Open-weight models now handle a majority of tokens on Vercel’s AI Gateway. But Anthropic still takes 64% of the spend.

7.8 relevance

Data-driven insight on open-weight vs proprietary model usage and spend, highly relevant to production AI choices.

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Why It Matters

For a solutions architect managing AI workloads, this data reveals a clear divergence between token volume and actual spend, informing model selection and cost optimization strategies across cloud infrastructure.

Key Takeaways

Prioritize open-weight models for high-volume, cost-sensitive inference while budgeting for proprietary models like Anthropic where spend concentration remains dominant.

Open-weight models now handle a majority of tokens on Vercel’s AI Gateway. But Anthropic still takes 64% of the spend.

Summary

Open-weight models now handle 56% of tokens on Vercel's AI Gateway, up from 7% in December 2025, driven by cheaper providers like DeepSeek, Moonshot AI, and Z.ai. Despite this volume, Anthropic's models still command 64% of spending, with its share never falling below 61% since December 2025. The average price per token dropped 23.2% in August, reflecting the cost advantage of open-weight models, though enterprise adoption remains early according to Vercel CEO Guillermo Rauch.

Author

Paul Sawers