State of LLM API Pricing
The definitive guide to LLM API costs. Compare every major model, find the cheapest option for your use case, and see where the market is heading.
Table of Contents
Full Price Ranking
All 67 models ranked by input cost (per million tokens). Click column headers to sort.
| # | Model | Provider | Tier | Input $/M ↓ | Output $/M ↓ | Context |
|---|
Provider Comparison
Each provider's model lineup, price range, and cheapest option.
Visual Price Charts
Input and output costs per million tokens, sorted cheapest to most expensive.
Input Cost ($/M tokens)
Output Cost ($/M tokens)
Cost Scenarios
What your monthly bill looks like at different usage levels.
Key Insights
What the data tells us about the LLM API market in July 2026.
Deprecation Alerts
Models scheduled for retirement. Plan your migration now.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the cheapest LLM API in July 2026?
GPT-oss 20B is the cheapest at $0.08/$0.35 per million input/output tokens. Mistral Small 4 and Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite tie at $0.10 input. For open-source models, Llama 3.1 8B via Together.ai costs $0.10/$0.10 per million tokens.
How much does GPT-5 cost?
GPT-5 costs $1.25 per million input tokens and $10.00 per million output tokens. GPT-5 mini is much cheaper at $0.25/$2.00 per million tokens — 5x cheaper for input and 5x cheaper for output.
How much does Claude cost?
Claude Sonnet 4.6 costs $3.00/$15.00 per million input/output tokens. Claude Haiku 4.5 costs $1.00/$5.00. Claude Opus 4.8 costs $5.00/$25.00. Haiku is the best value for most use cases.
Which LLM provider is cheapest overall?
DeepSeek and Google offer the cheapest models. DeepSeek V4 Flash costs $0.14/$0.28, and Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite costs $0.10/$0.40 per million tokens. For premium models, DeepSeek V4 Pro at $0.44/$0.87 is dramatically cheaper than GPT-5 ($1.25/$10.00) or Claude Opus ($5.00/$25.00).
How much does 1 million tokens cost?
It ranges from $0.08 (GPT-oss 20B input) to $180 (GPT-5.5 Pro output) per million tokens. Most mid-tier models cost $1-3 for input and $8-15 for output per million tokens. Use our calculator to estimate your specific usage.
How often does pricing change?
Providers typically update pricing every 3-6 months. Major launches (like GPT-5 or Claude Opus 4.8) often trigger price drops across the industry. We verify and update pricing data at least monthly.
Calculate Your Exact Costs
Use our free calculator to estimate your monthly spend across all 67 models, use our free tools to save scenarios and get optimization recommendations.
Data verified Jul 9, 2026. Prices in USD per million tokens. Source: APIpulse (getapipulse.com)