OpenRouter's data reveals a clear divide in the AI market, where open-source models, despite being significantly cheaper, have maintained only 22-25% market share over the past year. A brief spike to 35% occurred in mid-2025 due to the rise of Chinese models, but demand for proprietary providers remains strong. These companies retain pricing power, especially for mission-critical applications, while open-source models attract cost-sensitive users. The landscape for open-source models is shifting as well. DeepSeek's share dropped from nearly 80% to 40% in early 2025, as competitors like Qwen and other Chinese models gained traction. Programming has emerged as a key use case, with Anthropic and xAI reporting 60% and 45% of their usage in this area, respectively. Roleplay is also growing rapidly, with DeepSeek capturing 80% of its volume in this segment, driven by consumer price sensitivity. Retention rates reveal a stark reality; most models experience a churn of 60-70% within the first month. However, those that find product-market fit, like Claude 4 Sonnet and Gemini 2.5 Flash, achieve better retention rates of 40-50% in the first month. In contrast, models like GPT-4o Mini and DeepSeek R1 struggle, retaining only 25-35% of users. Ultimately, enterprises are willing to pay for precision, while consumers remain hesitant to spend on entertainment, leaving proprietary providers unchallenged on price in their segment.