Open-Weight Models Win Hearts, Minds, and Wallets
The Register, Saturday, October 17th, 2026
Vercel gateway data shows open-weight models handled 71.5% of tokens and nearly a quarter of spend in September.
Vercel reports that open-weight models processed most AI Gateway tokens from August, and their share of spending rose from one in twenty dollars in June to nearly one in four in September.
The average price per token was about 47% lower than in December 2025, and almost one in three teams changed their most-used provider in September.
Claude Opus 5.5 led spending, followed by GPT-6 Astra and DeepSeek V4.1 Flash.
The article notes that proposed Chinese export controls on AI items add uncertainty for U.S. businesses hosting or relying on Chinese models.