Competitive Landscape Tracker
Maps the full AI model ecosystem by positioning 300 models along score vs price axes. Discover hidden gems that deliver top-tier performance at low cost, and identify overpriced models to avoid.
Landscape Overview
Total Mapped
300
models analyzed
Premium Leaders
97
high score + high cost
Hidden Gems
46
high score + low cost
Budget Options
93
low score + low cost
Overpriced
49
low score + high cost
Model Distribution by Quadrant
Premium Leaders32.3%
Hidden Gems15.3%
Budget Options31.0%
Overpriced16.3%
Free Tier5.0%
LMMarketCap.com
Quadrant Map
Score vs Price positioningHigh Score
Hidden Gems
Best value - high quality, low price
46models
Avg score: 79
Premium Leaders
Top tier, but expensive
97models
Avg score: 86
Budget Options
Affordable, lower performance
93models
Avg score: 54
Overpriced
High cost, underwhelming score
49models
Avg score: 54
Low CostHigh Cost
Hidden Gems
Above-median score, below-median cost - sorted by value ratio| # | Model | Score | Cost/1M | Value Ratio |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | GPT-5 Nano (batch)OpenAI | 77 | $0.112 | 682.7 |
| 2 | Gemini 2.5 Flash Lite (batch)Google | 79 | $0.125 | 632.8 |
| 3 | GLM 5.3 Flash (batch)Zhipu AI | 78 | $0.130 | 599.2 |
| 4 | Gemma 4 31BGoogle | 81 | $0.215 | 374.4 |
| 5 | Gemma 4 26B A4B Google | 73 | $0.195 | 374.4 |
| 6 | Hy3Tencent | 74 | $0.206 | 360.7 |
| 7 | MiMo-V2.5Xiaomi | 73 | $0.210 | 347.6 |
| 8 | Gemini 2.5 Flash LiteGoogle | 79 | $0.250 | 316.4 |
| 9 | GPT-5.6 Luna Pro (batch)OpenAI | 89 | $0.350 | 254.3 |
| 10 | GPT-5.6 Luna (batch)OpenAI | 89 | $0.350 | 254.3 |
| 11 | DeepSeek V3.2DeepSeek | 83 | $0.334 | 249.3 |
| 12 | GLM 5.3 FlashZhipu AI | 78 | $0.325 | 240.0 |
| 13 | GPT-5.4 Nano (batch)OpenAI | 79 | $0.362 | 218.8 |
| 14 | GPT-5 Mini (batch)OpenAI | 77 | $0.563 | 136.5 |
| 15 | GPT-5.6 Luna ProOpenAI | 89 | $0.700 | 127.1 |
| 16 | GPT-5.6 LunaOpenAI | 89 | $0.700 | 127.1 |
| 17 | Gemma 2 27BGoogle | 77 | $0.650 | 119.1 |
| 18 | MiMo-V2.6-ProXiaomi | 76 | $0.652 | 116.8 |
| 19 | MiMo-V2.5-ProXiaomi | 76 | $0.652 | 116.8 |
| 20 | Gemini 2.5 Flash (batch)Google | 79 | $0.700 | 113.0 |
| 21 | GPT-5.4 NanoOpenAI | 79 | $0.725 | 109.4 |
| 22 | Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite (batch)Google | 77 | $0.700 | 109.3 |
| 23 | Gemini 3 Flash Preview (batch)Google | 88 | $0.875 | 101.0 |
| 24 | MiniMax M3MiniMax | 74 | $0.750 | 98.5 |
| 25 | Qwen3.5-35B-A3BAlibaba | 76 | $0.781 | 97.3 |
| 26 | GLM 5.3 FlashXZhipu AI | 78 | $0.810 | 96.2 |
