Model Comparison for Customer Support
All costs assume 2,000 input tokens (ticket + knowledge base context) and 500 output tokens (the response) per ticket, at 1,000 tickets per day (30,000/month). Support is input-heavy due to context injection.
| Model | Provider | Input / 1M | Output / 1M | Monthly Cost | Quality |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mistral Small 4 | Mistral | $0.10 | $0.30 | $10.50 | Good |
| Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite | $0.10 | $0.40 | $12.00 | Good | |
| DeepSeek V4 Flash | DeepSeek | $0.14 | $0.28 | $12.60 | Good |
| GPT-4o mini | OpenAI | $0.15 | $0.60 | $18.00 | Great |
| Command R | Cohere | $0.15 | $0.60 | $18.00 | Good |
| Claude Haiku 4.5 | Anthropic | $0.80 | $4.00 | $108.00 | Great |
| GPT-4o | OpenAI | $2.50 | $10.00 | $300.00 | Excellent |
| Claude Sonnet 4.6 | Anthropic | $3.00 | $15.00 | $405.00 | Excellent |
Best Model by Budget
Under $20/month
Ideal for small support teams and startups
- Mistral Small 4 — $10.50/mo. Cheapest option for basic FAQ-style support.
- GPT-4o mini — $18.00/mo. Best balance. Handles complex queries better than budget models.
$100 – $500/month
Ideal for growing support teams with complex products
- Claude Haiku 4.5 — $108.00/mo. Excellent at following support scripts and escalation rules.
- GPT-4o — $300.00/mo. Best for complex multi-step support scenarios.
$500+/month
Ideal for enterprise support with high-stakes customers
- Claude Sonnet 4.6 — $405.00/mo. Best instruction following for strict support protocols.
- GPT-5 — Premium quality for Tier 3 escalation and complex troubleshooting.
GPT-4o mini
For most customer support workloads, GPT-4o mini hits the sweet spot. At $18/month for 1,000 tickets/day, it handles FAQ responses, ticket routing, and basic troubleshooting with excellent accuracy. Only upgrade to GPT-4o if you need complex multi-step reasoning.
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