Anthropic token use on OpenRouter jumps about 3.5x as cheaper models land

Developers have found a new favorite way to spend their compute budgets. According to OpenRouter data, Anthropic’s average daily token use rose about 3.5 times between September 22 and October 24. The more telling detail is that spending rose too. Cheaper models often inflate usage numbers without much real money changing hands, and that does not appear to be the full story here. What the OpenRouter numbers show OpenRouter’s figures put the increase in Anthropic’s average daily token use at about 3.5x over the September 22 to October 24 window. A separate cut of the data, shared by Peter Walker, Head of Insights at OpenRouter, shows the 7-day average Anthropic token volume on the platform up 3.6x since the launch of Claude Opus 5.5 on September 22, 2026. The two figures measure slightly different things. One tracks average daily use across a fixed window, while the other is a rolling weekly average pegged to the Opus launch. Both point in the same direction, and that direction is steeply up. The model lineup behind the surge Anthropic did not ship one model and wait. It released three in quick succession. Opus 5.5 arrived first on September 22, 2026. Sonnet 5.5 followed on Septembe...