This follow‑up article explores the rise of “token brokers,” individuals who buy unused LLM credits from startups and resell them. I first learned of them when a friend received steep discounts on Anthropic tokens, and I soon heard similar offers from other founders. The market, long informal, is now being commercialized.

To investigate, I collected broker emails from contacts. The first two bounced, but the third connected me to a seller offering $100k in spend per day. Rather than handing out provider keys, the broker likely proxies a pool of keys and forwards requests, creating a large supply pipeline.

Several websites now promote credit brokering. AI Credits bills itself as a marketplace, while AICredit Mart offers credits across major providers. Bulk‑pricing sites like Cheap Credits, Tokvana, and Neokens promise discounts of 40–50% off list prices, though a 40% cut is rare unless a top customer. These platforms often provide GDPR‑compliant data agreements.

The overall market likely runs into tens of millions of credits. Tokens have become a pseudo‑currency, and the liquidity fuels abuse. As companies tighten cost controls, crackdowns on this resale model appear inevitable.