diff --git a/gateway/slash_commands_status.py b/gateway/slash_commands_status.py
index f25951cad0..a80df42f9f 100644
--- a/gateway/slash_commands_status.py
+++ b/gateway/slash_commands_status.py
@@ -612,14 +612,14 @@ class GatewayStatusCommandsMixin:
         return t("gateway.usage.no_data")
 
     async def _persisted_billing_route(self, source):
-        """``(provider, base_url)`` from the SessionDB row / dominant route when no agent is resident."""
+        """``(provider, base_url)`` from the SessionDB row / most recent route when no agent is resident."""
         async def _rows():
             entry = await self.async_session_store.get_or_create_session(source)
             persisted = await self._session_db.get_session(entry.session_id) or {}
-            route = await self._session_db.get_dominant_session_model_route(entry.session_id)
+            route = await self._session_db.get_recent_session_model_route(entry.session_id)
             return persisted, route if isinstance(route, dict) else {}
-        persisted, dominant = await _quiet(_rows, ({}, {}))
-        row = dominant if dominant.get("billing_provider") else persisted
+        persisted, recent = await _quiet(_rows, ({}, {}))
+        row = recent if recent.get("billing_provider") else persisted
         return row.get("billing_provider"), row.get("billing_base_url")
 
     async def _handle_insights_command(self, event: MessageEvent) -> str:
diff --git a/hermes_state_sessions.py b/hermes_state_sessions.py
index 384c7895b5..0a7aa822c7 100644
--- a/hermes_state_sessions.py
+++ b/hermes_state_sessions.py
@@ -744,29 +744,11 @@ class SessionSessionsMixin:
         )
         return self._session_row_dict(row) if row else None
 
-    def get_dominant_session_model_route(self, session_id: str) -> Optional[Dict[str, Any]]:
-        """Main-loop model route that served most API calls (``session_model_usage`` keeps the coherent
-        per-call tuple; ``sessions`` mixes route changes)."""
-        self.flush_token_counts()
-        row = self._read_one(
-            """SELECT model, billing_provider, billing_base_url, billing_mode,
-                      api_call_count
-                 FROM session_model_usage
-                WHERE session_id = ?
-                  AND task = ''
-                  AND model <> 'unknown'
-                  AND billing_provider <> ''
-                ORDER BY api_call_count DESC,
-                         (input_tokens + output_tokens + cache_read_tokens +
-                          cache_write_tokens + reasoning_tokens) DESC,
-                         last_seen DESC
-                LIMIT 1""",
-            (session_id,),
-        )
-        return dict(row) if row else None
-
     def get_recent_session_model_route(self, session_id: str) -> Optional[Dict[str, Any]]:
-        """Most recently used main-loop model route as one coherent per-call tuple."""
+        """Most recently used main-loop model route as one coherent per-call tuple
+        (``session_model_usage`` keeps model+provider together; ``sessions`` mixes route changes).
+        Recency, not lifetime call count: on a long session a route retired weeks ago can hold the
+        highest ``api_call_count`` forever, and /status and /usage would keep calling it current."""
         self.flush_token_counts()
         row = self._read_one(
             """SELECT model, billing_provider, billing_base_url, billing_mode,
diff --git a/tests/gateway/test_usage_command.py b/tests/gateway/test_usage_command.py
index ca83c56ecd..ae68e56fe3 100644
--- a/tests/gateway/test_usage_command.py
+++ b/tests/gateway/test_usage_command.py
@@ -163,14 +163,14 @@ class TestUsageAccountSection:
         assert "📈 **Account limits**" in result
 
     @pytest.mark.asyncio
-    async def test_usage_command_prefers_dominant_persisted_route(self, monkeypatch):
+    async def test_usage_command_prefers_recent_persisted_route(self, monkeypatch):
         runner = _make_runner(SK)
         runner._session_db = AsyncSessionDB(MagicMock())
         runner._session_db._db.get_session.return_value = {
             "billing_provider": "nous",
             "billing_base_url": "https://inference-api.nousresearch.com/v1/",
         }
-        runner._session_db._db.get_dominant_session_model_route.return_value = {
+        runner._session_db._db.get_recent_session_model_route.return_value = {
             "model": "z-ai/glm-5.2",
             "billing_provider": "nvidia",
             "billing_base_url": "https://integrate.api.nvidia.com/v1/",