| 27 | Qwen3.7 PlusAlibaba | 76 | $0.800 | 94.5 |
| 28 | Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite PreviewGoogle | 79 | $0.875 | 90.6 |
| 29 | Qwen3.5-27BAlibaba | 77 | $0.878 | 87.7 |
| 30 | GPT-5.1-Codex-MiniOpenAI | 88 | $1.13 | 78.0 |
| 31 | Gemini 3.8 Flash (batch)Google | 81 | $1.13 | 72.0 |
| 32 | Qwen3.5 Plus 2026-04-20Alibaba | 75 | $1.05 | 71.2 |
| 33 | GLM 4.7Zhipu AI | 75 | $1.07 | 69.9 |
| 34 | GLM 4.6Zhipu AI | 75 | $1.09 | 68.9 |
| 35 | Qwen3.5-122B-A10BAlibaba | 78 | $1.17 | 66.4 |
| 36 | Qwen3.6 PlusAlibaba | 74 | $1.14 | 65.1 |
| 37 | GLM 5Zhipu AI | 78 | $1.26 | 61.9 |
| 38 | GPT-5.4 Mini (batch)OpenAI | 79 | $1.31 | 60.4 |
| 39 | R1 0528DeepSeek | 79 | $1.33 | 59.9 |
| 40 | o4 Mini (batch)OpenAI | 81 | $1.38 | 59.2 |
| 41 | GLM 5.2Zhipu AI | 79 | $1.35 | 58.4 |
| 42 | GLM 5.3Zhipu AI | 79 | $1.35 | 58.0 |
| 43 | Gemini 2.5 FlashGoogle | 79 | $1.40 | 56.5 |
| 44 | Gemini 3.5 Flash LiteGoogle | 77 | $1.40 | 54.6 |
| 45 | o3 Mini (batch)OpenAI | 74 | $1.38 | 54.0 |
| 46 | GLM 4.5Zhipu AI | 75 | $1.40 | 53.6 |
Premium Leaders
Above-median score and cost - sorted by score| # | Model | Score | Cost/1M |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Claude Fable 5.1Anthropic | 96 | $30.00 |
| 2 | Claude Fable 5.1 (batch)Anthropic | 96 | $15.00 |
| 3 | Claude Fable 5Anthropic | 96 | $30.00 |
| 4 | Claude Fable 5 (batch)Anthropic | 96 | $15.00 |
| 5 | Claude Opus 5.5Anthropic | 95 | $12.00 |
| 6 | Claude Opus 5Anthropic | 95 | $15.00 |
| 7 | Claude Opus 4.8Anthropic | 95 | $15.00 |
| 8 | Claude Opus 4.7Anthropic | 95 | $15.00 |
| 9 | Claude Opus 4.7 (batch)Anthropic | 95 | $7.50 |
| 10 | Claude Opus 4.8 (batch)Anthropic | 95 | $7.50 |
| 11 | GPT-5.5 ProOpenAI | 93 | $105.00 |
| 12 | GPT-5.5 Pro (batch)OpenAI | 93 | $52.50 |
| 13 | GPT-5.5OpenAI | 93 | $17.50 |
| 14 | GPT-5.5 (batch)OpenAI | 93 | $8.75 |
| 15 | Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview Custom ToolsGoogle | 92 | $7.00 |
| 16 | Gemini 3.1 Pro PreviewGoogle | 92 | $7.00 |
| 17 | Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview (batch)Google | 92 | $3.50 |
| 18 | GPT-5.4 ProOpenAI | 92 | $105.00 |
| 19 | GPT-5.4 Pro (batch)OpenAI | 92 | $52.50 |
| 20 | GPT-5.4OpenAI | 92 | $8.75 |
| 21 | GPT-5.4 (batch)OpenAI | 92 | $4.38 |
| 22 | GPT-5.3-CodexOpenAI | 91 | $7.88 |
| 23 | GPT-5.2-CodexOpenAI | 91 | $7.88 |
| 24 | GPT-5.2 ChatOpenAI | 91 | $7.88 |
| 25 | GPT-5.2 ProOpenAI | 91 | $94.50 |
| 26 | GPT-5.2 Pro (batch)OpenAI | 91 | $47.25 |
| 27 | GPT-5.2OpenAI | 91 | $7.88 |
