Cheapest AI Models
Last updated: 43m ago
Every AI model ranked by API cost. Find free models, ultra-budget options under $0.50/1M tokens, and the best quality-per-dollar picks across 476+ models.
41
Free
$0/1M tokens
82
Ultra Budget
Under $0.50/1M
156
Budget
$0.50 – $3/1M
138
Standard
$3 – $15/1M
57
Premium
$15+/1M
Best Value - Highest Score per Dollar
Free
$0/1M tokens - 41 models| Model | Score | Input $/1M | Output $/1M |
|---|---|---|---|
| ERNIE-5.5-Flash-Preview (free)Baidu | 40 | Free | Free |
| Inkling 2 Small (free)thinkingmachines | 40 | Free | Free |
| LFM3-1.7B (free)Liquid AI | 40 | Free | Free |
| Flint (free)recursive | 40 | Free | Free |
| Nemotron 3.5 Super VL (free)NVIDIA | 40 | Free | Free |
| Summarizescaledown | 40 | $0.040 | Free |
| Extractscaledown | 40 | $0.040 | Free |
| Dots3-Note Preview (free)dots-studio | 40 | Free | Free |
| LFM2.5-2.6B (free)Liquid AI | 40 | Free | Free |
| Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (free)NVIDIA | 40 | Free | Free |
| North Mini Code (free)Cohere | 40 | Free | Free |
| Nemotron 3 Ultra (free)NVIDIA | 40 | Free | Free |
| Nemotron 3 Nano Omni (free)NVIDIA | - | Free | Free |
| Gemma 4 26B A4B (free)Google | - | Free | Free |
| Gemma 4 31B (free)Google | 76 | Free | Free |
| Lyria 3 Pro PreviewGoogle | - | Free | Free |
| Lyria 3 Clip PreviewGoogle | - | Free | Free |
| Midjourney v6.1Midjourney | - | Free | Free |
| Adobe Firefly 3Adobe | - | Free | Free |
| Leonardo PhoenixLeonardo AI | - | Free | Free |
| SoraOpenAI | - | Free | Free |
| Runway Gen-3 AlphaRunway | - | Free | Free |
| Pika 2.0Pika | - | Free | Free |
| MiniMax Video-01MiniMax | - | Free | Free |
| Luma Dream MachineLuma AI | - | Free | Free |
+16 more models in this tier. View all pricing →
Ultra Budget
Under $0.50/1M - 82 models| Model | Score | Input $/1M | Output $/1M |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mistral NemoMistral AI | - | $0.029 | $0.030 |
| Llama 3.1 8B InstructMeta | 48 | $0.020 | $0.040 |
| Ling 3.0 Tinyinclusionai | 40 | $0.015 | $0.045 |
| GLM 5.3 Flash (batch)Zhipu AI | 40 | $0.047 | $0.061 |
| Ling 3.0 Flashinclusionai | 40 | $0.021 | $0.063 |
| GLM Flash Latest~z-ai | 40 | $0.040 | $0.078 |
| GLM 5.3 FlashZhipu AI | 40 | $0.040 | $0.078 |
| Mistral Small 3Mistral AI | - | $0.050 | $0.080 |
| Gemma 4 26B A4B Google | - | $0.080 | $0.100 |
| Reka Edgerekaai | - | $0.100 | $0.100 |
| Ministral 3 3B 2512Mistral AI | - | $0.100 | $0.100 |
| Gemma 3 4BGoogle | - | $0.050 | $0.100 |
| gpt-oss-20b (batch)OpenAI | - | $0.024 | $0.112 |
| Ternary Bonsai 2 9Bprism-ml | 40 | $0.080 | $0.130 |
| Qwen3.7 FlashAlibaba | 40 | $0.030 | $0.130 |
| gpt-oss-20bOpenAI | - | $0.030 | $0.130 |
| Ling 3.1 Flashinclusionai | 40 | $0.045 | $0.135 |
| gpt-oss-120b (batch)OpenAI | - | $0.030 | $0.136 |
