OpenRouter: 70 models in July
OpenRouter launched 70 new models in July 2025, roughly one model every 10 hours, reflecting the explosive pace of AI model development.
Snapshot · The Twenty Minute VC (20VC): Venture Capital | Startup Funding | The Pitch
20VC: Will OpenRouter Sell for $10BN to Stripe? | Why Chinese Open Models Are Beating America—and What Happens Next | Why Enterprises Are More Fearful of Anthropic and OpenAI Than China | Is the Routing Layer Becoming a Commodity with Alex Atallah
Explore episode
Aug 10, 2026
Where this was said
Do Falling Token Prices Help or Hurt OpenRouter?
At 25:50 · chapter starts 19:12
The Jevons paradox — the counterintuitive idea that cheaper resources drive more consumption — has been theorised about extensively in AI circles but rarely demonstrated with clean data. Alex delivers that data: OpenAI cut GPT-5.6 Luna's price by 10x on OpenRouter, and within two weeks usage grew 13x. [1] — Alex Atallah "OpenAI cut GPT-5.6 Luna's price 10x on OpenRouter. Usage exploded 13x. This is the Jevons paradox playing out in live data, and it's the mo…" 19:31 The growth then stabilised at that 13x multiple and continued growing at the same underlying rate as before. Alex notes that Luna is now in the top 3–5 models by token volume on OpenRouter — the first time an OpenAI model has cracked that ranking in a very long time. He also acknowledges the methodological challenge: OpenRouter captures roughly 1.5–2% of total token volume and has a selection bias toward companies that believe in the multimodel thesis. That said, as the platform scales, its data becomes increasingly representative of broader market behaviour.
Token price fell ~90% in 18 months
Token prices have fallen approximately 90% over the last 18 months, raising questions about whether lower prices help or hurt OpenRouter's revenue model.
Luna usage grew 13x after 10x price cut
After OpenAI cut GPT-5.6 Luna's price 10x on OpenRouter, usage grew 13x — a near-perfect real-world Jevons paradox demonstration.
Jevons Paradox in Real Time: Luna's 13x Usage Surge
OpenAI cut GPT-5.6 Luna's price 10x on OpenRouter. Usage exploded 13x. This is the Jevons paradox playing out in live data, and it's the most bullish possible signal for the entire inference economy.
Luna now top 3–5 by token volume on OpenRouter
GPT-5.6 Luna is now in the top 3–5 models by token volume on OpenRouter, the first time an OpenAI model has reached that ranking in a very long time.
OpenRouter Launched 70 Models in One Month
In July alone, OpenRouter added 70 models — one every 10 hours. And that's before agent labs like Cognition, Cursor, and Jeff Dean's new venture have even started releasing their own models in earnest.
Similar snapshots
50 free tools built total
Bhanu and his team built approximately 50 free tools to attract search traffic, each linked back to SiteGPT.
New tool built in under 5 minutes
With AI coding tools like Cursor, Bhanu can now create a new free marketing tool in less than 5 minutes by referencing existing tools.
KD filter < 10 for rankable keywords
Bhanu filters Ahrefs keyword results to show only those with a keyword difficulty below 10, making them realistic ranking targets for any decent website.
Minimum 1,000 monthly search volume
Bhanu sets a minimum search volume of 1,000 monthly searches when selecting keywords to target with free tools.
20 downloads/day at launch
PropGPT averaged 20 downloads per day right after launching on the App Store through influencer marketing.
4 months of rebuilding with no marketing
Eyal and Yali shut down all marketing and spent 4 months completely rebuilding PropGPT from scratch.
Over 40,000 downloads total
PropGPT has accumulated over 40,000 total downloads since launch.
LLM costs only $20/month
PropGPT's large language model (AI) operating costs are just $20 per month, and the cost is continually falling.
Ad monetization for games
Ad-based monetization works well for game apps where users spend extended time in-session, as seen with Grid and Wordle.
