Open-weight models are winning.
Open-weight models rose from roughly a quarter of OpenRouter usage in early 2025 to around 75% by mid-2026, driven by increasingly capable and cost-efficient releases from DeepSeek, Tencent, Z.ai and others. Closed labs responded aggressively, most notably with GPT-5.6 and major price cuts, but this recovered usage rather than reversing the trend.
Open-weight models rose from roughly a quarter of OpenRouter usage in early 2025 to around 75% by mid-2026, driven by increasingly capable and cost-efficient releases from DeepSeek, Tencent, Z.ai and others. Closed labs responded aggressively, most notably with GPT-5.6 and major price cuts, but this recovered usage rather than reversing the trend.
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