How to compare fairly
List prices per million tokens hide the shape of real workloads: input-heavy tasks (document analysis, RAG) reward cheap input rates and caching, while output-heavy tasks (drafting, code generation) are dominated by the output price. Set the token mix to match your actual requests before comparing. Prices are standard-tier list prices from each provider's official pricing page — batch discounts (typically 50%) and provider-specific caveats are noted on each model's own page.
Not sure how many tokens your prompt is? Paste it into thetoken counter first.
Frequently asked questions
Which LLM API is cheapest in 2026?
For raw price per token, DeepSeek V4 Flash is currently the cheapest capable model at $0.14 per million input tokens and $0.28 per million output. Among the big three, Gemini Flash-Lite and GPT-5 nano compete around $0.05–$0.10 input. But cheapest-per-token is not cheapest-per-task: a stronger model that succeeds in one attempt often beats a cheap one that needs three.
Why are output tokens more expensive than input tokens?
Generating a token requires a full forward pass through the model, while input tokens are processed in parallel much more efficiently. Most providers price output 4–6× above input, so long responses dominate cost in chat-style workloads.
What is cached input and when does it apply?
If your requests repeat the same prompt prefix (a system prompt, few-shot examples, a document), providers can reuse the computed state and charge a fraction of the normal input rate — 90% off at OpenAI, Anthropic and Mistral, and up to 98% off at DeepSeek. The caching toggle above prices your input at each provider's cached rate; note Google also charges a small per-hour storage fee for its cache.
How many tokens is a typical request?
A short chat message with a modest system prompt is roughly 500 input and 250 output tokens. A 10-page document is about 7,000 tokens. Agent-style coding sessions routinely reach tens of thousands of input tokens per request because of accumulated context. Use the presets above, or count your own text with the token counter.
Per-model cost guides
OpenAI: GPT-5.6 Sol · GPT-5.6 Terra · GPT-5.6 Luna · GPT-5.4 · GPT-5 · GPT-5 mini · GPT-5 nano · GPT-4o · GPT-4o mini · o3 · o4-mini
Anthropic: Claude Fable 5 · Claude Opus 5 · Claude Sonnet 5 · Claude Haiku 4.5 · Claude Opus 4.8
Google: Gemini 3.6 Flash · Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview · Gemini 2.5 Pro · Gemini 2.5 Flash · Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite
DeepSeek: DeepSeek V4 Flash · DeepSeek V4 Pro
Mistral: Mistral Medium 3.5 · Mistral Large 3 · Mistral Small 4
Last updated 2026-08-03. Prices verified against official provider pricing pages; see the methodology.