Darkbloom, which allowed Mac users to rent out their GPUs for AI inference, warns of low payouts

Darkbloom, a software platform enabling Mac users to rent out their GPU processing power for AI inference tasks, has issued a warning about the potential for low payouts due to declining token prices. Eigen Labs, based in Seattle, developed Darkbloom, which has attracted around 800 participants who have been earning a few cents to a few dollars per day by running AI model prompts through OpenRouter.

An M5 Pro-equipped Mac mini could theoretically generate $192 per month, assuming full utilization of a popular model like Qwen3.6 35B A3B. However, not all network members are fully committed; the median daily earnings of the top 50 participants are around $5.26, or $159.86 per month. Darkbloom's Kydo acknowledged that earnings have been low and that the company does not expect a quick recovery.

Factors such as cheaper data centers, increased output per NVIDIA cluster, and reduced token prices have collectively impacted the inference market. OpenRouter is also shifting its focus from price-based routing to decode speed, quantization, and prefill speed. Darkbloom plans to adapt by analyzing model demand, exploring other compute work like distributed CI/CD jobs, and focusing on high-end Mac clusters with RDMA over Thunderbolt. The company remains committed to its mission despite the challenges.