| 28 | GPT-5.2 (batch)OpenAI | 91 | $3.94 |
| 29 | Claude Opus 4.6Anthropic | 90 | $15.00 |
| 30 | Claude Opus 4.6 (batch)Anthropic | 90 | $7.50 |
| 31 | GPT-5.6 Terra ProOpenAI | 89 | $7.00 |
| 32 | GPT-5.6 Terra Pro (batch)OpenAI | 89 | $3.50 |
| 33 | GPT-5.6 TerraOpenAI | 89 | $7.00 |
| 34 | GPT-5.6 Terra (batch)OpenAI | 89 | $3.50 |
| 35 | GPT-5.6 Sol ProOpenAI | 89 | $6.00 |
| 36 | GPT-5.6 Sol Pro (batch)OpenAI | 89 | $3.00 |
| 37 | GPT-5.6 SolOpenAI | 89 | $6.00 |
| 38 | GPT-5.6 Sol (batch)OpenAI | 89 | $3.00 |
| 39 | Grok 4.7xAI | 89 | $3.20 |
| 40 | Grok 4.6xAI | 89 | $4.00 |
| 41 | Grok 4.5xAI | 89 | $4.00 |
| 42 | Grok 4.3xAI | 89 | $1.88 |
| 43 | Grok 4.20xAI | 89 | $1.88 |
| 44 | GPT-5.1-Codex-MaxOpenAI | 89 | $5.63 |
| 45 | GPT-5.1OpenAI | 89 | $5.63 |
| 46 | GPT-5.1-CodexOpenAI | 89 | $5.63 |
| 47 | GPT-5 ProOpenAI | 89 | $67.50 |
| 48 | GPT-5 Pro (batch)OpenAI | 89 | $33.75 |
| 49 | GPT-5OpenAI | 89 | $5.63 |
| 50 | GPT-5 (batch)OpenAI | 89 | $2.81 |
| 51 | Gemini 3 Flash PreviewGoogle | 88 | $1.75 |
| 52 | Grok 4.20 Multi-AgentxAI | 88 | $1.88 |
| 53 | GPT-5.1 (batch)OpenAI | 88 | $2.81 |
| 54 | o3 ProOpenAI | 87 | $50.00 |
| 55 | o3OpenAI | 87 | $5.00 |
| 56 | o3 (batch)OpenAI | 87 | $2.50 |
| 57 | Claude Sonnet 5Anthropic | 85 | $6.00 |
| 58 | Claude Sonnet 4.6Anthropic | 85 | $9.00 |
| 59 | Claude Sonnet 4.6 (batch)Anthropic | 85 | $4.50 |
| 60 | Claude Opus 4.5Anthropic | 85 | $15.00 |
| 61 | Claude Opus 4.5 (batch)Anthropic | 85 | $7.50 |
| 62 | Gemini 2.5 ProGoogle | 84 | $5.63 |
| 63 | Gemini 2.5 Pro (batch)Google | 84 | $2.81 |
| 64 | Gemini 2.5 Pro Preview 06-05Google | 84 | $5.63 |
| 65 | Claude Sonnet 4.5Anthropic | 82 | $9.00 |
| 66 | Claude Sonnet 4.5 (batch)Anthropic | 82 | $4.50 |
| 67 | GPT-6 AstraOpenAI | 82 | $30.00 |
| 68 | GPT-6 Astra (batch)OpenAI | 82 | $15.00 |
| 69 | GPT-6 Astra ProOpenAI | 82 | $30.00 |
| 70 | GPT-6 Astra Pro (batch)OpenAI | 82 | $15.00 |
| 71 | o4 MiniOpenAI | 81 | $2.75 |
| 72 | Gemini 3.8 FlashGoogle | 81 | $2.25 |
| 73 | Grok 4.3 (batch)xAI | 81 | $1.50 |
| 74 | Muse Spark 1.3meta | 81 | $2.75 |
| 75 | Muse Spark 1.2meta | 81 | $2.75 |
| 76 | Muse Spark 1.1meta | 81 | $2.75 |
| 77 | Qwen3.5 397B A17BAlibaba | 79 | $2.02 |
| 78 | GPT-5.4 MiniOpenAI | 79 | $2.63 |
| 79 | Gemini 3.5 FlashGoogle | 79 | $5.25 |
| 80 | Gemini 3.5 Flash (batch)Google | 79 | $2.63 |
| 81 | GLM 5.3 (batch)Zhipu AI | 79 | $1.56 |
| 82 | GLM 5.1Zhipu AI | 78 | $2.00 |
| 83 | GLM 5 TurboZhipu AI | 78 | $2.60 |
| 84 | Kimi K2.6Moonshot AI | 76 | $2.48 |