| Phi 4Microsoft | 70 | $0.070 | $0.140 |
| Nova Micro 1.0Amazon | - | $0.035 | $0.140 |
| DeepSeek V4 Flash 0731 (batch)DeepSeek | 40 | $0.048 | $0.144 |
| Schematron V2 Turboinference-net | 40 | $0.030 | $0.150 |
| Ministral 3 8B 2512Mistral AI | - | $0.150 | $0.150 |
| Gemma 3 12BGoogle | - | $0.050 | $0.150 |
| Command R7B (12-2024)Cohere | - | $0.037 | $0.150 |
+57 more models in this tier. View all pricing →
Budget
$0.50 – $3/1M - 156 models| Model | Score | Input $/1M | Output $/1M |
|---|---|---|---|
| Muse Embermeta | 40 | $0.100 | $0.500 |
| Particle-1particle-ai | 40 | $0.050 | $0.500 |
| DeepSeek V4.1 Flash 1017DeepSeek | 40 | $0.0060 | $0.500 |
| Claude Haiku 5.5Anthropic | 70 | $0.100 | $0.500 |
| GPT-6 Luna ProOpenAI | 40 | $0.100 | $0.500 |
| GPT-6 LunaOpenAI | 40 | $0.100 | $0.500 |
| Ternary Bonsai 2 27Bprism-ml | 40 | $0.075 | $0.500 |
| DeepSeek Flash Latest~deepseek | 40 | $0.0060 | $0.500 |
| GPT Luna Latest~openai | 40 | $0.100 | $0.500 |
| LFM2.5-2.6BLiquid AI | 40 | $0.350 | $0.500 |
| Claude Haiku Latest~anthropic | - | $0.100 | $0.500 |
| Qwen3 30B A3BAlibaba | - | $0.120 | $0.500 |
| Hy3Tencent | 40 | $0.132 | $0.528 |
| Mistral Small 3.1 24BMistral AI | - | $0.351 | $0.555 |
| DeepSeek V4.1 FlashDeepSeek | 40 | $0.051 | $0.567 |
| Hunyuan A13B InstructTencent | - | $0.140 | $0.570 |
| Ripple 65B Previewricursiveai | 40 | $0.200 | $0.600 |
| MiniMax M3.1 FlashMiniMax | 40 | $0.150 | $0.600 |
| Solar Pro 4Upstage | 40 | $0.150 | $0.600 |
| GPT-5.6 Luna Pro (batch)OpenAI | 89 | $0.100 | $0.600 |
| GPT-5.6 Luna (batch)OpenAI | 89 | $0.100 | $0.600 |
| Hy3 previewTencent | - | $0.180 | $0.600 |
| Mistral Small 4Mistral AI | - | $0.150 | $0.600 |
| Qwen3 VL 30B A3B InstructAlibaba | - | $0.150 | $0.600 |
| gpt-oss-120bOpenAI | - | $0.150 | $0.600 |
+131 more models in this tier. View all pricing →
Standard
$3 – $15/1M - 138 models| Model | Score | Input $/1M | Output $/1M |
|---|---|---|---|
| Glimpseelorian | 40 | $0.600 | $3.00 |
| Seed-2.0-CodeByteDance | 40 | $0.500 | $3.00 |
| Nano Banana 2 (Gemini 3.1 Flash Image)Google | - | $0.500 | $3.00 |
| Nano Banana 2 (Gemini 3.1 Flash Image Preview)Google | - | $0.500 | $3.00 |
| Gemini 3 Flash PreviewGoogle | 88 | $0.500 | $3.00 |
| Pareto 26.10unbiased | 40 | $0.800 | $3.20 |
| Pareto Latest~unbiased | 40 | $0.800 | $3.20 |
| Qwen3.6 27BAlibaba | - | $0.320 | $3.20 |
| GLM 5Zhipu AI | - | $1.00 | $3.20 |
| Nova Pro 1.0Amazon | - | $0.800 | $3.20 |
| Kimi K2.5Moonshot AI | 48 | $0.532 | $3.32 |
| Kimi K2.6Moonshot AI | 48 | $0.650 | $3.41 |
| Qwen3.8 Max (0902) (batch)Alibaba | 40 | $1.15 | $3.45 |
| Kimi K2.7 CodeMoonshot AI | 40 | $0.600 | $3.50 |
| Qwen3 235B A22B Thinking 2507Alibaba | 65 | $0.450 | $3.50 |
| Qwen3.5 397B A17BAlibaba | - | $0.600 | $3.60 |
