en.Wedoany.com Reported - China's daily AI token consumption has surged over 1,000 times in two years, from 100 billion tokens in early 2024 to 100 trillion tokens by the end of 2025, reaching approximately 140 trillion tokens per day by March 2026.

Yin Hao of the Chinese Academy of Sciences confirmed at a conference in Beijing that the token economy has begun to emerge. Data from China's National Bureau of Statistics reveals the massive scale of the country's AI applications. The South China Morning Post (SCMP) illustrated that if every Chinese citizen used AI, each person would consume about 100,000 tokens daily.

The surge in token consumption is driving changes in the business models of AI service providers. Experts like Yin Hao believe that token-based pricing will replace traditional subscription models, with customers paying based on actual AI usage. Currently, this change mainly affects enterprise customers who consume large amounts of tokens, while ordinary consumers using chatbots like ChatGPT or Gemini are likely unaffected, as computing costs continue to decline and regular users will still adopt a fixed monthly fee model.

Global AI providers are beginning to adjust their pricing strategies. OpenAI and Anthropic have acknowledged the growth in token consumption and adjusted their pricing models. Zendesk, on the other hand, charges per meaningful outcome rather than per seat or token. In the United States, similar trends are emerging among major tech companies, with reports that Amazon employees are engaging in "token maximization" to meet company-set AI usage targets.

China has invested nearly $300 billion in building a national data center network. The country imposes strict restrictions on Western AI models, while U.S. companies are adopting China's AI platform DeepSeek, creating an interesting competitive landscape. Experts predict that AI coding costs will surpass developer salaries by 2028. Currently, AI development costs have already exceeded the combined costs of the Apollo program, the International Space Station (ISS), and the Manhattan Project. By 2027, AI servers are expected to consume more electricity than all traditional data centers.

The impact of the surge in AI token consumption is widespread. Companies relying on AI need to start considering token cost management strategies. Data shows that China's daily AI token consumption has reached approximately 140 trillion tokens, making China one of the world's largest AI markets, forming a unique ecosystem dominated by local enterprises.