Cheapest LLM APIs per 1M tokens (Oct 2026): 20 models compared, plus free tiers

Published 2026-10-18

All prices below are standard list prices in USD per 1 million tokens. I checked them by hand on each provider's official pricing page on 2026-10-17 (OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, xAI, DeepSeek). Providers change prices often, so confirm on the linked pricing page before you commit real spend.

To compare models with one number, I use a "1M+1M job": the cost of 1M input tokens plus 1M output tokens. The list is sorted from cheapest to most expensive.

The 20 models, cheapest first

• gpt-5-nano (OpenAI): $0.05 in / $0.4 out, 1M+1M job = $0.45
• gemini-2.5-flash-lite (Google): $0.1 in / $0.4 out, 1M+1M job = $0.50 (free tier)
• gpt-6-luna (OpenAI): $0.1 in / $0.5 out, 1M+1M job = $0.60
• Claude Haiku 5.5 (Anthropic): $0.1 in / $0.5 out, 1M+1M job = $0.60 (prompts up to 100k tokens; $0.50/$2.50 above)
• gpt-5.6-luna (OpenAI): $0.2 in / $1.2 out, 1M+1M job = $1.40
• deepseek-flash (DeepSeek): $0.3 in / $1.2 out, 1M+1M job = $1.50 (peak price; off-peak is half)
• gemini-3.1-flash-lite (Google): $0.25 in / $1.5 out, 1M+1M job = $1.75 (text input; free tier)
• gpt-4.1-mini (OpenAI): $0.4 in / $1.6 out, 1M+1M job = $2.00
• gemini-3.5-flash-lite (Google): $0.3 in / $2.5 out, 1M+1M job = $2.80 (free tier)
• gemini-2.5-flash (Google): $0.3 in / $2.5 out, 1M+1M job = $2.80 (text input; free tier)
• gemini-3.8-flash (Google): $0.75 in / $3.75 out, 1M+1M job = $4.50 (until 31 Dec 2026, then $1.50/$7.50; free tier)
• gpt-5.4-mini (OpenAI): $0.75 in / $4.5 out, 1M+1M job = $5.25
• deepseek-v4-pro (DeepSeek): $1.32 in / $3.96 out, 1M+1M job = $5.28 (peak price; off-peak is half)
• Claude Haiku 4.5 (Anthropic): $1 in / $5 out, 1M+1M job = $6.00
• grok-4.7 (xAI): $2 in / $6 out, 1M+1M job = $8.00 (500k context)
• gpt-6.1-sol (OpenAI): $2 in / $10 out, 1M+1M job = $12.00
• Claude Sonnet 5.5 (Anthropic): $2 in / $10 out, 1M+1M job = $12.00
• gemini-4-argon (Google): $2 in / $10 out, 1M+1M job = $12.00 (until 30 Nov 2026, then $4/$20; no free tier)
• Claude Opus 5.5 (Anthropic): $4 in / $20 out, 1M+1M job = $24.00
• gpt-6-astra (OpenAI): $10 in / $50 out, 1M+1M job = $60.00

What the numbers say

• Four models cost $0.60 or less per 1M+1M job: gpt-5-nano ($0.45), gemini-2.5-flash-lite ($0.50), gpt-6-luna ($0.60) and Claude Haiku 5.5 ($0.60, for prompts up to 100k tokens).
• The most expensive model in the list, gpt-6-astra ($60.00), costs about 133 times as much as the cheapest, gpt-5-nano ($0.45).
• Output tokens cost 3 to 8.3 times as much as input tokens. If your app writes long answers, look at the output price first.
• DeepSeek lists peak prices; its off-peak price is half. Two Google prices are introductory: gemini-3.8-flash rises to $1.50/$7.50 after 31 Dec 2026 and gemini-4-argon to $4/$20 after 30 Nov 2026.
• A simple way to save: send classification, extraction and short rewrites to a small model, and keep the large model for the hard steps.

Free tiers worth knowing

Several Google Gemini models in the list above have a free tier on the Gemini API. These AI API free tiers are described on each provider's own page (checked 17 Oct 2026; limits change, so follow the source link):

• Cerebras - Llama / Qwen models: Free tier with rate limits (source)
• Cloudflare Workers AI - LLMs (Llama, Mistral, etc.): 10,000 Neurons/day free (source)
• Cloudflare Workers AI - Whisper / image models: 10,000 Neurons/day free (source)
• Cohere - Command models: Trial key: 1,000 API calls/month; Command A 20 req/min (source)
• Cohere - Embed / Rerank: Trial key: 1,000 API calls/month total (source)
• Deepgram - Speech-to-text / TTS: $200 free credit, then pay-as-you-go (source)
• ElevenLabs - Text-to-speech: 10k credits/month, 3 Studio projects (no commercial license) (source)
• Google AI Studio (Gemini API) - Gemini Flash models: Free tier with rate limits (source)
• Google AI Studio (Gemini API) - Gemini Pro models: Free tier availability varies by model (source)
• Groq - Llama models: Free tier with per-model rate limits (source)
• Groq - Whisper (speech-to-text): whisper-large-v3: 20 requests/min, 2K requests/day (source)
• Mistral AI - Mistral Embed: Free experiment tier (source)
• Mistral AI - Mistral models (La Plateforme): Free experiment tier (source)
• NVIDIA NIM (build.nvidia.com) - Hosted model endpoints: Free API access for prototyping (developer program) (source)
• OpenRouter - Models tagged :free: Free variants with daily request limits (source)
• Voyage AI - Embedding models: First 200M tokens free per account (voyage-4 family) (source)

Get the cheat sheet and the data

• Free PDF cheat sheet: these 20 prices plus the free tiers on two pages. Free; you leave an email address to get it.
• FreeTier Agent API: your code or agent can look up prices for about 3,000 models (/api/llm-pricing, $0.001 per call) and estimate the cost of a job (/api/llm-cost, $0.001 per call), paid per call in USDC over x402. No signup or API key. A free sample is at /api/llm-pricing/sample. The API uses the open litellm price table (MIT), which can lag behind the official pages.
• Tools for Agents: a free directory of more than 8,500 tools for AI agents, including AI dev tools with free tiers and a page of model prices.

Disclosure: I wrote this with help from AI tools and checked every number against our own data files, which link each provider page. The PDF, the API and the directory are my own products; the API and the dataset are paid.