Source: Unite.AI
Banks, telecom carriers, and a district government in China have begun packaging artificial intelligence tokens as consumer products, embedding the units of AI computing into credit card rewards, mobile-style monthly plans, and a new category of business lending. The offers, documented across official product and government pages, meter AI usage much like airline miles or mobile data.
A token is the small unit of text an AI model processes when it generates a response. Rather than leaving that consumption inside a developer console, the Chinese programs turn it into a reward currency and a billable commodity aimed at ordinary customers and small businesses.
Kimi and Agricultural Bank of China Embed AI in a Credit Card
Moonshot AI‘s Kimi and Agricultural Bank of China jointly launched a co-branded credit card, also called the “Kimi–American Express–ABC tri-party co-branded card,” available only in mainland China, according to the Kimi Help Center campaign page. The card’s gift campaigns run from July 10, 2026, to September 30, 2026, with application opening on July 10, 2026.
The product comes in two tiers. The Premium Platinum Card’s opening gift goes to first-time primary-card applicants who spend at least RMB 5,888 within the approval month plus the following two calendar months; the gift is one KIMI co-branded NFC plush charm and two KIMI Allegretto monthly memberships, limited to 1,000 recipients. A separate New Customer Gift targets first-time ABC credit card account holders who make three purchases of at least RMB 18 each in the same window, for one NFC plush charm and three KIMI Andante monthly memberships, limited to 5,000 recipients. Redemption codes for both must be collected by December 31, 2026.
Kimi describes the product as an “AI-native credit card,” which it defines as embedding Kimi membership, credits, and other core benefits into the card-opening and points-based spending system, with prompt courses and AI sharing sessions adding to the experience. The Premium Platinum Card is an ABC premium product and must be applied for at an Agricultural Bank of China branch.
A Kimi product page for the card details the two membership tiers tied to the cards. The Andante membership, aimed at everyday use, includes agent quota for Office file processing, deep research, and website deployment, access to Kimi Code, and scheduled Kimi Work tasks. The higher Allegretto membership, described as a professional option, carries four times the agent quota, 20 times the Kimi Code quota, multi-task parallel agents, and a dedicated Kimi Claw feature deployable across cloud, Android, and desktop.
China Telecom Sells Tokens Like Mobile Data
State-owned carrier China Telecom launched a series of trial commercial token packages on May 17, 2026, according to the company’s official announcement. The packages span three customer groups and pair tokens with connectivity and security services.
For developers and small and micro businesses, the carrier offers three Token Plan tiers plus optional broadband uplink acceleration and security protection packages, integrating its in-house Xingchen large model and GLM5 with its own and third-party computing resources. For individual and household customers, it offers three Token Plan tiers built around the Xingchen model and DeepSeek V3.2 for office assistance, study, and writing tasks. Customers order through the Tianyi Cloud website or the China Telecom app, and can use the tokens either with their own hardware and an API key or through Tianyi AI cloud computers preloaded with agents including TeleClaw, OpenClaw, and Hermes.
China Telecom also said it will introduce a Tianyi Token currency, a unified unit for customers to redeem loyalty points for token packages and AI applications, and token-based benefits run with AI ecosystem partners. The packages are managed through its Xingchen TokenHub operations platform, which the company says is meant to let tokens be shared across devices and applications. Industry reporting put the consumer entry tier at 9.9 yuan per month for 10 million tokens.
Guangzhou District Ties Bank Loans to Token Use
The Haizhu district of Guangzhou has gone further, making tokens a basis for business credit. The district released a token-economy financial product called “Token Loan” alongside a package of eight supporting policy measures, according to a Xinhua report republished by the Haizhu District Investment Promotion Bureau, which dated the document August 15, 2026, and published it on August 24, 2026.
Rather than assessing young AI companies on fixed assets such as plants and equipment, the Token Loan brings token consumption, platform qualifications, payment-collection progress, and upstream customers into banks’ credit-review view. Bank of China, China CITIC Bank, and Bank of Guangzhou presented Token Loan products at the launch; Bank of China’s Guangzhou branch developed a computing-power version that can set a credit limit based on a contract or a company’s token consumption.
The district said it had clustered more than 8,000 AI-related enterprises as of August 2026, with 53 registered large models and 482 registered algorithms. The accompanying “eight token measures” offer subsidies of up to 1.5 million yuan a year for qualifying model companies that improve token output per chip, up to 4 million yuan for platform businesses, up to 5 million yuan for application projects, and up to 2 million yuan a year toward token consumption costs for digital marketing and entertainment companies.