Open-weight models win hearts, minds, and wallets
They handle 71.5% of Vercel gateway tokens and nearly a quarter of estimated spending
Open-weight AI models have surged in popularity, accounting for over 75% of token processing on Vercel's AI Gateway between June and September. Their share of spending has more than quadrupled from 5% in June to nearly 25% in September. AI Gateway, a service that connects customers to various AI providers, saw AI Gateway token volume from open-weight models surpass 70% for the first time in August.
Despite a significant drop in average token price, usage costs remained low, with open-weight models processing 1% of tokens but 0.15% of spending in September. US-based models from Anthropic and OpenAI still dominate, with Claude Opus 5.5 and GPT-6 Astra leading at 11.03% and 4.86% respectively. However, Chinese AI providers have gained traction, with DeepSeek V4.1 Flash ranking third at 4.19%.
The shift in popularity may prompt US businesses to reconsider reliance on Chinese models, especially as China considers adding AI-related items to its export control list.
Written by urgent.news from The Register's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
Also reported by 1 other outlet
- Open-weight models win hearts, minds, and wallets theregister.com
