Most Russians use the Internet at least a few times a week, and almost all of them use it among young people. The growth of the Internet audience is mainly due to the development of the Internet by older people. Three quarters of the respondents use social media, including more than half on a daily basis. The most popular social networks in Russia are VKontakte and Telegram. The YouTube audience has almost halved after the slowdown; against this background, the Rutube audience is growing noticeably. The respondents prefer to exchange messages and calls via WhatsApp and Telegram, and their popularity is growing. Almost one in five respondents uses artificial intelligence technologies, primarily for work and study. The most popular online services remain mobile banking, taxi ordering and online shopping services, and their use is growing year by year.

The share of regular Internet users (who access the Internet daily or several times a week) continues to grow smoothly and reached 83% of all respondents in March 2025. 76% of respondents access the Internet every day, and the proportion of such respondents is growing mainly among the middle and older ages, while growth among young people has almost stopped, as it has come close to 100%.

Young people under the age of 24 (99%), respondents with higher education (92%), more affluent respondents (92% of those who can afford durable goods), and residents of Moscow (89%) are more likely to access the Internet.

Older respondents (25% among respondents aged 55 and older), respondents with secondary education and below (25%), less affluent respondents (24% among those who barely have enough for food), as well as residents of cities with a population of up to 100,000 people do not go online at all (15%).

The growth in the number of social media users has slowed since January 2021, and has now stopped altogether. In March 2025, 76% of respondents visited social networks (an increase of 41 percentage points since August 2011): 58% – daily, 10% – several times a week, 8% – once a week or less. 24% of the respondents have never visited social networks.

The share of those who visit social networks is higher among women (79%), youth under 24 (96%), respondents with higher education (82%), more affluent respondents (84% among respondents who can afford durable goods), residents of cities with populations from 100 to 500 thousands of people (78%). 

The proportion of those who do not visit social networks is higher among men (28%), older respondents (46% among respondents aged 55 and over), respondents with secondary education and below (34%), less well-off respondents (37% among those who barely have enough for food), Moscow residents (26%).

The most popular social networks remain VKontakte, which is used by half of the Russians surveyed (50%) and Telegram, whose user share is 42% of the respondents. One in four visits Odnoklassniki (24%), and one in five visits TikTok and YouTube (21% each). About one in ten logs into Instagram*, Rutube, and Yandex Zen. Using My World on Mail.ru , Facebook* and X (Twitter) are at 2%, 1% and 1%.

The number of VKontakte users is increasing (3 percentage points since September 2024), Telegram (an increase of 2 percentage points since September 2024), and Rutube (an increase of 7 percentage points since March 2023).

The number of YouTube users is decreasing (a decrease of 16 percentage points since March 2024), Yandex Zen (a decrease of 3 percentage points since September 2024) and Facebook* (a decrease of 11 percentage points since December 2017).

The main differentiation in the use of social networks is based on age groups, consumer status and assessment of the situation in the country.

Telegram, YouTube and Instagram are used more often by young people under 24 years of age (72%/ 40%/ 27%), wealthier respondents (47%/ 27%/ 10% among those who can afford durable goods), as well as those who believe that things are going well in the country. The wrong way (65%/ 36%/ 17%).

Less affluent respondents (42% and 33%) are more likely to visit Odnoklassniki and TikTok, those who believe that things in the country are going the wrong way (35% each), however, Odnoklassniki is more often visited by respondents aged 55 and older (56%), and TikTok by young people under 24 (34%).

VKontakte is more common among respondents in the age groups 18-24 years old (77%) and 25-39 years old (78%), more affluent respondents (70% among those who can afford durable goods), as well as those who believe that things in the country are going in the right direction (67%).

WhatsApp and Telegram are still the most popular applications for calls and messaging, and their popularity is growing: 74% (an increase of 4 percentage points in two years) and 57% (an increase of 17 percentage points), respectively. After the blocking in December 2024, the number of Viber users decreased to 6%, although three months before the blocking they were 23%. 18% of respondents use VKontakte to exchange calls and messages. 2% each make calls/exchange messages on Skype, Yandex.Teleconference, Zoom, Instagram direct*, Discord.

Young people are more likely to call and exchange messages on Telegram (88%), VKontakte (38%), and Discord (6%). Respondents in the 25-39 age group prefer to use WhatsApp (84%), Instagram direct* (5%). Age-related respondents (55 years and older) are more likely than others not to use such applications.

They use artificial intelligence, ChatGPT, neural networks, etc. 17% of respondents (6% – regularly, and 11% – sometimes), another 43% are aware of such an opportunity, but do not use it, and 41% hear about it for the first time.

The share of those who use artificial intelligence, ChatGPT, neural networks, etc., is higher among young people under 24 (38%), respondents with higher education (20%), more affluent respondents (21% among those who can afford durable goods), as well as students (54%).

The share of those who do not use artificial intelligence, ChatGPT, neural networks, etc., is higher among older respondents (95% among respondents aged 55 and older), respondents with professional education (86%), less well-off respondents (92% among those who barely have enough for food), and also pensioners (97%).

Those who use artificial intelligence, ChatGPT, neural networks, etc., are more likely to use them for work and educational purposes – 31% and 29%, respectively, 20% – for entertainment purposes, and 17% – as a search engine.

Women (34%), respondents aged 40-54 (38%), respondents with higher education (37%), as well as managers (45%) are more likely to use artificial intelligence technologies for work purposes. The share of those who use AI for educational purposes is higher among young people under 24 (55%), respondents with secondary education and below (55%), as well as students (79%). Pensioners and respondents aged 55 and older were more likely to use AI for entertainment purposes – 25% and 26%, respectively. The popularity of AI as a search engine is higher among men (21%), older respondents (35% among respondents aged 55 and older) and pensioners (43%).

Since 2019, the share of respondents who use mobile applications has increased to 81% (an increase of 21 percentage points). The most popular services remain mobile banking (69%, compared to 46% in March 2019), taxi services (53%, compared to 28% in March 2019), online shopping (46%, compared to 21% in March 2019) and navigation maps (35, compared to March 2019 – 25%).

Instagram Facebook and Meta, the company that owns the social networks Facebook and Instagram, has been declared an extremist organization in the Russian Federation, and its activities are prohibited.