| Gemini 3.7 FlashGoogle | 40 | $0.750 | $3.75 |
| Gemini 3.6 FlashGoogle | 40 | $0.750 | $3.75 |
| Mistral Medium 3.5 (batch)Mistral AI | - | $0.750 | $3.75 |
| Gemini Flash Latest~google | - | $0.750 | $3.75 |
| ERNIE-Light-DT-1.0Baidu | 40 | $1.13 | $3.94 |
| Sakana Namazusakana | 40 | $0.950 | $4.00 |
| GLM 5V TurboZhipu AI | - | $1.20 | $4.00 |
| GLM 5 TurboZhipu AI | - | $1.20 | $4.00 |
| o3 (batch)OpenAI | 87 | $1.00 | $4.00 |
+113 more models in this tier. View all pricing →
Premium
$15+/1M - 57 models| Model | Score | Input $/1M | Output $/1M |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ember-1fireworks | 40 | $3.00 | $15.00 |
| GPT-5.5 (batch)OpenAI | 89 | $2.50 | $15.00 |
| GPT-5.4 Image 2OpenAI | - | $8.00 | $15.00 |
| GPT-5.4OpenAI | 92 | $2.50 | $15.00 |
| Claude Sonnet 4.6Anthropic | 85 | $3.00 | $15.00 |
| Sonar Pro SearchPerplexity | - | $3.00 | $15.00 |
| Claude Sonnet 4.5Anthropic | 82 | $3.00 | $15.00 |
| Sonar ProPerplexity | - | $3.00 | $15.00 |
| GPT-4o (2024-05-13)OpenAI | 70 | $5.00 | $15.00 |
| GPT-4 Turbo (batch)OpenAI | 57 | $5.00 | $15.00 |
| Kimi K3Moonshot AI | 40 | $0.192 | $16.00 |
| Claude Fable 5.2 (batch)Anthropic | 96 | $4.00 | $20.00 |
| Muse Wondermeta | 40 | $4.00 | $20.00 |
| Claude Opus 5.5Anthropic | 95 | $4.00 | $20.00 |
| GPT-5.6 Sol ProOpenAI | 89 | $4.00 | $20.00 |
| GPT-5.6 SolOpenAI | 89 | $4.00 | $20.00 |
| Claude Opus Latest~anthropic | - | $4.00 | $20.00 |
| GPT-6 Astra (batch)OpenAI | 82 | $5.00 | $25.00 |
| GPT-6 Astra Pro (batch)OpenAI | 82 | $5.00 | $25.00 |
| Claude Fable 5.1 (batch)Anthropic | 96 | $5.00 | $25.00 |
| Claude Opus 5Anthropic | 95 | $5.00 | $25.00 |
| Claude Fable 5 (batch)Anthropic | 96 | $5.00 | $25.00 |
| Claude Opus 4.8Anthropic | 95 | $5.00 | $25.00 |
| Claude Opus 4.7Anthropic | 95 | $5.00 | $25.00 |
| Claude Opus 4.6Anthropic | 90 | $5.00 | $25.00 |
+32 more models in this tier. View all pricing →
Frequently Asked Questions
AI models charge per token - the basic unit of text. A token is roughly 4 characters or 0.75 words. Pricing is typically listed per million tokens for both input (your prompt) and output (the model response).
Several models are completely free including some from Google, Meta, and others. For paid models, pricing starts as low as $0.01 per million tokens. Check our cheapest models page for the full ranking.
Use our token counter to measure your typical prompt and response sizes, then multiply by the model's per-token price. Our cost calculator can automate this based on your expected monthly usage.
It depends on your usage volume. For light use (under ~100 messages/day), subscriptions are usually cheaper. For heavy or programmatic use, API access is typically more cost-effective. Use our subscription calculator to compare.