Survey Finds Open Models Lead Use but Trail Closed Models in Production

Open models reached more developers than closed models in a May 2026 survey, but closed models were more likely to be in production, highlighting a gap between adoption and deployment. The survey covered 1,494 developers adding AI features. Overall, 79% used open models and 71% used closed models; 50% used both. Among users of each type, 51% of open-model users reported production use, compared with 63% of closed-model users. Download and token-traffic measures point to different leaders and capture separate parts of adoption. The figures should not be treated as interchangeable measures of market share.