24 August 2026
AI agents now use 14 times more tokens than humans
First reported
Exponential View ran this on .
- By February 2026, AI agents consumed tokens at rates 14 times higher than human users, according to token usage data.
- Human token consumption grew 2.8x over the same period, while agent usage grew far more steeply.
- Tokens are computational resources that models use to process and generate text; the shift means machines are consuming most available capacity.
How it was covered
Exponential ViewAzeem Azhar
Agent token usage grew to 14x human levels by February 2026, while human token consumption increased by only 2.8x over the same period. The shift indicates AI agents are becoming dominant consumers of computational resources.