| 85 | Qwen3.8 Max (0902)Alibaba | 76 | $4.00 |
| 86 | o3 MiniOpenAI | 75 | $2.75 |
| 87 | Claude Opus 4.1 (batch)Anthropic | 75 | $22.50 |
| 88 | Qwen3.7 MaxAlibaba | 75 | $2.95 |
| 89 | Qwen3.6 Max PreviewAlibaba | 75 | $3.59 |
| 90 | Claude Opus 4.1Anthropic | 74 | $45.00 |
| 91 | o1OpenAI | 74 | $37.50 |
| 92 | Claude Sonnet 4Anthropic | 74 | $9.00 |
| 93 | R1DeepSeek | 74 | $1.60 |
| 94 | o1-proOpenAI | 74 | $375.00 |
| 95 | Qwen3.8 27BAlibaba | 73 | $1.71 |
| 96 | Inklingthinkingmachines | 73 | $2.52 |
| 97 | GLM 5V TurboZhipu AI | 72 | $2.60 |
Budget Options
Below-median score and cost - sorted by score| # | Model | Score | Cost/1M |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | DeepSeek V3.2 ExpDeepSeek | 72 | $0.340 |
| 2 | DeepSeek V3.1DeepSeek | 72 | $0.600 |
| 3 | DeepSeek V3 0324DeepSeek | 72 | $0.625 |
| 4 | MiniMax M2.7MiniMax | 72 | $0.750 |
| 5 | MiniMax M2.5MiniMax | 72 | $0.675 |
| 6 | MiniMax M2.1MiniMax | 71 | $0.750 |
| 7 | MiniMax M2MiniMax | 71 | $0.637 |
| 8 | MiniMax M1MiniMax | 71 | $1.30 |
| 9 | GLM 4.5 AirZhipu AI | 71 | $0.490 |
| 10 | Llama 4 MaverickMeta | 71 | $0.420 |
| 11 | DeepSeek V3DeepSeek | 70 | $0.605 |
| 12 | Qwen3 VL 235B A22B InstructAlibaba | 69 | $1.05 |
| 13 | DeepSeek V3.1 TerminusDeepSeek | 69 | $0.635 |
| 14 | GPT-4o-miniOpenAI | 69 | $0.375 |
| 15 | Inkling Smallthinkingmachines | 69 | $0.825 |
| 16 | Qwen3.5-FlashAlibaba | 69 | $0.163 |
| 17 | Hy3 previewTencent | 68 | $0.390 |
| 18 | Qwen3.5 Plus 2026-02-15Alibaba | 68 | $0.910 |
| 19 | MiniMax M2-herMiniMax | 68 | $0.750 |
| 20 | Mistral Large 3 2512 (batch)Mistral AI | 67 | $0.500 |
| 21 | Llama 3.3 70B InstructMeta | 67 | $0.210 |
| 22 | Qwen3 Next 80B A3B ThinkingAlibaba | 67 | $0.675 |
| 23 | Qwen3 Next 80B A3B InstructAlibaba | 67 | $0.595 |
| 24 | Qwen3.5-9BAlibaba | 67 | $0.125 |
| 25 | Step 3.5 FlashStepFun | 66 | $0.200 |
| 26 | GLM 4.6VZhipu AI | 66 | $0.600 |
| 27 | Qwen3 235B A22B Thinking 2507Alibaba | 65 | $1.26 |
| 28 | Llama 3.1 70B InstructMeta | 65 | $0.400 |
| 29 | Qwen3 235B A22B Instruct 2507Alibaba | 65 | $0.219 |
| 30 | Qwen3 30B A3B Thinking 2507Alibaba | 64 | $1.30 |
| 31 | Qwen3 30B A3B Instruct 2507Alibaba | 64 | $0.121 |
| 32 | Qwen3 30B A3BAlibaba | 64 | $0.310 |
| 33 | GLM 4.7 FlashZhipu AI | 64 | $0.230 |
| 34 | Trinity Large Thinkingarcee-ai | 63 | $0.525 |
| 35 | GPT-4o-mini (batch)OpenAI | 63 | $0.188 |
| 36 | GLM 4.5VZhipu AI | 62 | $1.20 |
| 37 | GPT-5 NanoOpenAI | 62 | $0.225 |
| 38 | gpt-oss-120bOpenAI | 62 | $0.375 |
