WORLDTECHAI agents use 5x more tokens than humans as cached prompts explode, headed for 10x
AI illustrationWhat happened
AI agents (AI that carries out multi-step tasks rather than answering one question) use 5x more tokens than humans as cached prompts explode, headed for 10x, according to Tom's Hardware. Daniel Newman’s number comes from OpenRouter data, where agents passed humans in February and grew 14x by August. Futurum Group CEO Daniel Newman wrote in an X post that “AI is currently used by AI 5x more than it is used by humans. That number will accelerate to 10x and then higher and higher.”
His data, an Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) chart of OpenRouter figures, shows agents at 7.3 trillion tokens versus humans’ 1.4 trillion as of August, six months after agent usage first surpassed humans. But the agents are mostly rereading what they’ve already seen: more than 85% of agent tokens come from cached prompts, a16z wrote, citing OpenRouter.
AI is currently used by AI 5x more than it is used by humans. September 30, 2026 OpenRouter is “a leading AI model gateway and routing platform.”
Sources & evidence
- Tom's Hardware Reporting source
AI agents use 5x more tokens than humans as cached prompts explode, headed for 10x ↗
https://www.tomshardware.com/tech-industry/artificial-intelligence/futurum-ceo-says-agents-use-ai-5x-more-than-humans-number-will-eventually-hit-10x-but-agents-are-mostly-rereading-what-theyve-already-seen