Chinese AI models sweep top spots on global usage charts

DeepSeek's latest lightweight model has surged to the top of global AI usage charts, cementing a wave of low-cost Chinese competitors that is forcing American AI leaders to slash prices and rethink how they do business.

Chinese Models Dominate Usage Charts

DeepSeek V4 Flash topped OpenRouter's weekly model-usage ranking for the week ending Sunday with 9.39 trillion tokens, according to China's state-affiliated Global Times. Chinese AI models swept the top four positions on the platform — with Tencent's Hy3 close behind at 8.94 trillion tokens, followed by another DeepSeek variant and Xiaomi's MiMo-V2.5. Chinese models collectively recorded 34.25 trillion tokens in usage over the week, roughly four times the 9.17 trillion generated by U.S. models.globaltimes

The model's appeal lies in its rock-bottom costs. DeepSeek V4 Flash is priced at $0.14 per million input tokens and $0.28 per million output tokens, and a full test suite can be run for roughly $72 — 33 times cheaper than Moonshot AI's Kimi K3, according to a review by Geeky Gadgets.geeky-gadgets+2

U.S. Giants Feel the Squeeze

The pressure is reshaping pricing across the industry. OpenAI slashed fees by 80 percent for its latest lightweight model Luna, while Anthropic released a model approaching its flagship Fable 5's performance at half the price, AFP reported. Elon Musk's xAI has also cut prices on some Grok models, and Meta Platforms ↘ 3.38% released a low-cost option called Muse Spark 1.2.enterpriseai.economictimes.indiatimes

Average inference costs for businesses fell to a 2026 low of roughly $1.16 to $1.18 per million tokens from August 6 to 8, down from $2.04 in late May, according to Jefferies citing Silicon Data. Both OpenAI and Anthropic are preparing to go public, adding urgency to demonstrate profitability. "I hesitate to say it's a price war because we're not quite there yet. But it's certainly a price competition," technology analyst Jack Gold told AFP.scmp+1

Echoes of the DeepSeek Shock

The dynamic recalls the jolt that hit markets in July, when the release of Moonshot AI's Kimi K3 helped push the PHLX Semiconductor Index ↗ 2.49% into bear-market territory, falling 20 percent from its June record, as reported by The Wall Street Journal and Reuters. Nvidia ↗ 3.03% and Broadcom ↘ 0.01% were among the hardest hit.reuters+1

Paradoxically, DeepSeek itself announced last week that it plans a "significant increase" in its own API prices as demand surges, the South China Morning Post reported. The move underscores the tension at the heart of the market: open-source Chinese models have made cutting-edge AI cheap enough to reshape the industry, but sustaining those prices may prove as difficult as competing against them.scmp

"The cheaper AI is, the better," said Max Liu of LobeHub, a Chinese agent platform.enterpriseai.economictimes.indiatimes