| 39 | Mercury 2.5Inception | 61 | $0.095 |
| 40 | Qwen3 8BAlibaba | 61 | $0.286 |
| 41 | Mercury 2Inception | 61 | $0.500 |
| 42 | Nova 2 LiteAmazon | 60 | $1.40 |
| 43 | Llama 4 ScoutMeta | 60 | $0.200 |
| 44 | Phi 4Microsoft | 60 | $0.105 |
| 45 | GPT-4.1 Mini (batch)OpenAI | 59 | $0.500 |
| 46 | GPT-4.1 Nano (batch)OpenAI | 59 | $0.125 |
| 47 | gpt-oss-20bOpenAI | 57 | $0.054 |
| 48 | gpt-oss-20b (batch)OpenAI | 57 | $0.068 |
| 49 | GPT-4o-mini (2024-07-18)OpenAI | 57 | $0.375 |
| 50 | GPT-4.1 MiniOpenAI | 56 | $1.000 |
| 51 | Qwen3 235B A22BAlibaba | 54 | $1.14 |
| 52 | Granite 4.2 8BIBM | 54 | $0.155 |
| 53 | GPT-5 MiniOpenAI | 54 | $1.13 |
| 54 | Claude 3 HaikuAnthropic | 51 | $0.750 |
| 55 | Command R (08-2024)Cohere | 49 | $0.375 |
| 56 | Kimi K2.5Moonshot AI | 48 | $1.35 |
| 57 | Llama 3.1 8B InstructMeta | 45 | $0.065 |
| 58 | GPT-4.1 NanoOpenAI | 42 | $0.250 |
| 59 | R1 Distill Llama 70BDeepSeek | 41 | $0.800 |
| 60 | MiMo-V2.6-FlashXiaomi | 40 | $0.210 |
| 61 | Ternary Bonsai 2 27Bprism-ml | 40 | $0.287 |
| 62 | DeepSeek Pro Latest~deepseek | 40 | $1.12 |
| 63 | DeepSeek Flash Latest~deepseek | 40 | $0.300 |
| 64 | Schematron V2 Turboinference-net | 40 | $0.090 |
| 65 | Schematron V2 Smallinference-net | 40 | $0.140 |
| 66 | GPT Luna Latest~openai | 40 | $0.700 |
| 67 | Ling 3.0 Flash VLinclusionai | 40 | $0.120 |
| 68 | DeepSeek V4.1 FlashDeepSeek | 40 | $0.375 |
| 69 | DeepSeek V4.1 Flash (batch)DeepSeek | 40 | $0.224 |
| 70 | Muse Spark 1.3 Contributormeta | 40 | $0.150 |
| 71 | Ling 3.0 Flash Fininclusionai | 40 | $0.120 |
| 72 | GLM Flash Latest~z-ai | 40 | $0.163 |
| 73 | Qwen3.8 FlashAlibaba | 40 | $0.310 |
| 74 | Muse Spark 1.2 Contributormeta | 40 | $0.150 |
| 75 | DeepSeek V4 Flash Vision ExpDeepSeek | 40 | $0.440 |
| 76 | Hy-MT2-1.8BTencent | 40 | $0.111 |
| 77 | Hy-MT2-30B-A3BTencent | 40 | $0.184 |
| 78 | GLM Latest~z-ai | 40 | $1.35 |
| 79 | Hy-MT2-7BTencent | 40 | $0.184 |
| 80 | Gemini 3.7 Flash (batch)Google | 40 | $1.13 |
| 81 | DeepSeek V4 Pro 0813DeepSeek | 40 | $1.32 |
| 82 | Nemotron 3.5 LightningNVIDIA | 40 | $0.135 |
| 83 | Solar Pro 4Upstage | 40 | $0.225 |
| 84 | Muse Glimmer 30Bmeta | 40 | $0.750 |
| 85 | DeepSeek V4 Flash Latest~deepseek | 40 | $0.515 |
| 86 | DeepSeek V4 Flash 0731DeepSeek | 40 | $0.340 |
| 87 | Qwen3.7 FlashAlibaba | 40 | $0.080 |
| 88 | Ling 3.0 Flashinclusionai | 40 | $0.042 |
| 89 | Laguna S 2.1poolside | 40 | $0.135 |
| 90 | Gemini 3.6 Flash (batch)Google | 40 | $1.13 |
| 91 | LongCat 2.0Meituan | 40 | $0.750 |
| 92 | Aion-3.0-Miniaion-labs | 40 | $1.05 |
