Chinese models hit 30% of US OpenRouter use
Chinese AI models have held above 30% of US OpenRouter token share since February, peaking at 46%. Prices run 60-90% below US frontier models.
CNBC reported July 7 on OpenRouter data showing Chinese AI models have held above 30% of US company token volume since February 8, 2026, peaking at 46% and hitting 61% during one week in late February among the top 10 models on the platform. The prior 12-month average was around 11%. The models driving the surge are DeepSeek V3.2, Moonshot AI’s Kimi K2.5, Zhipu AI’s GLM-5 and GLM-5.2, and MiniMax M2.5, each running 60 to 90% cheaper per token than equivalent OpenAI or Anthropic offerings. AI startup Lindy moved 100% of its traffic from Claude to DeepSeek and reported it would save the company millions. The AI vendor lock-in guide covers what to check before committing routing decisions to any single provider.