now receiving only a quarter of the visitors it once did.
• User Activity: Surveys and insiders note that the active community has nearly vanished. One commentator observed, “StackOverflow still gets read. But it stopped getting written”. Long-time users report that new contributions (answers, edits, comments) have “almost completely stopped”. In effect, StackOverflow has become a static archive: heavily visited for old answers, but no longer a lively forum.

These declines became especially evident around 2025. (Notably, some original StackOverflow skeptics had predicted doom even before AI, but the drop has turned dramatically steeper post-2022.) The data clearly shows that new question and answer posting has collapsed to a tiny fraction of its former level.

Key Factors Behind the Decline

Multiple interrelated factors explain why StackOverflow vitality has faded “before” vs. “after” the AI era:

• AI Assistants and Tools: As noted, AI chatbots provide quick answers and reduce the need for forum posts. Most developers now have an AI assistant built into their IDEs or search, so they get help immediately. Any given programming question can often be answered (correctly or with minor errors) by an LLM (Large Language Model) faster than posting and waiting on Stack Overflow. This fundamental shift means Stack Overflow’s traditional Q&A model competes directly with AI, often losing on speed and convenience.
• Alternative Platforms: With the late 2022 release of ChatGPT and the emergence of other AI coding assistants, the search behavior of developers has drastically changed. Large Language Models (LLMs) have the ability to generate code solutions in natural language chat without requiring users to post questions publicly. Consequently, this shift has led many developers to skip Stack Overflow altogether.
• Community and Culture Issues: Over the years, many new users found the Stack Overflow community unwelcoming. Strict moderation meant common or imprecise questions were often closed or downvoted. Critics argue this drove users away; indeed, one developer quipped that ChatGPT’s rise was partly due to finally having “a tool that didn’t tell [them] their questions were stupid.”
• Evolving Business Model: Stack Overflow’s parent company, acquired by Prosus in 2021, increasingly focused on monetization strategies, including enterprise products such as Stack Overflow for Teams and Collectives. At the same time, the company attempted to reduce low-quality and spam content across the platform.

In summary, the decline was already underway pre-AI, but the AI era amplified it. Developers simply had better alternatives: either AI assistants or community spaces that welcomed questions without heavy gatekeeping.

Where Did Developers Go?

As Stack Overflow’s activity declined, developers increasingly shifted toward alternative resources:

Stack Overflow’s Legacy Role: Despite declining participation in new questions, Stack Overflow remains a powerful reference archive. Its search engine visibility remains strong, and developers frequently consult older questions and answers. However, while it continues to function as a knowledge repository, the act of asking new questions has largely shifted to other platforms.

AI Tools: Many developers now consult AI assistants such as ChatGPT and GitHub Copilot first. These tools provide instant responses, even if sometimes imperfect. The 2025 Developer Survey indicates that a majority of developers now rely on AI for coding assistance, highlighting a major behavioral shift in how programming problems are solved.

Discord and Reddit: Real-time discussion platforms have grown rapidly. Large Discord servers focused on programming communities now host hundreds of thousands of members. Similarly, major Reddit communities such as r/learnprogramming and r/webdev have accumulated millions of subscribers. These platforms prioritize conversation, peer support, and collaborative discussion rather than the strict, structured Q&A format that defined Stack Overflow.

Video and Blogs: Increasingly, developers turn to YouTube tutorials, technical blogs, and long-form educational content for learning and troubleshooting. Unlike short answer threads, these formats provide step-by-step explanations, real-world examples, and broader conceptual understanding, which complement or even replace traditional forum-based answers.

The table below (from the 2025 developer survey) illustrates how common various platforms have become:

Platform	Percentage of developers using it for help
StackOverflow	84.2%
GitHub (public repos/discussions)	66.9%
YouTube	60.5%
Reddit	53.7%
Discord	38.9%
LinkedIn	37.2%
Medium, Dev.to, etc.	11–30%

These figures show that while Stack Overflow remains the single most-used Q&A resource, a significant portion of developers regularly rely on alternative platforms such as GitHub and YouTube for help, learning, and problem-solving.

Current Status of StackOverflow:

So, is StackOverflow truly “dead”? The answer is mixed:

• Active contributions are nearly gone. New questions and answers appear only sporadically, if at all. One analyst bluntly stated, “StackOverflow still gets read. But it stopped getting written.” In other words, the site functions as a passive library of past answers, not as a living community.
• The archive remains invaluable. StackOverflow vast repository of solved problems still attracts visitors. Developers often search for an exact error message and find a relevant Stack Overflow thread, then leave. According to one commentator, “the archive has value. But almost nobody contributes anymore. The site has become a museum, visited, but not lived in.”
• New initiatives: Stack Overflow itself is trying to adapt. In late 2025, the company introduced “AI Assist,” a chatbot interface powered by its own data. However, this move has been controversial, since posting AI-generated answers on Stack Overflow itself is still banned.

In short, StackOverflow is not 100% gone, but its role has fundamentally changed. It remains a read-only reference for past Q&A, but the dynamic, participatory community of the pre-AI era no longer exists. New interactions have moved to AI and social platforms.

Conclusion

Stack Overflow built a valuable global library of programming knowledge before the AI era. However, the advent of ChatGPT and other AI tools, combined with shifts in developer habits and frustrations with Stack Overflow moderation, has led to a steep drop in new activity. By late 2025, question volume was down ~95% from its peak, and many developers now prefer faster or more conversational venues.

While the existing answers on Stack Overflow are still often consulted, the site has effectively lost its status as the bustling hub it once was. In the AI era, Stack Overflow’s one-question/one-answer model has been largely supplanted by AI assistants and community chats – signaling a major transformation (some might call it “death”) of the original Stack Overflow as we knew it.

About the writer

Hassan Tahir wrote this article, drawing on his experience to clarify WordPress concepts and enhance developer understanding. Through his work, he aims to help both beginners and professionals refine their skills and tackle WordPress projects with greater confidence.