“Today, the token economy is emerging”: AI usage in China is growing 1,000-fold, with usage exceeding 140 trillion tokens per day

A report claims that Chinese AI consumption now exceeds 100 trillion tokens per day, up from 100 billion in just two years.
Business customers increasingly pay per use and not per seat
General consumers will likely keep their fixed monthly price

AI token consumption in China has increased “more than 1,000 times” in about two years, with data from the National Bureau of Statistics claiming that daily token consumption increased from 100 billion at the start of 2024 to 100 trillion by the end of 2025.

As of March 2026, China is consuming approximately 140 trillion tokens per day, which SCMP that’s 100,000 tokens per person per day if every Chinese citizen, including children, retirees and non-workers, used AI.

“Today, the token economy is emerging,” Yin Hao of the Chinese Academy of Sciences said at a recent conference in Beijing. South China Morning Post reported.

AI consumption-based pricing could replace per-seat pricing

As users consume more tokens than ever, AI providers are now under pressure to cover the growing costs. Industry experts like Hao now believe that token-based pricing could soon replace traditional subscription models.

This could result in subscribers paying fees based on how much AI they actually use, rather than paying a flat monthly fee per user.

AI providers around the world are also increasingly recognizing the growing consumption of tokens and adapting their pricing strategies accordingly, including OpenAI and Anthropic. Others, like Zendesk, charge per significant outcome rather than per seat or per token.

However, for now, these price changes mainly affect enterprise clients who consume huge amounts of tokens. General consumers logging into their favorite chatbot, like ChatGPT or Gemini, are unlikely to be affected as computing becomes cheaper.

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