Open-weight models take 56% of token volume, Astra doubles Fable 5.1 spend

Vercel's AI Gateway data for August 2026 shows open-weight models processed 56% of all tokens, the first majority for that category.

The average token price fell 23.2% in August, the third consecutive monthly drop.

Anthropic's Fable 5 lost two-thirds of its spend share to Opus 5, which costs roughly half the price.

OpenAI's Astra, launched September 3, captured a third of OpenAI's spend within two days and 7.7% of all gateway spend in its first twelve days.