Chinese AI models lead OpenRouter token usage for a second week

In short: OpenRouter usage data shows Chinese AI models are being used more than US rivals, based on weekly token counts.

What's going on

OpenRouter, a service that tracks and routes requests to many AI models, reported that Chinese large AI models reached 4.69 trillion tokens of weekly usage in mid-March 2026. That total was higher than the United States for the second week in a row.

Tokens are small chunks of text that AI systems read and write (like counting words, but in smaller pieces). Token totals are a simple way to measure how much people and companies are using these models.

In OpenRouter’s rankings, the top three spots in weekly token usage were all Chinese models. MiniMax M2.5 led with about 2.45 trillion tokens per week, followed by Kimi K2.5 and Zhipu GLM-5. Chinese models also made up 61% of token usage among OpenRouter’s top ten models.

The rise is not just about one or two companies. Several major Chinese tech groups, including Alibaba, ByteDance, Baidu, Tencent, and Zhipu, are competing heavily, and the competition is pushing prices down.

What to watch

Token usage in China has reportedly jumped from about 100 billion per day in early 2024 to over 140 trillion per day by March 2026, helped by billing that charges by tokens (similar to paying by the meter for electricity). JPMorgan expects China’s AI “inference” usage, meaning running AI for answers rather than training it, to keep growing sharply through 2030. A key question is whether lower prices and rising demand will keep pulling more global usage toward Chinese models, or whether US and other providers will regain share.

Source: Financial Times