Headless Thrones
The wireIndependent of map date

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THE HEADLESS THRONES JOURNAL

What’s happening in AI.

All stories

MODELS IN OUR LATEST STORIES

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The latest model mentions in our original reporting. Documented specifications, with sources. Specs alone don’t establish which model is better for your task.

Specifications from each model’s catalog record; prices are per one million tokens, in US dollars.
The detailsGoogleGemini 2.5 Pro ↗Read the coverage ↗GoogleGemini 3.6 Flash ↗Read the coverage ↗GoogleGemini 3.8 Flash ↗Read the coverage ↗
Context windowNot documentedNot documentedNot documented
Maximum output65,536 tokensSource ↗65,536 tokensSource ↗65,536 tokensSource ↗
Input / 1M tokens, USD$1.25Source ↗Not documentedNot documented
Output / 1M tokens, USD$10Source ↗Not documentedNot documented
Inputstext · image · video · audio · pdfSource ↗text · image · video · audio · pdfSource ↗text · image · video · audio · pdfSource ↗
OutputstextSource ↗textSource ↗textSource ↗
LicenseNot documentedNot documentedNot documented
Release dateNot documentedNot documentedNot documented
AvailabilityAvailableSource ↗AvailableSource ↗AvailableSource ↗
Pricing conditionsStandard paid Gemini Developer API, USD per million tokens. At prompts up to 200,000 tokens: $1.25 input and $10 output, including thinking. Above 200,000: $2.50 input and $15 output. Caching, batch processing and tools have separate rates. Access is restricted to eligible previous users; these prices do not establish new-project access.See the model’s source documentation for provider, tier, caching and batch conditions.See the model’s source documentation for provider, tier, caching and batch conditions.
Record checked2026-10-232026-10-232026-10-23
A LIVING HISTORY OF AI

The world behind the headlines.

Cities keep their history. Recorded token activity moves their borders. Choose a kingdom to explore.

Explore the map ↓

Loading recorded source history…City districts preserve model history. Recorded OpenRouter text-token share shapes the surrounding territory.

The living worldLoading recorded history…
THE OPEN OCEANA world in the making
CONTINENT1.0×Scroll or pinch to explore
Permanent cities · token-share outer borders
Charting the continent…
Loading…Loading…
Loading…RECORDED DATES

Kingdom brief

Choose a kingdom. Add a model for a closer look.

Reading the record…

Recorded activity for the map’s selected date will appear here.

OpenRouter’s top-50 sample, not global usage. Missing reports aren’t zero.

Recent city events

Explore the dated events behind the places.

Loading the world’s history…

Recorded Source-backed facts Illustrated World effects Reconstructed Earlier development

AI can make mistakes. Verify important information with the linked sources before acting. This site provides information, not professional advice.

Operated by Maker Frontier · Michigan, United States · [email protected]

All kingdoms
THE MODEL ALMANAC

Every building has a story.

Loading real model identities and their recorded activity through the selected date. Missing daily top-50 rows are unknown, not zero.

Model & familyKingdom7-day observed tokensDays observedMeasurement
A FIELD GUIDE

How this world works.

Cities keep a permanent home. Recorded token share moves the outer borders. Explore model buildings and streets that retain their history.

How to read this world
◇ City districts & borders
Permanent city cores; surrounding land follows recorded token share
▥ Buildings & transport
Model floors follow token rules; completed services earn city eras
ϟ Outages & repair
Official incidents, illustrated effects
⌁ Unclaimed frontier
58% of the land outside city districts

Recorded activity. Illustrated life. Borders use a platform sample, not worldwide market share. Events link to sources. Building designs, people, vehicles and visual repairs are illustrations; earlier development is reconstructed. Population is not counted. Sampled mood and verified financial evidence appear only when available; missing evidence stays unknown.

…publisher identities
…real model identities
…unclaimed frontier
01

Cities stay; outer borders move

Each publisher has a permanent city district with room for its model history. Outside those districts, 42% of the land follows seven complete UTC days of recorded OpenRouter text-token shares; 58% remains frontier. Undisclosed activity stays in neutral territory. Missing rows mean unknown usage. City size and frontier are illustrated space, not counts of users or token demand.

