What is the cheapest AI API in 2026?

The cheapest AI APIs are typically small/fast models like Claude Haiku, GPT-4o Mini, and Gemini Flash, which cost under $0.50 per 1M tokens. Use the calculator above to compare costs for your specific token volume.

How is Claude API pricing calculated?

Claude API pricing is charged per 1M tokens, with separate rates for input (prompt) and output (completion) tokens. Claude Haiku is the most affordable, while Claude Opus is the most capable and expensive.

How does GPT-4 cost compare to Claude and Gemini?

GPT-4 pricing is generally higher than Gemini Flash and Claude Haiku, but comparable to Claude Sonnet. For high-volume use cases, Gemini Flash and Claude Haiku offer the best cost-performance ratio.

What does context length mean for AI API pricing?

Context length is the maximum number of tokens a model can process in one request. Longer context windows (like Gemini's 1M token context) are useful for RAG and document analysis, but every token in the context counts toward your input cost.

AI API Pricing Comparison 2026: Claude, GPT-4, Gemini

Compare Claude API pricing, GPT-4 cost, and Gemini API pricingacross OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, and emerging providers. Find the cheapest AI API for your use case.

💰 AI Cost Calculator

Input Tokens

1.00M tokens

Output Tokens

1.00M tokens

Provider Filter

Quick Presets:

🏆

Cheapest Option

Qwen: Qwen3.5-9B

$0.2000

Input: $0.0500 • Output: $0.1500

Rank	Model	Input Cost	Output Cost	Total Cost
#1	Qwen: Qwen3.5-9B(256K ctx)	$0.0500	$0.1500	$0.2000
#2	Qwen: Qwen3.5-Flash(1000K ctx)	$0.0700	$0.2600	$0.3300
#3	Mistral: Devstral Small 1.1(131K ctx)	$0.1000	$0.3000	$0.4000
#4	DeepSeek: DeepSeek V4 Flash(1000K ctx)	$0.1400	$0.2800	$0.4200
#5	Meta: Llama 4 Scout(10000K ctx)	$0.1000	$0.3200	$0.4200
#6	OpenAI: GPT-5 Nano(400K ctx)	$0.0500	$0.4000	$0.4500
#7	DeepSeek: DeepSeek V3.2(163K ctx)	$0.2600	$0.3800	$0.6400
#8	Meta: Llama 4 Maverick(1000K ctx)	$0.1900	$0.5900	$0.7800
#9	Qwen: Qwen3 Coder Flash(1000K ctx)	$0.2000	$0.9700	$1.1700
#10	Qwen: Qwen3 Coder 480B A35B(262K ctx)	$0.2200	$1.0000	$1.2200
#11	Qwen: Qwen3.5 Plus 2026-02-15(1000K ctx)	$0.2600	$1.5600	$1.8200
#12	OpenAI: GPT-4.1 Mini(128K ctx)	$0.4000	$1.6000	$2.0000
#13	Mistral: Mistral Large 3(262K ctx)	$0.5000	$1.5000	$2.0000
#14	Xiaomi: MiMo-V2.5(1000K ctx)	$0.4000	$2.0000	$2.4000
#15	Google: Nano Banana (Gemini 2.5 Flash Image)(32K ctx)	$0.3000	$2.5000	$2.8000

Models Compared

Cheapest

$0.2000

Most Expensive

$30.0000

Price Range

150.0x

AI Model Pricing Table

Click any column header to sort. Real prices for Claude, GPT-4, Gemini, and more.

