OBJECTIVES: To describe the experience of migraine subjects participating in the PatientsLikeMe community, an online platform for people to track their health data and exchange experiences. To demonstrate how the lives of chronic migraine patients stand out from the lives of migraine patients experiencing less frequent symptoms. METHODS: Different patient cohorts were identified to compare different types of migraine (n=8,732) and non-migraine headache (n=2,596) patients. Among the migraine patients, a separate survey (n=305 responding) was aimed at classifying patients by headache frequency. Applied exploratory analysis and comparison of patient experience was performed along several dimensions such as demographics, conditions/comorbidities, symptoms, treatments, and quality-of-life (QoL) for migraine vs. headache cohorts and for chronic vs. episodic migraine cohorts. Additionally, for chronic vs. episodic cohorts, responses to the survey question “How do migraines impact your day-to-day life?” were compared. RESULTS: All cohorts were predominantly white, female and from the USA. Patients reporting more frequent headaches tended to be younger, female, and less educated. Migraines tended to be diagnosed later than headaches. Migraine patients reported slightly more comorbidities than headache patients. Chronic migraine patients reported anxiety disorders more frequently than episodic patients. Higher migraine frequency implied more reported symptoms and worse symptom severities. Anti-migraine treatments (triptans and butalbital-acetaminophen-caffeine) were reported more frequently by the chronic than by the episodic cohort. Higher migraine frequency was associated with worse QoL in terms of ability to be active, emotional experience, and life in general, as measured by the PatientsLikeMe QoL questionnaire. Standout terms for chronic vs. episodic migraine patients were: constant, pain, every day, fear, and Botox CONCLUSIONS: This range of patient-reported data identified an increased burden-of-disease, symptom severities and worse QoL from the patient perspective, with emphasis on the impact of chronic migraine on day-to-day activities. This underlines the importance of measuring these patient reported factors.