In March 2026, China's daily Token (word token) call volume exceeded 140 trillion

Officially disclosed by Liu Liehong, Director of the National Data Administration, at the China Development Forum 2026 Annual Meeting on March 23, 2026.
Growth Trajectory:
Early 2024: 100 billion
End of 2025: 100 trillion
March 2026: 140 trillion
Two-year growth: Over 1,000x
End of 2025 to March 2026: Over 40% growth in just 3 months
Global Comparison
During the same period, China's weekly AI large model Token call volume surpassed the United States for three consecutive weeks, becoming one of the countries with the highest AI application activity globally. Data from OpenRouter, the world's largest AI model API aggregation platform, shows that from March 16 to 22, 2026:
Global total Token call volume: 20.4 trillion
China's share: 7.359 trillion, accounting for 36% of global volume
Policy Background
This explosive growth was driven by intensive policy support:
August 2025: The State Council issued the "Opinions on Deepening the Implementation of the 'AI+' Action"
January 2026: Eight ministries jointly issued the "Implementation Opinions on the 'AI+Manufacturing' Special Action", proposing to launch 1,000 high-level industrial AI agents by 2027
March 2026: The Government Work Report at the National Two Sessions first proposed "building a new form of intelligent economy"
Data Infrastructure
By the end of 2025, the country had built over 100,000 high-quality datasets with a total volume exceeding 890 PB (equivalent to 310 times the digital resource volume of the National Library of China). The National Data Administration is advancing six special actions: "Strong Foundation Expansion, Annotation Breakthrough, Quality Improvement, Application Empowerment, Management Services, and Value Release."
Industry Significance
Liu Liehong, Director of the National Data Administration, pointed out that the significant increase in daily Token call volume indicates:
China's AI development has entered a rapid growth phase
Application scenarios have deepened from "being able to chat" to "intelligent agents capable of decision-making and execution"
China's AI industry competitiveness has significantly strengthened, with "Token going global" becoming a marker of enhanced industrial competitiveness
The value of data elements is accelerating its release, and a virtuous cycle of "data supply—value release" has begun to emerge
Application Ecosystem Data (April 2026)
According to the "2026 China AI Application Panorama Report" by QbitAI Think Tank:
Web monthly visits: Exceeded 900 million
APP monthly downloads: Over 240 million
DAU year-on-year growth: 223%
AI productivity tools occupy over 70% of Web traffic share
AI creation APP DAU year-on-year growth: 449%
Commercialization Signals
Since late January 2026, some model companies have set records of 20-day revenue exceeding total annual revenue of 2025. As the "value anchor of the intelligent era" and "settlement unit", Token is accelerating the evolution of a new business logic around its calling, distribution, and settlement.