Model ↕	Category ↕	Input $/1M ↑	Output $/1M ↕	Context ↕	Modality
Qwen: Qwen3.5-9B	Multimodal	$0.0500	$0.1500	256K	text+image+video->text
OpenAI: GPT-5 Nano	Multimodal	$0.0500	$0.4000	400K	text+image+file->text
Qwen: Qwen3.5-Flash	Multimodal, Social Media, Solo Dev	$0.0700	$0.2600	1000K	text+image+video->text
Mistral: Devstral Small 1.1	Code	$0.1000	$0.3000	131K	text->text
Meta: Llama 4 Scout	Multimodal, Text	$0.1000	$0.3200	10000K	text+image->text
DeepSeek: DeepSeek V4 Flash	Text, Code	$0.1400	$0.2800	1000K	text->text
Meta: Llama 4 Maverick	Multimodal, Text	$0.1900	$0.5900	1000K	text+image->text
Qwen: Qwen3 Coder Flash	Code, Solo Dev	$0.2000	$0.9700	1000K	text->text
Qwen: Qwen3 Coder 480B A35B	Code	$0.2200	$1.0000	262K	text->text
Qwen: Qwen3.5 Plus 2026-02-15	Text	$0.2600	$1.5600	1000K	text+image+video->text
DeepSeek: DeepSeek V3.2	Text, Social Media, Solo Dev	$0.2600	$0.3800	163K	text->text
Google: Nano Banana (Gemini 2.5 Flash Image)	Image Gen, Social Media, Solo Dev	$0.3000	$2.5000	32K	text+image->text+image
Google: Gemini 2.5 Flash	Multimodal, Text	$0.3000	$2.5000	1000K	text+image+file+audio+video->text
OpenAI: GPT-4.1 Mini	Text	$0.4000	$1.6000	128K	text+image+file->text
Xiaomi: MiMo-V2.5	Multimodal, Text	$0.4000	$2.0000	1000K	text+image+audio+video->text
Google: Nano Banana 2 (Gemini 3.1 Flash Image Preview)	Image Gen	$0.5000	$3.0000	65K	text+image->text+image
Mistral: Mistral Large 3	Multimodal, Text	$0.5000	$1.5000	262K	text+image->text
Anthropic: Claude Haiku 4.5	Social Media	$1.0000	$5.0000	200K	text+image->text
Xiaomi: MiMo-V2.5 Pro	Code, Text	$1.0000	$3.0000	256K	text->text
OpenAI: o4-mini	Text, Code	$1.1000	$4.4000	200K	text->text
xAI: Grok 4.3	Multimodal, Text	$1.2500	$2.5000	1000K	text+image->text
Google: Gemini 2.5 Pro	Multimodal, Text	$1.2500	$10.0000	1000K	text+image+file+audio+video->text
Mistral: Mistral Medium 3.5	Text	$1.5000	$7.5000	128K	text->text
DeepSeek: DeepSeek V4 Pro	Text, Code	$1.7400	$3.4800	1000K	text->text
OpenAI: GPT-5.3-Codex	Code	$1.7500	$14.0000	400K	text+image+file->text
xAI: Grok 4.20	Text	$2.0000	$6.0000	2000K	text+image->text
Google: Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview	Multimodal, Text	$2.0000	$12.0000	1048K	text+image+file+audio+video->text
OpenAI: GPT-4.1	Multimodal, Text	$2.0000	$8.0000	128K	text+image+file->text
OpenAI: o3	Text, Code	$2.0000	$8.0000	200K	text->text
OpenAI: GPT-5.4	Multimodal, Text	$2.5000	$15.0000	1050K	text+image+file->text
OpenAI: GPT-5 Image Mini	Image Gen	$2.5000	$2.0000	400K	text+image+file->text+image
Anthropic: Claude Sonnet 4.6	Multimodal, Text, Code, Solo Dev	$3.0000	$15.0000	1000K	text+image->text
Anthropic: Claude Opus 4.7	Text, Code	$5.0000	$25.0000	200K	text+image->text
OpenAI: GPT-5 Image	Image Gen	$10.0000	$10.0000	400K	text+image+file->text+image

AI Model Comparison by Category: Performance & Cost

Compare all AI models across categories. Find the best price-performance ratio for any use case.

Average Input Cost

$1.34

per 1M tokens

Average Output Cost

$5.01

per 1M tokens

Models in Category

available models

Cost Comparison

Comparing input/output costs and context lengths for top 10 models in All category.

AI Models (34)

