Power users are driving consumer AI market growth.

The top 1% of US consumer AI payers average $903 a month, while flat plans hold the median at $25.

One top-1% payer spends as much as roughly 59 bottom-half payers, on average.

Median spend has barely moved, while average spend in the top 1% climbed from $504 to $903 a month between January 2025 and August 2026.

Model labs are better placed than apps built on their models to capture consumer AI's top 1% of spenders. Those users average $903 a month, up from $504, and most of it buys model usage. A lab pays only its serving cost for that usage, while an app pays API prices.

Anthropic earlier said one $200 Max subscriber ran up tens of thousands of dollars in usage, a bill no API-paying app could absorb. Apps that want this tier have to own more of the model, as Cursor began doing with its Composer coding model.