# AI agents consume five times more tokens than humans, study shows

> Futurum Group says AI agents used 7.3 trillion tokens in August, five times human usage, and most of it comes from cached prompts.

Oossa · 2026-10-03 · https://oossa.com/en/ai-agents-consume-five-times-more-tokens-than-humans-study-shows

Futurum Group CEO Daniel Newman posted on X that AI agents are now using five times more tokens than people. The numbers come from an Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) chart that tracks OpenRouter usage. As of August, agents have processed 7.3 trillion tokens while humans have used 1.4 trillion. Newman says the gap could grow to ten times or more.

## Why most of the traffic is recycled

a16z notes that over 85 % of the tokens used by agents are from cached prompts. That means the agents are largely re‑reading text they have already seen rather than generating new content. The cache helps speed up responses but also inflates the token count.

## The facts

- Agents processed 7.3 trillion tokens in August, according to OpenRouter data.
- Humans processed 1.4 trillion tokens in the same period.
- Agent token usage is five times higher than human usage.
- More than 85 % of agent tokens come from cached prompts.
- The CEO expects the ratio to rise to about ten times in the future.

## Why it matters

For everyday users, the surge in agent token usage shows that AI tools are being called on repeatedly for the same information, which can make them faster but also hides how much new content they actually create. It also suggests that costs tied to token counts may grow faster than user‑generated queries, affecting pricing for services that charge per token.

## Sources & references

1. [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) – Tom's Hardware, 2026-10-03

Last updated: 2026-10-03