---
title: "The Downfall of StackOverflow"
date: 2026-02-04T13:58:02Z
tags:
  - analysis
  - ai
draft: true
---

This post was inspired by a post on [Hacker News](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46482345) that linked to this [StackOverflow data](https://data.stackexchange.com/stackoverflow/query/1926661#graph).

My kneejerk reaction was that the rise in AI and its code analysis capabilities have caused the downfall of StackOverflow. We can see a peak after a gradual decline in early 2020 (COVID bedroom coders?) which then returns to a roughly normal level by 2021, before starting a stark decline into obscurity, very much accelerating at the end of 2022.

{{< graph id="stackoverflow-trend" type="line" title="Stack Overflow Questions Over Time" height="500" csv="stackoverflow_questions_over_time.csv" labelColumn="Month" dataColumn="" dateFormat="2006-01" >}}
{{< /graph >}}

## The rise and fall

StackOverflow had a hell of a run. From just 4 questions monthly in July 2008 to over 207,000 in March 2014—that's six years of basically uninterrupted growth. It became _the_ place every developer went when they were stuck.

Then around 2014-2015, it plateaued. About 170,000-190,000 questions per month, which held steady for a few years before starting to slip. By 2019 we're down to around 150,000 per month. Still solid, but the writing was on the wall.

Then it properly falls off a cliff. January 2023: 97,209 questions. December 2023: 42,601. January 2026: 321. That's a 99.8% drop from the 2020 peak. Three hundred and twenty-one questions. In a month.

## Is it AI?

Looking at Google Trends[^1] for AI-related searches, there's a bit of a gap between when StackOverflow started dying and when AI actually took off.

{{< graph id="ai-trends" type="line" title="AI Search Trends" height="500"
    csv="ai-coding-trend.csv,ai-trend.csv"
    labelColumn="Month"
    dataColumns="ai coding: (Worldwide),ai: (Worldwide)"
    datasetLabels="AI Coding,AI General"
    dateFormat="2006-01" >}}
{{< /graph >}}

Both general AI interest and AI coding searches were basically flat from 2019 through most of 2022. Then in December 2022 it spikes—that's ChatGPT launching[^2].

Zooming in on 2019 onwards makes it clearer:

{{< graph id="ai-trends-vs-questions" type="line" title="AI Search Trends vs StackOverflow Questions" height="500"
    csv="stackoverflow_questions_after_2019.csv,ai-coding-trend.csv,ai-trend.csv"
    labelColumn="Month"
    dataColumns="Questions,ai coding: (Worldwide),ai: (Worldwide)"
    datasetLabels="StackOverflow Questions,AI Coding,AI General"
    yAxisIDs="y,y1,y1"
    dateFormat="2006-01" >}}
{{< /graph >}}

## The timeline doesn't quite add up

Here's the thing though: StackOverflow's accelerated decline starts in 2021, well before anyone gave a shit about AI coding. From January 2021 (140,009 questions) to December 2022 (96,767 questions), it lost 31% of its traffic while "AI coding" searches sat at baseline.

The AI coding surge doesn't really kick off until early 2023, then explodes through 2025, peaking in August. But by then StackOverflow was already down to 5,885 questions per month.

## So what's actually going on?

The data suggests AI accelerated something that was already happening. A few things probably contributed:

**The saturation effect**: By 2021, StackOverflow had 16+ years of answered questions. How many times can you ask "how do I parse JSON in Python" before every variation is covered? The "just Google it" response became the correct answer because everything _had_ been Googled already.

**The pre-AI decline (2021-2022)**: 31% drop over 18 months while AI coding searches were dead flat. This points to other shifts—better documentation, clearer error messages, frameworks maturing and becoming less footgun-y. Developers were finding answers without needing to ask.

**The AI acceleration (2023-2025)**: ChatGPT launches November 30, 2022. By March 2023, StackOverflow drops from 123,614 questions to 87,543. AI tools give you instant answers without needing to wade through ten variations of your question that are marked as duplicates and locked.

**The collapse (2025-2026)**: By mid-2025, AI coding tools are just... everywhere. GitHub Copilot, ChatGPT, Claude, all of them baked into every IDE and workflow. The August 2025 peak in "AI coding" searches lines up with StackOverflow hitting 5,885 questions. That's a 96.8% decline from five years earlier.

## The bottom line

AI didn't kill StackOverflow, but it's definitely finishing the job. The platform was already bleeding out when ChatGPT showed up—content saturation, better tooling, the ecosystem maturing. But AI coding tools changed the game completely. Why search through old forum posts when you can just ask?

The inverse relationship is stark: as AI coding interest hits its peak in 2025, StackOverflow craters. By January 2026 we're at 321 questions. That's about the same as August 2008, when it was brand new.

Twelve years to build it. Five years to tear it down. And yeah, the last three were almost certainly AI finishing what was already started.

---

[^1]: Google Trends data provides relative search interest rather than absolute numbers, which may not capture the full picture.

[^2]: [ChatGPT Launch Announcement](https://openai.com/index/chatgpt/)