Hi! Your question relayes to the several ways for relay operators are incentivized to operate in 2026 that I understand.
On one hand, efficiently routing and utilizing each Claude 5x or 20x sub means gaining access to around $4000 worth of tokens with just $200 a month of subscription. OpenAI subsidizes it even more aggressively, reaching more than $5000. However, the cost of being banned is also high (partially due to surveillance built into Claude Code which flags the most popular third party relays). Some relay operators may open-source parts of their routing code on Github (on top of using open source relay builders like NewAPI) to serve enterprises that have privacy requirements. Many have even implemented OpenRouter-esque data protection and personal information redaction features for orgs to choose to implement for their employees.
But on the other hand, many programmers may not want to put money into services that might get shut down at any time; this is where “公益站” (free relays) come into play. These are typically advertised in tech forums, and are primarily focused on collecting out-of-distribution data to be distilled into models. That’s what I mean by a “gentleman’s handshake data collection method between relay operators”—the user implicitly understand that their data is being used for distillation purposes, and understands the risk well enough to justify using it in certain contexts.
Hi! Your question relayes to the several ways for relay operators are incentivized to operate in 2026 that I understand.
On one hand, efficiently routing and utilizing each Claude 5x or 20x sub means gaining access to around $4000 worth of tokens with just $200 a month of subscription. OpenAI subsidizes it even more aggressively, reaching more than $5000. However, the cost of being banned is also high (partially due to surveillance built into Claude Code which flags the most popular third party relays). Some relay operators may open-source parts of their routing code on Github (on top of using open source relay builders like NewAPI) to serve enterprises that have privacy requirements. Many have even implemented OpenRouter-esque data protection and personal information redaction features for orgs to choose to implement for their employees.
But on the other hand, many programmers may not want to put money into services that might get shut down at any time; this is where “公益站” (free relays) come into play. These are typically advertised in tech forums, and are primarily focused on collecting out-of-distribution data to be distilled into models. That’s what I mean by a “gentleman’s handshake data collection method between relay operators”—the user implicitly understand that their data is being used for distillation purposes, and understands the risk well enough to justify using it in certain contexts.