AI Inference Network Darkbloom Warns: Anthropic Token Prices Drop 77%, Cutting Mac Renter Earnings to $1.23 a Day
Decentralized AI compute network Darkbloom reports that a 77% drop in Anthropic token prices over five months has slashed median daily earnings for its Mac node operators to about $1.23.
Darkbloom, a decentralized AI inference network that aggregates and sells spare compute capacity from idle Macs, has warned its members to expect falling revenues. According to Tom's Hardware, the price per million tokens for Anthropic dropped by 77% in under five months, falling from $2.65 in May to $0.62 in October 2026, severely compressing margins for Mac-based node operators.
Kydo, a researcher at Eigen Labs, the developer of the compute platform, noted that data centers have become cheaper, with output per NVIDIA cluster up roughly 20 times this year. The market has caught up to Darkbloom's pricing floor; further cuts would leave most operators earning nothing.
For an M5 Pro Mac Mini with 64GB of Unified Memory, the best-case monthly earning was estimated at $192. However, the median earnings of the top 50 operators on Darkbloom’s leaderboard were about $159.86 per month ($5.26 daily). Accounting for the 77% drop in Anthropic token prices, these expected earnings plummet to $36.77 per month, or approximately $1.23 per day. Additionally, OpenRouter, Darkbloom’s primary client, has started prioritizing decode speed and quantization, putting users without top-tier Max or Ultra Apple chips at a disadvantage.