Hacker News

Monthly Hacker News story counts since 2015 for AI terms — vendors, tools and protocols, market context, and the discourse itself — with an all-stories baseline and a derived share. Source: the Algolia HN Search API.

cadence · monthly 28 series updated 22 Jul 2026 news.ycombinator.com ↗

release markers

All stories (baseline)

29.9k +25.6% yr as of Jun 2026

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AI mentions

ChatGPT

193 −35.7% yr as of Jun 2026

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Claude

1.1k +199.4% yr as of Jun 2026

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GPT

146 +25.9% yr as of Jun 2026

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LLM

1.0k +34.0% yr as of Jun 2026

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OpenAI

386 +12.2% yr as of Jun 2026

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Anthropic

466 +196.8% yr as of Jun 2026

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Artificial intelligence

139 +21.9% yr as of Jun 2026

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Mentions of "AI" — broad match (do not use)

6.2k +48.1% yr as of Jun 2026

This search also counts words such as "air", "aim" and "Airbnb", so it makes the growth look too small. Read the exact-match line instead.

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Mentions of "AI" — exact match

5.8k +53.6% yr as of Jun 2026

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Vendors

Grok (xAI)

49 +113.0% yr as of Jun 2026

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Gemini (Google)

116 −42.6% yr as of Jun 2026

⚠ Before December 2023 this line counts the gemini:// protocol, a crypto exchange and a NASA programme, not Google. Read only the years after 2023.

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DeepSeek

69 +35.3% yr as of Jun 2026

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Qwen (Alibaba)

56 +166.7% yr as of Jun 2026

Llama (Meta)

39 −26.4% yr as of Jun 2026

Mistral

17 0.0% yr as of Jun 2026

Perplexity

24 −35.1% yr as of Jun 2026

Perplexity is also a standard measure of how well a language model predicts text. Some stories are about that measure, not the company.

Copilot (Microsoft)

110 +41.0% yr as of Jun 2026

Market context

Neither line measures AI talk. Both lines counted many stories before AI arrived, so read only the growth.

Nvidia

143 +52.1% yr as of Jun 2026

Hacker News covered graphics cards long before AI. The 15–38 stories a month up to 2022 are about hardware, so only the growth is about AI.

Layoffs

63 +80.0% yr as of Jun 2026

This line counts every layoff story. The peak of 114 stories in June 2022 came from the rise in interest rates, not from AI.

Tools & protocols

Cursor

150 −9.6% yr as of Jun 2026

Programmers used the word "cursor" for databases and screens long before the editor. Only the growth after 2023 is about AI.

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Windsurf

7 −78.8% yr as of Jun 2026

MCP (Model Context Protocol)

331 +3.4% yr as of Jun 2026

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"Agent"

2.4k +237.2% yr as of Jun 2026

Federal agents, user agents and real-estate agents also match. They add about 25 stories a month and that number stays flat, so only the growth is about AI.

RAG (retrieval-augmented generation)

62 +3.3% yr as of Jun 2026

The discourse

"Vibe coding"

58 −37.6% yr as of Jun 2026

"AI slop"

81 +305.0% yr as of Jun 2026

Share of HN

Share of HN mentioning "AI" derived

19.5% of stories +22.3% yr as of Jun 2026

The stories that mention the exact word "AI", divided by all Hacker News stories.

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Figures

Series	Latest	Change	Min	Max	Coverage
All stories (baseline)	29.9k	+25.6% yr	20.5k	34.2k	Jan 2015 — Jun 2026
ChatGPT	193	−35.7% yr	0	1.3k	Jan 2015 — Jun 2026
Claude	1.1k	+199.4% yr	0	1.9k	Jan 2015 — Jun 2026
GPT	146	+25.9% yr	0	928	Jan 2015 — Jun 2026
LLM	1.0k	+34.0% yr	0	1.5k	Jan 2015 — Jun 2026
OpenAI	386	+12.2% yr	0	974	Jan 2015 — Jun 2026
Anthropic	466	+196.8% yr	0	565	Jan 2015 — Jun 2026
Artificial intelligence	139	+21.9% yr	29	160	Jan 2015 — Jun 2026
Mentions of "AI" — broad match (do not use)	6.2k	+48.1% yr	279	7.8k	Jan 2015 — Jun 2026
Grok (xAI)	49	+113.0% yr	0	147	Jan 2015 — Jun 2026
Gemini (Google)	116	−42.6% yr	0	382	Jan 2015 — Jun 2026
DeepSeek	69	+35.3% yr	0	541	Jan 2015 — Jun 2026
Qwen (Alibaba)	56	+166.7% yr	0	122	Jan 2015 — Jun 2026
Llama (Meta)	39	−26.4% yr	0	168	Jan 2015 — Jun 2026
Mistral	17	0.0% yr	0	80	Jan 2015 — Jun 2026
Perplexity	24	−35.1% yr	0	89	Jan 2015 — Jun 2026
Copilot (Microsoft)	110	+41.0% yr	0	153	Jan 2015 — Jun 2026
Nvidia	143	+52.1% yr	7	210	Jan 2015 — Jun 2026
Cursor	150	−9.6% yr	0	327	Jan 2015 — Jun 2026
Windsurf	7	−78.8% yr	0	54	Jan 2015 — Jun 2026
MCP (Model Context Protocol)	331	+3.4% yr	0	629	Jan 2015 — Jun 2026
"Agent"	2.4k	+237.2% yr	13	3.5k	Jan 2015 — Jun 2026
RAG (retrieval-augmented generation)	62	+3.3% yr	0	130	Jan 2015 — Jun 2026
"Vibe coding"	58	−37.6% yr	0	181	Jan 2015 — Jun 2026
"AI slop"	81	+305.0% yr	0	101	Jan 2015 — Jun 2026
Layoffs	63	+80.0% yr	1	270	Jan 2015 — Jun 2026
Share of HN mentioning "AI"	19.5%	+22.3% yr	0.2%	21.9%	Jan 2015 — Jun 2026
Mentions of "AI" — exact match	5.8k	+53.6% yr	53	7.3k	Jan 2015 — Jun 2026

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