# DeepSeek enters the fight for token volume, Anthropic continues to dominate spend

DevFeed: [DeepSeek enters the fight for token volume, Anthropic continues to dominate spend](<https://devfeed.tech/articles/deepseek-enters-the-fight-for-token-volume-anthropic-continues-to-dominate-spend-725.md>)

Original publisher: [Read original article](<https://vercel.com/blog/ai-gateway-production-index-june-2026>)

Author: Eric Dodds

Published: 2026-06-08T04:00:00Z

Content type: article

Language: en

Sources: [Vercel News](<https://devfeed.tech/sources/vercel-news.md>)

Topics: [deepseek](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/deepseek.md>), [anthropic](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/anthropic.md>), [Claude](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/claude.md>), [data](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/data.md>), [Routing (disambiguation)](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/routing.md>), [OpenAI](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/openai.md>)

Tags: [ai-gateway](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/ai-gateway.md>), [amazon](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/amazon.md>), [anthropic](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/anthropic.md>), [benchmarks](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/benchmarks.md>), [claude-code](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/claude-code.md>), [cost](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/cost.md>), [deepseek](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/deepseek.md>), [models](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/models.md>), [openai](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/openai.md>), [production](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/production.md>), [routing](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/routing.md>), [tech-news](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/tech-news.md>), [tokens](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/tokens.md>)

## AI overview

The June 2026 AI Gateway Production Index reports that production token usage grew 20% month over month and spending grew 43%. DeepSeek's token share rose from below 1% to 17% after the launch of DeepSeek V4, while Anthropic's share of spending increased from 61% to 65%. The article highlights the growing use of lower-cost models in production and smarter routing across model tiers to improve spending efficiency.

## Source excerpt

AI Gateway Production Index -- June 2026 Every month, AI Gateway routes tens of trillions of tokens between production applications and AI labs, giving us visibility into what AI usage actually looks like, separate from leaderboards and benchmarks. We publish the data monthly in the AI Gateway production index. June 2026 summary The July index reports on AI Gateway data collected in May 2026. Total AI Gateway tokens grew +20% MoM; total spend grew +43% MoM. Customers paid almost 20% more per token on average than in April. DeepSeek's share of tokens jumped from under 1% to 17% in a single month, while its share of spend stayed near 1%. Anthropic's share of spend grew from 61% to 65% in May, holding 70-80% of spend across every high-stakes use case (AI app generation, back office agents, and coding agents). Cost-consciousness meant smarter routing between low-cost and frontier models. Customers got more deliberate about which model did which work, while overall usage kept climbing. Last month, headlines about blown token budgets dominated tech news: Uber burned through its annual Claude Code budget shortly after Q1 and Amazon shut down KiroRank to curb unproductive tokenmaxxing. While runaway cost is a real problem, this month's report shows that spend on production use cases still increased. Two insights emerged from AI Gateway data in May: Low-cost models entered production: New models shipped at price points that made the established labs look even more expensive, and they are capable enough to enter the mix in production. Spend is increasing, but with smarter model mixes: Teams are still increasing token budgets, but they are implementing smarter routing strategies to get more value out of every dollar. Low-cost models saw significant production volume for the first time From February to April, volume distribution across labs on AI Gateway changed slowly, but in May, DeepSeek V4's launch completely shifted token share. The low-cost end of the market that barely ex