100T Tokens: Half of Global AI Power Spent on NSFW Chats
100T tokens reveal AI’s real use: 50 % of open-source compute fuels NSFW role-play, Chinese models leap 1→30 %, price-blind elites drive retention.
“AI Disruption” Publication 8400 Subscriptions 20% Discount Offer Link.
This is a report jointly published by global model aggregation platform OpenRouter and top Silicon Valley VC firm a16z, based on 100 trillion real API calls worldwide, covering 300+ AI models, 60+ providers, and over 50% non-US users.
From this, we can see how humans are really using AI—especially those conversations that won’t appear in official case studies or be written into white papers.
I’ve discovered three of the most counterintuitive conclusions:
Humanity’s real urgent need isn’t productivity—it’s “hormones” and “role-playing.” Over 50% of open-source model computing power is used for character roleplay, virtual companions, and NSFW content. Coding? That only comes second.
Premium users don’t look at price tags at all, while models that are cheap to the point of being almost free die off faster instead. Models that capture user pain points early on find it easier to lock in users.
Chinese models broke through the defense line in just one year. From 1.2% to 30%, domestic models represented by DeepSeek and Qwen have leaped to become open-source kings.
It’s crucial to note: this report inevitably carries “bias.”
OpenRouter’s users are primarily individual developers, small-to-medium enterprises, and open-source enthusiasts—not Fortune 500 companies. Those major corporate AI budgets burning millions of dollars monthly on Azure and AWS aren’t included in this data. Therefore: