{"slug": "vercel-ai-gateway-shows-open-models-dominating-token-volume-over-closed-ones", "title": "Vercel AI Gateway shows open models dominating token volume over closed ones", "summary": "Open-weight models reached 56% of all token volume on Vercel's AI Gateway as of August 2026, up from 11% in April, according to Vercel AI Gateway data, marking the first time open models have overtaken closed models on that metric. Anthropic's closed Claude models still captured 61-65% of total gateway spend while processing about 30% of tokens, with premiums up to 4.4 times the average token price, and average price per token fell 23.2% in August alone, the third consecutive monthly decline. DeepSeek frequently ranked first or second in volume contribution with roughly 25% or more of total token share, while Google sat at around 11%.", "body_md": "FoxTPNL / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 4.0)\n\n# Vercel AI Gateway shows open models dominating token volume over closed ones\n\nOpen-weight models surged from 11% to 56% of token volume in just four months, but closed models still capture the lion's share of revenue\n\nThe AI model landscape just hit a tipping point. Open-weight models now account for 56% of all token volume flowing through Vercel’s AI Gateway as of August 2026, up from a mere 11% in April. That’s a fivefold jump in four months, and it marks the first time open models have overtaken their closed counterparts on this metric.\n\nOn a single day, August 22, the share spiked to roughly 62%. More recent leaderboard data has shown it touching 78.4%.\n\n## The volume-revenue paradox\n\nBefore anyone declares total victory for the open-source crowd, there’s a wrinkle worth examining. Anthropic, maker of the Claude family of closed models, still commands 61-65% of total gateway spend despite representing only about 30% of tokens processed. Its models carry premiums of up to 4.4 times the average token price.\n\nThat’s the “barbell” pattern emerging across enterprise AI usage. On one end: massive volumes of cheap inference running through open-weight models from labs like DeepSeek, Z.ai, and Moonshot. On the other: premium, high-stakes workloads where companies pay a significant markup for Anthropic’s quality guarantees.\n\n### The news moving money, markets, and the world—before your day starts.\n\nDaily. Free. Join 34,000+ readers across crypto, finance, and policy.\n\nDeepSeek has become particularly prominent in this shift, frequently ranking first or second in volume contribution with roughly 25% or more of total token share. [Google](https://cryptobriefing.com/markets/alphabet/), by comparison, sits at around 11%.\n\n## A race to the bottom on price\n\nThe economics driving this shift are stark. Average price per token fell 23.2% in August alone, the third consecutive monthly decline. Over the past five months, prices have dropped more than 50%.\n\nOpen-weight models are running high-volume workloads at approximately one-seventh the cost of frontier closed models.\n\n**Disclosure:** This article was edited by Editorial Team. For more information on how we create and review content, see our\n\n[Editorial Policy](https://cryptobriefing.com/editorial-policy/).", "url": "https://wpnews.pro/news/vercel-ai-gateway-shows-open-models-dominating-token-volume-over-closed-ones", "canonical_source": "https://cryptobriefing.com/vercel-ai-gateway-open-models-dominate-token-volume/", "published_at": "2026-09-19 22:09:46+00:00", "updated_at": "2026-09-19 22:24:40.952078+00:00", "lang": "en", "topics": ["ai-infrastructure", "large-language-models", "artificial-intelligence", "ai-products"], "entities": ["Vercel", "Vercel AI Gateway", "Anthropic", "Claude", "DeepSeek", "Z.ai", "Moonshot", "Google"], "alternates": {"html": "https://wpnews.pro/news/vercel-ai-gateway-shows-open-models-dominating-token-volume-over-closed-ones", "markdown": "https://wpnews.pro/news/vercel-ai-gateway-shows-open-models-dominating-token-volume-over-closed-ones.md", "text": "https://wpnews.pro/news/vercel-ai-gateway-shows-open-models-dominating-token-volume-over-closed-ones.txt", "jsonld": "https://wpnews.pro/news/vercel-ai-gateway-shows-open-models-dominating-token-volume-over-closed-ones.jsonld"}}