A Reddit report says an anonymous stealth model 'Space Bunny Alpha' has become OpenRouter's most-used model at ~22% share, the signature of a major lab's pre-release load test — the model's identity reveal, removal, or usage collapse resolves which lab is quietly testing ahead of a frontier launch.

state: corroboratedheat: mediumuncertainty: mediumconvergesscott: highstealth-models openrouter frontier-model-releasesOpenRouter

What is this?

Space Bunny Alpha is an anonymous 'stealth' model listed on OpenRouter since ~Sep 23, 2026 (also reported on OpenCode) — free to use, with 1M-token context, multimodal input, mandatory reasoning, and tool calling; OpenRouter's own listing confirms only that a third-party provider is concealing its identity. A Reddit-shared usage snapshot (per agihunt) has it at ~22% of OpenRouter traffic, making it the platform's most-used model, and precedent supports the stealth-preview reading: GPT-5 and Gemini models previously appeared under codenames on routing/arena platforms. Community sleuthing (ainchina.com) concludes it is most likely a stealth preview of MiniMax's next Flash model, gathering real-world feedback at scale ahead of a formal launch — but that attribution is a community conclusion, not confirmed, and the ~22% figure traces to a Reddit post rather than an OpenRouter statement; the Hugging Face writeup as of Sep 30 still treats builder identity as an open question.

Why it matters to Scott

Scott's own logs are ahead of this story: the wearesongbird reviews-only campaign ran Space Bunny fleets over OpenRouter until the model's withdrawal on 6 October, so the case's 'removal' branch has already fired in first-party evidence — a day before this case was opened — while the identity reveal stays pending, exactly his informative-silence resolution structure. The market is now catching up to a model he already bet production volume on as the commodity arm of his model barbell: he holds pre-reveal interaction evidence that bears on the community's unconfirmed MiniMax attribution, and a 22%-share free stealth model distorts the OpenRouter share signals other radar cases (Anthropic spend premium, hosted-endpoint reliability) read as ecosystem data. Follow-on: the formal MiniMax Flash launch, if that attribution holds, is the candidate to re-point the free fleet at.

dev:project.wearesongbirddev:technology.openrouterip:concept.model-barbellip:concept.informative-silenceradar:anthropic-fable55-silent-routingradar:anthropic-mythos-51-rolloutradar:openai-astra-silent-rerouting-claimradar:one-token-api-model-fingerprintingradar:centered-residual-model-lineageradar:anthropic-openrouter-spend-premium

queries asked of Scott's wikis

stealth preview anonymous model launch strategy
OpenRouter traffic share ecosystem signal
frontier release precursors radar
free tier load testing real-world eval
model attribution fingerprinting tokenizer
coding agent harness 1M context free model eval

Measured heat

now 0 pts/hpeak 26 pts/hcomments 0/hpeers p0momentum: steady2 platformsage 99h

points/hour across evidence · reading as of 2026-10-12 02:59:37.977291+11:00 · deterministic, not a model opinion

How the heat travelled

10-07 13:00	⭐ origin echo-reconstructed	OpenRouter's live leaderboard, "Top LLMs by weekly token usage on OpenRouter", lists at position 1: "Space Bunny Alpha" by "stealth" — 33.3T OpenRouter on other (echo) · attributed from reddit.post.1x00lnh	—
10-07 16:09	first on r/OpenAI · published · +3.2h	Most used model on OpenRouter is Space Bunny Alpha (22% share), an anonymous stealth LLM maferase	—
10-08 00:42	first on r/artificial · published · +11.7h	Usage and spend have come apart on OpenRouter: the models everyone uses aren't the models anyone pays for Spiritual_Skirt_9312	—
10-07 16:09	amplified on r/OpenAI 👑	reddit.post.1x00lnh maferase	peak 71 · 21 comments · 93% of case engagement
10-08 00:42	amplified on r/artificial	reddit.post.1x0d8wp Spiritual_Skirt_9312	peak 1 · 6 comments · 7% of case engagement
10-07 16:24	our radar first saw it · +3.4h	discovery anchor: reddit.post.1x00lnh	—

pace: p67 vs 1247 stories at the 96h mark (now 99h old) — ahead of gewell-gemma4-blackwell-engine (1.0x), behind openai-ignored-security-warnings (1.0x)