| 93 | Laguna XS 2.1poolside | 40 | $0.090 |
Overpriced Models
Below-median score, above-median cost| # | Model | Score | Cost/1M | Score Deficit |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Claude Opus 5.5 (batch)Anthropic | 40 | $6.00 | -32.3 |
| 2 | MiMo-V2.6-Pro-UltraSpeedXiaomi | 40 | $6.52 | -32.3 |
| 3 | Paretounbiased | 40 | $5.00 | -32.3 |
| 4 | GPT Astra Latest~openai | 40 | $30.00 | -32.3 |
| 5 | GPT Sol Latest~openai | 40 | $6.00 | -32.3 |
| 6 | GPT Terra Latest~openai | 40 | $7.00 | -32.3 |
| 7 | Fugu Ultra v2sakana | 40 | $17.50 | -32.3 |
| 8 | Fugu Maxsakana | 40 | $4.00 | -32.3 |
| 9 | Hy4 previewTencent | 40 | $1.67 | -32.3 |
| 10 | Gemini 3.7 FlashGoogle | 40 | $2.25 | -32.3 |
| 11 | Seed 2.1 TurboByteDance | 40 | $1.50 | -32.3 |
| 12 | Qwen3.8 2.4T A95BAlibaba | 40 | $4.00 | -32.3 |
| 13 | Seed-2.0-CodeByteDance | 40 | $1.75 | -32.3 |
| 14 | Sakana Namazusakana | 40 | $2.48 | -32.3 |
| 15 | Claude Opus 5 (batch)Anthropic | 40 | $7.50 | -32.3 |
| 16 | Gemini 3.6 FlashGoogle | 40 | $2.25 | -32.3 |
| 17 | Kimi K3Moonshot AI | 40 | $9.00 | -32.3 |
| 18 | Kimi K3 (batch)Moonshot AI | 40 | $6.84 | -32.3 |
| 19 | KAT-Coder-Pro V2.5Kuaishou | 40 | $1.85 | -32.3 |
| 20 | Grok Latest~x-ai | 40 | $3.20 | -32.3 |
| 21 | Aion-3.0aion-labs | 40 | $4.50 | -32.3 |
| 22 | Claude Sonnet 5 (batch)Anthropic | 40 | $3.00 | -32.3 |
| 23 | Fugu Ultrasakana | 40 | $17.50 | -32.3 |
| 24 | Kimi K2.7 CodeMoonshot AI | 40 | $2.00 | -32.3 |
| 25 | Command R+ (08-2024)Cohere | 49 | $6.25 | -23.6 |
| 26 | Command ACohere | 51 | $6.25 | -21.5 |
| 27 | GPT-4 Turbo (batch)OpenAI | 62 | $10.00 | -10.8 |
| 28 | Mixtral 8x22B InstructMistral AI | 63 | $4.00 | -8.9 |
| 29 | o3 Mini HighOpenAI | 64 | $2.75 | -8.4 |
| 30 | GPT-4OpenAI | 65 | $45.00 | -7.4 |
| 31 | Composer 2Cursor | 66 | $1.50 | -6.6 |
| 32 | Composer 2 FastCursor | 66 | $4.50 | -6.6 |
| 33 | Mistral Large 2407Mistral AI | 66 | $4.00 | -6.4 |
| 34 | Mistral LargeMistral AI | 66 | $4.00 | -6.4 |
| 35 | GPT-4 TurboOpenAI | 67 | $20.00 | -5.6 |
| 36 | Qwen3 MaxAlibaba | 67 | $2.34 | -4.9 |
| 37 | GPT-4.1OpenAI | 68 | $5.00 | -4.6 |
| 38 | GPT-4.1 (batch)OpenAI | 68 | $2.50 | -4.6 |
| 39 | Qwen3 Max ThinkingAlibaba | 68 | $2.34 | -4.1 |
| 40 | Qwen3 VL 235B A22B ThinkingAlibaba | 69 | $2.20 | -3.0 |
| 41 | Claude Haiku 4.5Anthropic | 70 | $3.00 | -2.4 |
| 42 | Claude Haiku 4.5 (batch)Anthropic | 70 | $1.50 | -2.4 |
| 43 | GPT-4o (2024-11-20)OpenAI | 71 | $6.25 | -1.1 |
| 44 | GPT-4o (2024-08-06)OpenAI | 71 | $6.25 | -1.1 |