Qwen3.5-9B

Qwen

Budget

Best for: Vision & Image Gen

Input Cost

$0.050

per 1M tokens

Output Cost

$0.150

per 1M tokens

Total Cost$0.200

per 1M input + 1M output tokens

Context Length0K

Modalitytext+image+video->text

CategoryMultimodal

GPT-5 Nano

OpenAI

Budget

Best for: Chatbots & High Volume

Input Cost

$0.050

per 1M tokens

Output Cost

$0.400

per 1M tokens

Total Cost$0.450

per 1M input + 1M output tokens

Context Length0K

Modalitytext+image+file->text

CategoryMultimodal

Qwen3.5-Flash

Qwen

Budget

Best for: Chatbots & High Volume

Input Cost

$0.070

per 1M tokens

Output Cost

$0.260

per 1M tokens

Total Cost$0.330

per 1M input + 1M output tokens

Context Length1K

Modalitytext+image+video->text

CategoryMultimodal, Social Media, Solo Dev

Devstral Small 1.1

Mistral

Budget

Best for: General Purpose

Input Cost

$0.100

per 1M tokens

Output Cost

$0.300

per 1M tokens

Total Cost$0.400

per 1M input + 1M output tokens

Context Length0K

Modalitytext->text

CategoryCode

Qwen3 Coder Flash

Qwen

Balanced

Best for: Chatbots & High Volume

Input Cost

$0.200

per 1M tokens

Output Cost

$0.970

per 1M tokens

Total Cost$1.17

per 1M input + 1M output tokens

Context Length1K

Modalitytext->text

CategoryCode, Solo Dev

Grok 4.3

xAI

Premium

Best for: Vision & Image Gen

Input Cost

$1.25

per 1M tokens

Output Cost

$2.50

per 1M tokens

Total Cost$3.75

per 1M input + 1M output tokens

Context Length1K

Modalitytext+image->text

CategoryMultimodal, Text

Qwen3 Coder 480B A35B

Qwen

Balanced

Best for: General Purpose

Input Cost

$0.220

per 1M tokens

Output Cost

$1.00

per 1M tokens

Total Cost$1.22

per 1M input + 1M output tokens

Context Length0K

Modalitytext->text

CategoryCode

Qwen3.5 Plus 2026-02-15

Qwen

Balanced

Best for: Vision & Image Gen

Input Cost

$0.260

per 1M tokens

Output Cost

$1.56

per 1M tokens

Total Cost$1.82

per 1M input + 1M output tokens

Context Length1K

Modalitytext+image+video->text

CategoryText

DeepSeek V3.2

DeepSeek

Balanced

Best for: General Purpose

Input Cost

$0.260

per 1M tokens

Output Cost

$0.380

per 1M tokens

Total Cost$0.640

per 1M input + 1M output tokens

Context Length0K

Modalitytext->text

CategoryText, Social Media, Solo Dev

Nano Banana (Gemini 2.5 Flash Image)

Google

Premium

Best for: Chatbots & High Volume

Input Cost

$0.300

per 1M tokens

Output Cost

$2.50

per 1M tokens

Total Cost$2.80

per 1M input + 1M output tokens

Context Length0K

Modalitytext+image->text+image

CategoryImage Gen, Social Media, Solo Dev

Nano Banana 2 (Gemini 3.1 Flash Image Preview)