Evidence (3) — ⭐ canonical anchor

source	object	author	score	comments
🟠 reddit	Most used model on OpenRouter is Space Bunny Alpha (22% share), an anonymous stealth LLM OpenAI Retrieved article excerpt Open article · Retrieved 2026-10-07T16:36:06.251361+00:00 # Prove your humanity We’re committed to safety and security. But not for bots. Complete the challenge below and let us know you’re a real person. [Reddit, Inc. © "2026". All rights reserved.](https://www.redditinc.com/) [User Agreement](https://www.reddit.com/help/useragreement) [Privacy Policy](https://www.reddit.com/help/privacypolicy) [Content Policy](https://www.reddit.com/help/contentpolicy) [Help](https://support.reddithelp.com/hc/en-us)	maferase	71	21
🟧 echo.other ⭐	OpenRouter's live leaderboard, "Top LLMs by weekly token usage on OpenRouter", lists at position 1: "Space Bunny Alpha" by "stealth" — 33.3T	OpenRouter	—	—
🟠 reddit	Usage and spend have come apart on OpenRouter: the models everyone uses aren't the models anyone pays for artificial	Spiritual_Skirt_9312	1	6

Interpretation history

2026-10-08T01:38:18Z
OpenRouter's live leaderboard now publicly confirms Space Bunny Alpha at 33.3T weekly tokens (+43% WoW), upgrading the signal from a single Reddit screenshot to platform-verified data. A second independent Reddit analysis documents the token/spend divergence and places Space Bunny at #2 token share. Scott's private fleet logs already captured the Oct 6 withdrawal, so the 'removal' branch of the hypothesis has fired in first-party evidence; the identity reveal (MiniMax Flash?) remains the open question. The case now has three independent lines: platform leaderboard, community analysis, and Scott's own usage data.
2026-10-08T01:22:49Z
evidence attached: reddit.post.1x0d8wp — Reports OpenRouter token vs spend divergence and names Space Bunny Alpha at #2 token share, directly feeding the stealth-model case.
2026-10-07T17:06:23Z
origin walked (opencode/cheap-glm, conf 0.85): anchor reddit.post.1x00lnh -> echo.other.38d7e2a37a by OpenRouter
2026-10-07T17:01:47Z
grounded: converges/high — Scott's own logs are ahead of this story: the wearesongbird reviews-only campaign ran Space Bunny fleets over OpenRouter until the model's withdrawal on 6 Octob
2026-10-07T16:49:54Z
case created — A single but concrete and publicly checkable ecosystem-level precursor on Scott's release-radar beat, with no open stealth-model case to attach into.

Decision trace

10-11 21:10review_screenThe only new information is an additional anonymous Reddit comment ('its the new minimax btw') repeating the existing unconfirmed community attribution to MiniMax. This adds no credible evid
10-11 21:10review_screenjev screen borderline (noul=0.58) — luna review
10-08 23:33sensor_dirtycomment_update
10-08 17:37sensor_dirtycomment_update
10-08 13:20sensor_dirtycomment_update
10-08 12:40attention_routeThe editor compared this story and chose to keep watching.
10-08 12:38attention_candidatematerial_reprice
10-08 12:38repriceOpenRouter's live leaderboard now publicly confirms Space Bunny Alpha at 33.3T weekly tokens (+43% WoW), upgrading the signal from a single Reddit screenshot to platform-verified data. A second i
10-08 12:27attention_routePublic leaderboard confirmation went live today with concrete numbers; Scott's first-party fleet data already contains the Oct 6 withdrawal. The 22% share distorts OpenRouter ecosystem signals us
10-08 12:22attention_candidateattach
10-08 12:22attachReports OpenRouter token vs spend divergence and names Space Bunny Alpha at #2 token share, directly feeding the stealth-model case.
10-08 12:22propose_attachReports OpenRouter token vs spend divergence and names Space Bunny Alpha at #2 token share, directly feeding the stealth-model case.
10-08 12:22attention_routeFirst look for Scott; the leaderboard fact went public today while his fleet data already contains the withdrawal, so the briefing frames the market catching up to his own bet without an overnight int
10-08 09:21sensor_dirtyvelocity_spike
10-08 07:22sensor_dirtycomment_update
10-08 04:13attention_routeFirst look for Scott; the leaderboard fact went public today while his fleet data already contains the withdrawal, so the briefing frames the market catching up to his own bet without an overnight int
10-08 04:06attention_candidatecreate
10-08 04:06promote_anchororigin walk conf 0.85
10-08 04:01groundScott's own logs are ahead of this story: the wearesongbird reviews-only campaign ran Space Bunny fleets over OpenRouter until the model's withdrawal on 6 October, so the case's 'r
10-08 03:49createA single but concrete and publicly checkable ecosystem-level precursor on Scott's release-radar beat, with no open stealth-model case to attach into.