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State of AI: An Empirical 100T Token Study with OpenRouter

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Re: State of AI: An Empirical 100T Token Study with OpenRouter

#2
> The metric reflects the proportion of all tokens served by reasoning models, not the share of "reasoning tokens" within model outputs.

I'd be interested in a clarification on the reasoning vs non-reasoning metric.

Does this mean the reasoning total is (input + reasoning + output) tokens? Or is it just (input + output).

Obviously the reasoning tokens would add a ton to the overall count. So it would be interesting to see it on an apples to apples comparison with non reasoning models.

Re: State of AI: An Empirical 100T Token Study with OpenRouter

#4

> The metric reflects the proportion of all tokens served by reasoning models, not the share of "reasoning tokens" within model outputs. I'd be interested in a clarification on the reasoning vs non-reasoning metric. Does this mean the reasoning total is (input + reasoning + output) tokens? Or is it just (input + output). Obviously the reasoning tokens would add a ton to the overall count. So it would be interesting t…

I'm out of time but "reasoning input tokens" from fortune 5000 engineers sounds like a lobotomized LSD dream, would you care on elaborating how you distinguish between reasoning and non-reasoning? vs "question on duty"?

Re: State of AI: An Empirical 100T Token Study with OpenRouter

#5
post #4

> The metric reflects the proportion of all tokens served by reasoning models, not the share of "reasoning tokens" within model outputs. I'd be interested in a clarification on the reasoning vs non-reasoning metric. Does this mean the reasoning total is (input + reasoning + output) tokens? Or is it just (input + output). Obviously the reasoning tokens would add a ton to the overall count. So it would be interesting t…

I'm out of time but "reasoning input tokens" from fortune 5000 engineers sounds like a lobotomized LSD dream, would you care on elaborating how you distinguish between reasoning and non-reasoning? vs "question on duty"?

I believe they’re just classifying all models into “reasoning models” eg o3 vs “non reasoning models” eg 4o and just doing a comparison of total tokens (input tokens + hidden reasoning output tokens + shown output tokens)

Re: State of AI: An Empirical 100T Token Study with OpenRouter

#6
post #4

> The metric reflects the proportion of all tokens served by reasoning models, not the share of "reasoning tokens" within model outputs. I'd be interested in a clarification on the reasoning vs non-reasoning metric. Does this mean the reasoning total is (input + reasoning + output) tokens? Or is it just (input + output). Obviously the reasoning tokens would add a ton to the overall count. So it would be interesting t…

I'm out of time but "reasoning input tokens" from fortune 5000 engineers sounds like a lobotomized LSD dream, would you care on elaborating how you distinguish between reasoning and non-reasoning? vs "question on duty"?

"reasoning" models like GPT 5 et al do a pre-generation step where they:

- Take in the user query (input tokens)

- Break that into a game plan. Ex: "Based on user query: {query} generate a plan of action." (reasoning tokens)

- Answer (output tokens)

Because the reasoning step runs in a loop until it's run through it's action plan, it frequently uses way more tokens than the input/output step.

Re: State of AI: An Empirical 100T Token Study with OpenRouter

#7
post #5
post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm out of time but "reasoning input tokens" from fortune 5000 engineers sounds like a lobotomized LSD dream, would you care on elaborating how you distinguish between reasoning and non-reasoning? vs "question on duty"?

I believe they’re just classifying all models into “reasoning models” eg o3 vs “non reasoning models” eg 4o and just doing a comparison of total tokens (input tokens + hidden reasoning output tokens + shown output tokens)

that's exactly right!

Re: State of AI: An Empirical 100T Token Study with OpenRouter

#9
Super interesting data.

I do question this finding:

> the small model category as a whole is seeing its share of usage decline.

It's important to remember that this data is from OpenRouter... a API service. Small models are exactly those that can be self-hosted.

It could be the case that total small model usage has actually grown, but people are self-hosting rather than using an API. OpenRouter would not be in a position to determine this.

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