Google

Premium

Best for: Chatbots & High Volume

Input Cost

$0.500

per 1M tokens

Output Cost

$3.00

per 1M tokens

Total Cost$3.50

per 1M input + 1M output tokens

Context Length0K

Modalitytext+image->text+image

CategoryImage Gen

Claude Haiku 4.5

Anthropic

Premium

Best for: Chatbots & High Volume

Input Cost

$1.00

per 1M tokens

Output Cost

$5.00

per 1M tokens

Total Cost$6.00

per 1M input + 1M output tokens

Context Length0K

Modalitytext+image->text

CategorySocial Media

GPT-5.3-Codex

OpenAI

Premium

Best for: Vision & Image Gen

Input Cost

$1.75

per 1M tokens

Output Cost

$14.00

per 1M tokens

Total Cost$15.75

per 1M input + 1M output tokens

Context Length0K

Modalitytext+image+file->text

CategoryCode

Grok 4.20

xAI

Premium

Best for: Vision & Image Gen

Input Cost

$2.00

per 1M tokens

Output Cost

$6.00

per 1M tokens

Total Cost$8.00

per 1M input + 1M output tokens

Context Length2K

Modalitytext+image->text

CategoryText

Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview

Google

Premium

Best for: Vision & Image Gen

Input Cost

$2.00

per 1M tokens

Output Cost

$12.00

per 1M tokens

Total Cost$14.00

per 1M input + 1M output tokens

Context Length1K

Modalitytext+image+file+audio+video->text

CategoryMultimodal, Text

GPT-5.4

OpenAI

Premium

Best for: Vision & Image Gen

Input Cost

$2.50

per 1M tokens

Output Cost

$15.00

per 1M tokens

Total Cost$17.50

per 1M input + 1M output tokens

Context Length1K

Modalitytext+image+file->text

CategoryMultimodal, Text

GPT-5 Image Mini

OpenAI

Premium

Best for: Vision & Image Gen

Input Cost

$2.50

per 1M tokens

Output Cost

$2.00

per 1M tokens

Total Cost$4.50

per 1M input + 1M output tokens

Context Length0K

Modalitytext+image+file->text+image

CategoryImage Gen

Claude Sonnet 4.6

Anthropic

Premium

Best for: Vision & Image Gen

Input Cost

$3.00

per 1M tokens

Output Cost

$15.00

per 1M tokens

Total Cost$18.00

per 1M input + 1M output tokens

Context Length1K

Modalitytext+image->text

CategoryMultimodal, Text, Code, Solo Dev

Claude Opus 4.7

Anthropic

Premium

Best for: Complex Reasoning

Input Cost

$5.00

per 1M tokens

Output Cost

$25.00

per 1M tokens

Total Cost$30.00

per 1M input + 1M output tokens

Context Length0K

Modalitytext+image->text

CategoryText, Code

GPT-5 Image

OpenAI

Premium

Best for: Vision & Image Gen

Input Cost

$10.00

per 1M tokens

Output Cost

$10.00

per 1M tokens

Total Cost$20.00

per 1M input + 1M output tokens

Context Length0K

Modalitytext+image+file->text+image

CategoryImage Gen

DeepSeek V4 Flash

DeepSeek

Budget

Best for: Chatbots & High Volume

Input Cost

$0.140

per 1M tokens

Output Cost

$0.280

per 1M tokens

Total Cost$0.420

per 1M input + 1M output tokens

Context Length1K

Modalitytext->text

CategoryText, Code

DeepSeek V4 Pro

DeepSeek

Premium

Best for: General Purpose

Input Cost

$1.74

per 1M tokens

Output Cost

$3.48

per 1M tokens

Total Cost$5.22

per 1M input + 1M output tokens

Context Length1K

Modalitytext->text

CategoryText, Code

GPT-4.1

OpenAI

Premium

Best for: Complex Reasoning

Input Cost

$2.00

per 1M tokens

Output Cost

$8.00

per 1M tokens

Total Cost$10.00

per 1M input + 1M output tokens

Context Length0K

Modalitytext+image+file->text

CategoryMultimodal, Text

GPT-4.1 Mini

OpenAI

Balanced

Best for: Complex Reasoning

Input Cost

$0.400

per 1M tokens

Output Cost

$1.60

per 1M tokens

Total Cost$2.00

per 1M input + 1M output tokens

Context Length0K

Modalitytext+image+file->text

CategoryText

o3

OpenAI

Premium

Best for: General Purpose

Input Cost

$2.00

per 1M tokens

Output Cost

$8.00

per 1M tokens

Total Cost$10.00

per 1M input + 1M output tokens

Context Length0K

Modalitytext->text

CategoryText, Code

o4-mini

OpenAI

Premium

Best for: General Purpose

Input Cost

$1.10

per 1M tokens

Output Cost

$4.40

per 1M tokens

Total Cost$5.50

per 1M input + 1M output tokens

Context Length0K

Modalitytext->text

CategoryText, Code

Gemini 2.5 Pro

Google

Premium

Best for: Vision & Image Gen

Input Cost

$1.25

per 1M tokens

Output Cost

$10.00

per 1M tokens

Total Cost$11.25

per 1M input + 1M output tokens

Context Length1K

Modalitytext+image+file+audio+video->text

CategoryMultimodal, Text

Gemini 2.5 Flash

Google

Premium

Best for: Chatbots & High Volume

Input Cost

$0.300

per 1M tokens

Output Cost

$2.50

per 1M tokens

Total Cost$2.80

per 1M input + 1M output tokens

Context Length1K

Modalitytext+image+file+audio+video->text

CategoryMultimodal, Text

Llama 4 Scout

Llama 4 Maverick

Mistral Large 3

Mistral

Balanced

Best for: Vision & Image Gen

Input Cost

$0.500

per 1M tokens

Output Cost

$1.50

per 1M tokens

Total Cost$2.00

per 1M input + 1M output tokens

Context Length0K

Modalitytext+image->text

CategoryMultimodal, Text

Mistral Medium 3.5

Mistral

Premium

Best for: General Purpose

Input Cost

$1.50

per 1M tokens

Output Cost

$7.50

per 1M tokens

Total Cost$9.00

per 1M input + 1M output tokens

Context Length0K

Modalitytext->text

CategoryText

MiMo-V2.5

Xiaomi

Premium

Best for: Vision & Image Gen

Input Cost

$0.400

per 1M tokens

Output Cost

$2.00

per 1M tokens

Total Cost$2.40

per 1M input + 1M output tokens

Context Length1K

Modalitytext+image+audio+video->text

CategoryMultimodal, Text

MiMo-V2.5 Pro

Xiaomi

Premium

Best for: General Purpose

Input Cost

$1.00

per 1M tokens

Output Cost

$3.00

per 1M tokens

Total Cost$4.00

per 1M input + 1M output tokens

Context Length0K

Modalitytext->text

CategoryCode, Text

💬Chatbot / Customer Support

Low Cost

Qwen: Qwen3.5-Flash

$0.33/1M

💻Code Generation & Review

High Quality

OpenAI: GPT-4.1

$10.00/1M

📄Document Analysis / RAG

Balanced

No match

✍️Content Writing / Marketing

Balanced

OpenAI: GPT-4.1 Mini

$2.00/1M

How to Use This Data

Input Costs: Compare $/1M input tokens for Claude API pricing, GPT-4 cost, and Gemini pricing.
Output Costs: Check completion pricing to find the cheapest AI API for your use case.
Context Length: Long contexts help RAG and agents — see Anthropic and Gemini limits.
Modality: Text, code, image, and multimodal support for each model.

Prices are per 1M tokens and may vary by region or volume tiers. Last updated automatically from provider documentation.

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