❯ OpenAI overtakes Anthropic in weekly OpenRouter spending, a first in two and a half years

Platform billsModel aggregation platform OpenRouter said users spent more on OpenAI models than on Anthropic models in the week of September 7, the first such occurrence since the week of February 26, 2024. The figures cover model purchases through that platform, not all direct sales and subscription revenue at the two companies.

Comparison scopeThe official chart compares spending on the two providers and their relative shares of that combined spending, rather than shares of the entire model market. Spending also depends on prices, input and output length, caching and the mix of models used. Higher spending alone cannot establish a higher number of calls or a better task success rate.

Developer choicesThe crossover offers a window into changes in developer purchasing, but is insufficient to conclude that Anthropic’s overall business is losing momentum. Application teams can compare cost per completed task, latency and reliability against their own workloads. Several weeks of paid retention would also be more informative about durable demand than a single week’s bills.

▪ SIGNALOpenAI captured more spending in this distribution channel; assessments of competition still need to distinguish platform consumption, total vendor revenue and task performance.