Research: the market for access to foreign AI models reached 150 million rubles per month. The turnover of unofficial services that sell Russian businesses access to foreign AI models through Chinese proxies will increase to 100-150 million per month by August 2026, analysts estimate. At the end of 2025 there were almost no such sellers, but today there are about 50 of them. For comparison, legal aggregators manage about 700 million a month, and in January-August their turnover quadruples, to 5-6 billion. The main advantage of gray services is the price: in some cases, access costs up to 70% less than the official API. But alongside the discount, the business also accepts risks - from replacing the declared model with a cheaper one to leaking correspondence and customer data. In addition, the price difference increases the VAT by 22%, which for some small businesses becomes a direct expense. If the current dynamics continue, by the end of the year the gray market may grow to 200-300 million per month.

Research: the market for access to foreign AI models reached 150 million rubles per month. The turnover of unofficial services that sell Russian businesses access to foreign AI models through Chinese proxies will increase to 100-150 million per month by August 2026, analysts estimate. At the end of 2025 there were almost no such sellers, but today there are about 50 of them. For comparison, legal aggregators manage about 700 million a month, and in January-August their turnover quadruples, to 5-6 billion. The main advantage of gray services is the price: in some cases, access costs up to 70% less than the official API. But alongside the discount, the business also accepts risks - from replacing the declared model with a cheaper one to leaking correspondence and customer data. In addition, the price difference increases the VAT by 22%, which for some small businesses becomes a direct expense. If the current dynamics continue, by the end of the year the gray market may grow to 200-300 million per month.