02

Model activity earns floors

Model buildings use two consecutive complete Monday–Sunday UTC weeks. The lower weekly total sets the eligible height: below 1 billion tokens → 2 floors; 1 billion → 6; 10 billion → 12; 100 billion → 24; 1 trillion → 40; 10 trillion → 60. Every day must have an explicit source row. Missing rows hold new decisions; completed buildings stay.

Construction also needs roads, power, data and a clear footprint; high-rises need transit. At most two projects run at once, each for seven complete days. Tap a building for its evidence and exact reason. Earlier construction is reconstructed from the retained archive, not observed real-world construction. These rules measure a platform sample, not company wealth or model quality.

03

Services support each new era

Nine civic eras run from hearth camp to skyline city. Roads, water, power, data and transit are permanent projects with their own records. Verified financial evidence can unlock optional technology; it cannot grant land or extra floors. Official incidents affect mapped services, and repair scenes are separately labeled illustrations.

04

Explore a dated record

Move through the timeline, choose a kingdom or tap a place. When token data ends before the selected event date, the map holds the latest complete token window and labels its dates. The news feed has its own publication dates and stays independent of the map date.

A note from the cartographer

The continent and its street life are illustrations. Only recorded source activity determines token shares; no invented usage, sentiment, finances or population estimates fill gaps. More companies and model identities can appear as the source archive grows.
THE DATA BEHIND THE WORLD

A platform sample, clearly labeled.

Colored land City cores & token-share territoryNatural land Unclaimed frontierNeutral land Unattributed activityTap a tile for its history · Pinch or scroll to zoom
… unclaimed Loading land allocation…

What moves the borders

The map uses the OpenRouter daily token dataset, filtered to its text-model surface. Seven consecutive UTC days are added before calculating shares. Permanent city districts are reserved first; 42% of the remaining land follows those measured shares and 58% stays frontier. City cores are illustrated room for model history, not evidence of usage or users. The source strip shows the selected token window and the latest available archive date. If newer events are available before another complete token window, territory holds its last recorded values; no usage is estimated to fill the gap.

What “other” means

Each source day identifies its top 50 models and combines the rest into “other.” We keep that residual, undisclosed creators and mixed routing in neutral unattributed territory. Named publishers may have additional usage hidden there. Missing rows are unknown, not zero. The green frontier is reserved outside the permanent city districts and carries no token share.

What grows each city

HT-GROWTH-1 maps each exact model’s two complete UTC weeks to a fixed floor tier. Infrastructure and parcel reservations gate admission to a seven-day project. Network placement follows an explicit illustrative layout rule. Each building keeps its permanent identity, source evidence and dated project record. Historical development is a reconstruction using data retrieved later; it does not claim that the sources were available at each simulated construction date.

What the map does not measure

It is not the whole AI market, a count of users or US-only activity. Provider tokenizers differ. Buildings are illustrations. Sampled X mood and verified funding or annual/TTM revenue use separate evidence records; unavailable inputs remain unknown. Token allowances are not measured. Official OpenAI incidents are connected; their effects on buildings are illustrations. Small shares may be below a whole outer-territory tile; the permanent city remains.

Identities and history

Models belong to their publisher, not the company hosting inference. Explicit aliases combine Meta namespaces, Qwen/Alibaba, xAI, Mistral, Moonshot and Z.ai. Fine-tune publishers keep their own identities. Historical gaps remain gaps. The source’s text filter can omit retired aliases; this is the published text surface, not a complete reconstruction of every historical model.

Independent gateway views

These sources measure different platform samples and periods. They publish percentages, not absolute token counts, and do not change the OpenRouter map.

Select a source to inspect its recorded token shares.

Attribution & reuse

Source: OpenRouter (openrouter.ai/rankings). CC BY 4.0. The download contains the exact source timestamp, counts, model identifiers and method.

OpenRouter rankings ↗ · CC BY 4.0 ↗

Token history and news publishing are separate systems. A new headline does not by itself change borders, model usage or city conditions.