Best AI API for Your Budget
Enter your monthly budget — see exactly which models you can afford, how many requests you get, and which gives the best value.
Your primary use case
Your Recommendations
Showing models ranked by requests within your budget
$100
monthly budget
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max requests (best model)
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models within budget
| # | Model | Price (in/out per 1M) | Requests/mo | Cost/request | Budget used |
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Frequently Asked Questions
How do I choose the right AI API model for my budget?
Enter your monthly budget and usage pattern above. The tool ranks all 42 models by how many requests you can make within your budget, factoring in input and output token costs. The #1 recommendation gives you the most requests for your money while matching your quality needs.
What's the cheapest AI API model in 2026?
As of June 2026, the cheapest models are DeepSeek V4 Flash ($0.14/$0.28 per 1M tokens), Gemini 2.0 Flash Lite ($0.075/$0.30), and Mistral Small 4 ($0.10/$0.30). For a $50/month budget, DeepSeek V4 Flash gives you roughly 50,000+ standard chat requests.
How many API requests can I get for $100/month?
It depends on the model and your average token usage. For a typical chat request (800 input + 400 output tokens), $100/month gets you: ~275,000 requests on DeepSeek V4 Flash, ~55,000 on Llama 3.1 8B, ~28,000 on Claude Haiku 4.5, or ~2,400 on GPT-5. Use the calculator above for exact numbers based on your usage.
Should I pick the cheapest model or the best quality?
It depends on your use case. For internal tools, prototyping, or high-volume classification, budget models (DeepSeek, Llama, Gemini Flash) work great. For customer-facing applications, code generation, or complex reasoning, mid-tier models (Claude Sonnet, GPT-5, Gemini Pro) offer the best quality-per-dollar. The calculator above lets you filter by your quality needs.
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