Chinese AI models have achieved a commanding lead in global adoption, securing eight of the top ten positions on OpenRouter's weekly token usage leaderboard for the period ending August 5, 2026. The rankings, which aggregate real paid usage data from tens of thousands of independent developers worldwide, reflect a significant shift in developer preferences toward Chinese AI offerings.
DeepSeek V4 Flash 0423 topped the chart with 6.92 trillion tokens in weekly usage, followed by Xiaomi's MiMo-V2.5 and Tencent's Hy3 in second and third place respectively. DeepSeek placed three models within the top ten, while Zhipu's GLM 5.2, MiniMax's M3, and Jieyue's Step 3.7 Flash also secured positions. Only two U.S. models, OpenAI's GPT-5.6 Luna and NVIDIA's Nemotron 3 Ultra, made the list.
Chinese models have now surpassed U.S. models in weekly call volume for 14 consecutive weeks. Over a 28-day period, Chinese AI models captured approximately 63.5% of the global market share compared to 35.5% for U.S. models. The OpenRouter platform aggregates token usage from developers who pay per call rather than deploying models locally, serving as a barometer of real-world market adoption.
The dominance is attributed to competitive pricing, stable agent performance, and rapid iteration. Tencent's Hy3, for instance, which was open-sourced on July 6, posted a staggering 999% month-over-month growth in its debut week.