GPT-5.6 Price Cut Triggers Jevons Paradox: Token Consumption Jumps 10x

rohanpaul_ai · x · 2026-08-08

Data from OpenRouter shows that since the token price for GPT-5.6 Luna dropped by a factor of 10, its consumption has surged by more than 10x. This perfectly illustrates the Jevons paradox: increased efficiency in resource use leads to higher overall demand.

The author notes that the real AI demand shock has barely started. A Microsoft Research report indicates that only 17.8% of the global working-age population was using generative AI in Q1 2026. As the remaining 82% comes online, compute and token consumption will experience explosive growth.

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