Chinese firms turn AI tokens into consumer rewards

Chinese companies are making AI tokens part of everyday consumer products, treating compute access more like credit-card rewards or mobile data. Moonshot AI has struck Kimi-token deals with Agricultural Bank of China and American Express, while China Telecom, China Mobile and China Unicom are selling token plans starting at 9.9 yuan (~$1.40) for 10M tokens.

Daily token consumption in China reached 500 trillion by mid-2026, up from 100B in early 2024. Chinese models are priced 60-90% below OpenAI and Anthropic, helping make tokens easier to package into mainstream services and promotions.

The model is spreading beyond banks and telecoms. Beijing restaurant Jingu Yuan gives customers 10-yuan compute credits per meal, and lenders in Guangzhou are testing token loans that assess startups based on their token production and consumption.