AI is becoming AI's biggest customer as agentic token usage jumps 14x on OpenRouter
OpenRouter reports AI agents now consume more tokens than humans, with agentic usage surging 14x since February 6, 2025. However, nearly 70% of this volume relies on cached prompts, moderating actual cost increases.
OpenRouter, a gateway for large language models, indicates a shift in demand where automated agents now generate more token traffic than human users. This milestone was reached in early February 2025.
Since that date, agentic token consumption has expanded fourteenfold. In comparison, human-driven usage on the platform has increased by a more modest 2.8 times during the same period.
Despite the volume surge, cost implications are nuanced. Approximately 70 percent of agent token consumption utilizes cached prompts, which are significantly cheaper than standard inference requests.
This trend highlights the growing prevalence of AI systems interacting with other AI systems. It suggests infrastructure providers must prepare for high-volume, potentially lower-margin automated traffic alongside traditional human queries.
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