Updated July 13, 2026

Top 10 Cheapest LLM APIs Right Now

Ranked by effective cost per token across 67 models and 10 providers. Prices in USD per 1 million tokens. See the most expensive →

How we rank

Models are ranked by blended cost using a 1:3 input-to-output ratio (typical for chat/assistant workloads). A model costing $0.10/M input + $0.30/M output scores at $1.00/M blended. Context window and provider are noted but don't affect ranking. All prices sourced directly from provider pricing pages.

Price trends: ↓ Dropped = price decreased recently · → Stable = no change in past 30 days · ↑ Increased = price went up. Trends reflect changes since May 2026.

#1

Llama 3.1 8B

Meta's efficient 8B-parameter model. Great for high-volume tasks, classification, and extraction.

Meta (Together.ai) 128K context 97% cheaper than GPT-5.5 Pro → Stable (Jul)
Input
$0.14 /M tokens
Output
$0.14 /M tokens
#2

Gemini 2.0 Flash Lite

Google's ultra-lightweight model. 1M token context window at the lowest price in the industry.

Google 1M context Cheapest input price ($0.07/M) ↓ Dropped (Jun)
Input
$0.07 /M tokens
Output
$0.30 /M tokens
#3

DeepSeek V4 Flash

DeepSeek's speed-optimized model. 1M context at extremely competitive pricing.

DeepSeek 1M context 91% cheaper than GPT-5 on output ↓ New (Jul)
Input
$0.14 /M tokens
Output
$0.28 /M tokens
#4

GPT-oss 20B

OpenAI's open-source 20B model. Surprisingly cheap for an OpenAI offering.

OpenAI 128K context OpenAI's cheapest model ↓ New (Jul)
Input
$0.08 /M tokens
Output
$0.35 /M tokens
#5

DeepSeek V3.2

DeepSeek's general-purpose model. Excellent quality-to-price ratio.

DeepSeek 128K context 96% cheaper than Claude 4 Opus → Stable (Jul)
Input
$0.23 /M tokens
Output
$0.34 /M tokens
#6

GPT-4.1 nano

OpenAI's nano-tier model. 1M context at budget pricing — ideal for bulk processing.

OpenAI 1M context 150x cheaper than GPT-5.5 Pro → Stable (Jul)
Input
$0.10 /M tokens
Output
$0.40 /M tokens
#7

Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite

Google's Flash-Lite line. 1M context, same price tier as GPT-4.1 nano.

Google 1M context Best value 1M context model → Stable (Jul)
Input
$0.10 /M tokens
Output
$0.40 /M tokens
#8

Gemini 2.0 Flash

Google's workhorse model. Same price as Flash-Lite with stronger general capabilities.

Google 1M context Best price-to-quality ratio → Stable (Jul)
Input
$0.10 /M tokens
Output
$0.40 /M tokens
#9

Jamba Mini

AI21's hybrid model. 256K context with competitive pricing.

AI21 256K context Hybrid architecture efficiency → Stable (Jul)
Input
$0.20 /M tokens
Output
$0.40 /M tokens
#10

GPT-oss 120B

OpenAI's larger open-source model. More capable than the 20B at still-reasonable pricing.

OpenAI 128K context 93% cheaper than GPT-5.5 Pro → Stable (Jul)
Input
$0.15 /M tokens
Output
$0.60 /M tokens

How much could you save?

Enter your monthly token usage to see the cost difference between the cheapest and most expensive models.

Llama 3.1 8B (cheapest)
$56.00
GPT-5.5 Pro (most expensive)
$57,000

You'd save $56,944/mo by choosing the cheapest model.

Cheapest Model Per Provider

Meta (Together.ai)

Cheapest: $0.14/M input
Model: Llama 3.1 8B
5 models total

Google

Cheapest: $0.07/M input
Model: Gemini 2.0 Flash Lite
9 models total

DeepSeek

Cheapest: $0.14/M input
Model: DeepSeek V4 Flash
4 models total

OpenAI

Cheapest: $0.08/M input
Model: GPT-oss 20B
22 models total

Mistral

Cheapest: $0.15/M input
Model: Mistral Small 4
4 models total

AI21

Cheapest: $0.20/M input
Model: Jamba Mini
3 models total

Anthropic

Cheapest: $0.80/M input
Model: Claude Haiku 4.5
12 models total

Cohere

Cheapest: $0.50/M input
Model: Command A
3 models total

xAI

Cheapest: $0.30/M input
Model: Grok Build 0.1
3 models total

Moonshot

Cheapest: $0.70/M input
Model: Kimi K2.6
2 models total

Calculate your exact costs

Use our free calculator to compare all 67 models and find the cheapest option for your specific usage pattern.

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