Value Efficiency Tracker
Score-per-dollar analysis across 300 AI models. Find the models that deliver the most performance for every dollar spent, broken down by price tier, provider, and the sweet spot between quality and affordability.
Value Champions
Cost vs Score (Value Map)
Value Rankings
Top 50 non-free models by Value Score| # | Model | Score | Value Score |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Ling-2.6-flashinclusionai | 40 | 2000.0 |
| 2 | Ling-3.0-flashinclusionai | 40 | 952.4 |
| 3 | Granite 4.1 8BIBM | 55 | 737.3 |
| 4 | gpt-oss-20bOpenAI | 57 | 717.5 |
| 5 | Llama 3.1 8B InstructMeta | 45 | 684.6 |
| 6 | GPT-5 Nano (batch)OpenAI | 77 | 682.7 |
| 7 | Gemini 2.5 Flash Lite (batch)Google | 79 | 632.8 |
| 8 | Phi 4Microsoft | 60 | 573.3 |
| 9 | Qwen3.5-9BAlibaba | 67 | 532.0 |
| 10 | Qwen3 30B A3B Instruct 2507Alibaba | 64 | 531.5 |
| 11 | Qwen3.7 FlashAlibaba | 40 | 500.0 |
| 12 | Hy3 previewTencent | 68 | 499.6 |
| 13 | GPT-4.1 Nano (batch)OpenAI | 59 | 471.2 |
| 14 | Laguna XS 2.1poolside | 40 | 444.4 |
| 15 | Qwen3.5-FlashAlibaba | 69 | 422.2 |
| 16 | Reka Edgerekaai | 40 | 400.0 |
| 17 | gpt-oss-120bOpenAI | 40 | 390.3 |
| 18 | Gemma 4 31BGoogle | 81 | 365.9 |
| 19 | Gemma 4 26B A4B Google | 73 | 356.1 |
| 20 | MiMo-V2.5Xiaomi | 73 | 347.6 |
| 21 | GPT-4o-mini (batch)OpenAI | 63 | 333.3 |
| 22 | Step 3.5 FlashStepFun | 66 | 330.5 |
| 23 | Nemotron 3 Nano 30B A3BNVIDIA | 40 | 320.0 |
| 24 | Llama 3.3 70B InstructMeta | 67 | 318.1 |
| 25 | Gemini 2.5 Flash LiteGoogle | 79 | 316.4 |
| 26 | DeepSeek V4 Flash Latest~deepseek | 40 | 296.3 |
| 27 | DeepSeek V4 Flash 0731DeepSeek | 40 | 296.3 |
| 28 | Laguna S 2.1poolside | 40 | 296.3 |
| 29 | GLM 4.7 FlashZhipu AI | 64 | 277.0 |
| 30 | Llama 4 ScoutMeta | 55 | 273.5 |
| 31 | GPT-5.6 Luna ProOpenAI | 89 | 254.3 |
| 32 | GPT-5.6 Luna Pro (batch)OpenAI | 89 | 254.3 |
| 33 | GPT-5.6 LunaOpenAI | 89 | 254.3 |
| 34 | GPT-5.6 Luna (batch)OpenAI | 89 | 254.3 |
| 35 | DeepSeek V3.2DeepSeek | 81 | 254.1 |
| 36 | Hy3Tencent | 74 | 224.2 |
| 37 | GPT-5.4 Nano (batch)OpenAI | 79 | 218.8 |
| 38 | Seed 1.6 FlashByteDance | 40 | 213.3 |
| 39 | Qwen3 8BAlibaba | 61 | 213.3 |
| 40 | DeepSeek V3.2 ExpDeepSeek | 72 | 211.2 |
| 41 | GPT-5 NanoOpenAI | 47 | 208.4 |
| 42 | Qwen3 30B A3BAlibaba | 64 | 206.8 |
| 43 | Qwen3 235B A22B Instruct 2507Alibaba | 65 | 202.2 |
| 44 | MiniMax M3 (batch)MiniMax | 74 | 197.6 |
| 45 | DeepSeek V4 Flash 0423DeepSeek | 40 | 190.5 |
| 46 | GPT-4o-miniOpenAI | 69 | 184.8 |
| 47 | Olmo 3 32B ThinkAllen AI | 55 | 168.9 |
| 48 | GPT-4.1 NanoOpenAI | 42 | 168.4 |
| 49 | Nemotron 3 SuperNVIDIA | 40 | 164.9 |
| 50 | Llama 3.1 70B InstructMeta | 65 | 163.3 |
Free Tier Models
17 models with zero API cost| # | Model | Score |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Gemma 4 31B (free)Google | 81 |
| 2 | Gemma 4 26B A4B (free)Google | 73 |
| 3 | gpt-oss-20b (free)OpenAI | 57 |
| 4 | Ling 3.0 Tiny (free)inclusionai | 40 |
| 5 | Laguna S 2.1 (free)poolside | 40 |
| 6 | Laguna XS 2.1 (free)poolside | 40 |
| 7 | North Mini Code (free)Cohere | 40 |
| 8 | Nemotron 3.5 Content Safety (free)NVIDIA | 40 |
| 9 | Nemotron 3 Ultra (free)NVIDIA | 40 |
| 10 | Nemotron 3 Nano Omni (free)NVIDIA | 40 |
| 11 | Lyria 3 Pro PreviewGoogle | 40 |
| 12 | Lyria 3 Clip PreviewGoogle | 40 |
| 13 | Nemotron 3 Super (free)NVIDIA | 40 |
| 14 | Nemotron 3 Nano 30B A3B (free)NVIDIA | 40 |
| 15 | Falcon-H1-Arabic 34B InstructTII | 40 |
| 16 | Falcon-H1-Arabic 7B InstructTII | 40 |
| 17 | Falcon-H1-Arabic 3B InstructTII | 40 |
Price Tier Breakdown
The Sweet Spot - High Quality, Great Price
Models in the top 20% for value score AND top 50% for composite score. The best of both worlds.
Provider Value Comparison
Top 10 providers by avg value score (min 2 models)| Provider | Models | Avg Score | Avg Value |
|---|---|---|---|
| inclusionai | 4 | 40 | 795.2 |
| poolside | 2 | 40 | 370.4 |
| Tencent | 2 | 71 | 361.9 |
| Meta | 5 | 60 | 315.1 |
| Xiaomi | 2 | 75 | 232.2 |
| StepFun | 2 | 53 | 194.9 |
| DeepSeek | 12 | 66 | 140.2 |
| NVIDIA | 4 | 40 | 135.5 |
| Alibaba | 31 | 65 | 131.3 |
| MiniMax | 8 | 74 | 113.0 |
The value score is computed as composite quality score divided by average cost per million tokens. A model scoring 80 at $0.50/1M tokens has a value score of 160, while a model scoring 90 at $15/1M tokens has a value score of 6. Higher values mean more quality per dollar spent. Free models are excluded from value rankings since division by zero is undefined.
Sweet Spot models sit in the top 20% for value score AND the top 50% for composite quality score. They represent the best of both worlds: genuinely high-quality models that also deliver excellent value for money. These are the models most likely to satisfy both quality requirements and budget constraints.
Budget tier models (under $1/1M tokens) typically offer the highest value scores because even moderate quality at very low cost produces a strong ratio. However, the sweet spot analysis shows that some mid-tier models deliver the best combination of absolute quality and value. The ideal choice depends on whether you prioritize raw quality or cost efficiency.