Budget LLM Showdown
Every budget-tier model compared side by side. Enter your usage, see exact monthly costs, and find the cheapest option for your use case.
Your Usage
Budget Models Compared
| Model | Input $/1M | Output $/1M | Context | Monthly Cost | Cost/Request | Best For |
|---|
Budget Model Insights
Cheapest per Token
Llama 3.1 8B at $0.10/$0.10 per 1M tokens is the absolute cheapest. Best for high-volume, latency-tolerant workloads where you control the infrastructure.
Cheapest Managed API
Gemini 2.0 Flash Lite at $0.075/$0.30 is the cheapest managed API with 1M context. Google's free tier makes it even better for low-volume projects.
Best Value Overall
DeepSeek V4 Flash at $0.14/$0.28 delivers strong quality at budget prices with 1M context. The best bang-for-buck in 2026.
Longest Context
Llama 4 Scout on Together.ai has 10M context at $0.11/$0.34. Unmatched for document-heavy workloads — if you can handle dedicated inference.
Best from OpenAI
GPT-oss 20B at $0.08/$0.35 is OpenAI's cheapest model. Good for simple classification, extraction, and summarization tasks.
Sweet Spot: Under $50/mo
With 100K requests/month, most budget models cost under $50. That's 5-10x cheaper than premium models for workloads that don't need them.
Need a Deeper Comparison?
Use the full Cost Explorer to compare budget models against mid-tier and premium options for your exact usage.
Explore All 33 Models →