Question 1

What is the cheapest AI API in 2026?

Accepted Answer

DeepSeek V4 Flash is the cheapest at $0.14/$0.28 per 1M tokens (input/output). For budget-friendly options with large context windows, Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite ($0.10/$0.40) and Mistral Small 4 ($0.10/$0.30) are also excellent choices.

Question 2

How much does GPT-5.5 cost?

Accepted Answer

GPT-5.5 costs $5.00 per 1M input tokens and $30.00 per 1M output tokens. The Pro variant costs $30.00/$180.00. Context window is 1.05M tokens.

Question 3

How much does Claude Opus 4.8 cost?

Accepted Answer

Claude Opus 4.8 costs $5.00 per 1M input tokens and $25.00 per 1M output tokens. It has a 1M token context window. Claude Sonnet 4.6 is cheaper at $3.00/$15.00.

Question 4

Which AI provider is cheapest for high-volume API usage?

Accepted Answer

DeepSeek offers the lowest per-token prices. DeepSeek V4 Flash at $0.14/$0.28 per 1M tokens is 97% cheaper than GPT-5.5. For even lower costs, consider open-weight models via Together.ai like Llama 3.1 8B at $0.10/$0.10.

AI API Pricing Dashboard

Unlock Full Comparison Power