| 45 | GPT-4oOpenAI | 71 | $6.25 | -1.1 |
| 46 | GPT-4o (2024-05-13)OpenAI | 71 | $10.00 | -1.1 |
| 47 | Mistral Medium 3.5Mistral AI | 72 | $4.50 | -0.7 |
| 48 | GPT-4o (batch)OpenAI | 72 | $3.13 | -0.3 |
| 49 | o4 Mini HighOpenAI | 72 | $2.75 | -0.2 |
Free Tier Analysis
15 models with zero API cost| # | Model | Score |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Gemma 4 31B (free)Google | 81 |
| 2 | GLM 5.2 (free)Zhipu AI | 76 |
| 3 | Gemma 4 26B A4B (free)Google | 73 |
| 4 | Qwen3.8 27B (free)Alibaba | 73 |
| 5 | Inkling (free)thinkingmachines | 73 |
| 6 | Inkling Small (free)thinkingmachines | 69 |
| 7 | Ling 3.0 Flash VL (free)inclusionai | 40 |
| 8 | Ling 3.0 Flash Sante (free)inclusionai | 40 |
| 9 | Ling 3.0 Flash Fin (free)inclusionai | 40 |
| 10 | Dots3-Note Preview (free)dots-studio | 40 |
| 11 | LFM2.5-2.6B (free)Liquid AI | 40 |
| 12 | Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (free)NVIDIA | 40 |
| 13 | Laguna S 2.1 (free)poolside | 40 |
| 14 | Laguna XS 2.1 (free)poolside | 40 |
| 15 | North Mini Code (free)Cohere | 40 |
Landscape Insights
Median Thresholds
The median score is 72 and the median cost is $1.50/1M tokens. These thresholds define the quadrant boundaries.
Hidden Gems Rate
16.1% of paid models are Hidden Gems -- great quality at prices below the median. These are the models worth paying attention to.
Overpriced Count
49 models sit in the Overpriced quadrant -- below-median performance at above-median prices. Consider alternatives before choosing these.
Best Free Model
The best free model (Gemma 4 31B (free)) scores 81, outperforming 199 paid models.
Frequently Asked Questions
Hidden Gems are models that score above the median quality score while costing below the median price. They deliver top-tier performance at lower-than-typical prices, making them excellent choices for cost-conscious developers who do not want to sacrifice quality.
Models are placed into quadrants based on their composite score and average cost relative to the median. Premium Leaders have above-median scores and costs. Hidden Gems have above-median scores but below-median costs. Budget Options have below-median scores and costs. Overpriced models have below-median scores but above-median costs.
The value ratio is calculated as composite score divided by average cost per million tokens. A higher ratio means you get more quality per dollar spent. This metric helps identify models that punch above their weight class in terms of price-to-performance efficiency.