Which LLM API is the cheapest in 2026?

As of April 2026, GPT-4.1 Nano and Gemini 2.0 Flash Lite offer the lowest per-token pricing for production workloads. Prices vary by input vs. output tokens, so the cheapest option depends on your specific usage pattern.

How often are LLM API prices updated?

We verify pricing directly from provider documentation every week. Each model listing shows a 'Last verified' date so you can confirm the data is current.

What is the difference between input and output token pricing?

Input tokens are the tokens you send to the API (your prompt), while output tokens are the tokens the model generates in its response. Most providers charge different rates for each, with output tokens typically costing 2-5x more than input tokens.

Do any LLM APIs offer free tiers?

Several providers offer limited free tiers or trial credits. Google's Gemini API has a generous free tier for lower rate limits. OpenAI and Anthropic offer sign-up credits for new accounts. Check each provider's pricing page for current free tier details.

LLM API Pricing Comparison 2026

Compare input and output token pricing across 92 large language models from OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, Meta, and more. Sort by any column, filter by provider or capability, and click any model to see full benchmarks and details.

Data verified Apr 20, 2026

Provider:

Capabilities:

Last verified: Apr 20, 2026

Showing 92 of 92 models

Model	Provider	Input $/M	Output $/M	Context	Arena ELO	Speed (tok/s)	Capabilities
Claude Opus 4	Anthropic	$5.00	$25.00	200K	1503	50	VisionJSONFn
Gemini 2.5 Pro	Google	$1.25	$10.00	1.048576M	1430	70	VisionJSONFn
o3	OpenAI	$2.00	$8.00	200K	1340	15	JSONFn
DeepSeek R1	DeepSeek	$0.500	$2.15	128K	1310	45	JSON
o1	OpenAI	$15.00	$60.00	200K	1310	20	JSONFn
Qwen 3 235B MoE	Alibaba	$0.455	$1.82	128K	1310	100	JSONFn
Gemini Experimental 1206	Google	$0.00	$0.00	2M	1300	100	JSONFn
GPT-4.5	OpenAI	$75.00	$150.00	128K	1290	100	VisionJSONFn
DeepSeek R1 (Groq)	Groq	$0.750	$0.990	128K	1290	100	JSONFn
Llama 4 Maverick	Meta	$0.150	$0.600	1.048576M	1290	90	VisionJSONFn
DeepSeek R1 (Together)	Together AI	$3.00	$7.00	64K	1290	100	JSONFn
Grok 3	xAI	$3.00	$15.00	200K	1285	90	JSONFn
Claude Sonnet 4	Anthropic	$3.00	$15.00	200K	1280	78	VisionJSONFn
DeepSeek V3	DeepSeek	$0.259	$0.420	128K	1280	85	JSONFn
Gemini 2.0 Flash Thinking	Google	$0.00	$0.00	32K	1280	100	JSONFn
o3-mini	OpenAI	$1.10	$4.40	128K	1280	25	JSON
Claude 3.5 Sonnet	Anthropic	$3.00	$15.00	200K	1270	100	JSONFn
Gemini 2.5 Flash	Google	$0.300	$2.50	1M	1270	100	JSONFn
o1-mini	OpenAI	$1.10	$4.40	128K	1270	100	JSONFn
ChatGPT-4o Latest	OpenAI	$5.00	$15.00	128K	1265	100	JSONFn
Gemini 2.0 Flash	Google	$0.100	$0.400	1.048576M	1260	160	VisionJSONFn
GPT-4o	OpenAI	$2.50	$10.00	128K	1260	95	VisionJSONFn
o4-mini	OpenAI	$1.10	$4.40	128K	1260	105	JSONFn
Qwen 2.5 Max	Alibaba	$0.160	$0.640	128K	1260	80	JSONFn
QwQ 32B	Alibaba	$0.150	$0.580	32K	1260	100	JSONFn
GPT-4o (Aug 2024)	OpenAI	$2.50	$10.00	128K	1255	100	JSONFn
DeepSeek R1 Distill Llama 70B	DeepSeek	$0.700	$0.800	128K	1250	100	JSONFn
Llama 4 Scout	Meta	$0.080	$0.300	10.48576M	1250	110	VisionJSONFn
Mistral Large	Mistral	$0.500	$1.50	128K	1245	75	JSONFn
Command A	Cohere	$2.50	$10.00	256K	1240	100	JSONFn
DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 32B	DeepSeek	$0.290	$0.290	64K	1240	100	JSONFn
Llama 3.1 405B (Fireworks)	Fireworks AI	$3.00	$3.00	131.072K	1240	100	JSONFn
GPT-4 Turbo	OpenAI	$10.00	$30.00	128K	1240	100	VisionJSONFn
Grok 2	xAI	$2.00	$10.00	131.072K	1240	100	JSONFn
Llama 3.1 405B	Meta	$3.00	$3.00	128K	1240	100	JSONFn
Sonar Reasoning	Perplexity	$2.00	$8.00	127K	1240	100	JSONFn
Llama 3.1 405B (Together)	Together AI	$3.50	$3.50	4K	1240	100	JSONFn
Gemini 1.5 Pro	Google	$1.25	$5.00	2M	1230	100	VisionJSONFn
Grok 2 Vision	xAI	$2.00	$10.00	8.192K	1230	100	VisionJSONFn
Pixtral Large	Mistral AI	$2.00	$6.00	128K	1230	100	VisionJSONFn
Qwen 2.5 72B	Alibaba	$0.120	$0.390	128K	1230	100	JSONFn
Qwen 2.5 72B (Together)	Together AI	$1.20	$1.20	32K	1230	100	JSONFn
Amazon Nova Pro	Amazon	$0.800	$3.20	300K	1220	100	VisionJSONFn
Claude 3.5 Haiku	Anthropic	$0.800	$4.00	200K	1220	100	JSONFn
Claude Haiku 4	Anthropic	$1.00	$5.00	200K	1220	130	VisionJSONFn
Llama 3.3 70B (Fireworks)	Fireworks AI	$0.900	$0.900	131.072K	1220	100	JSONFn
GPT-4o Mini	OpenAI	$0.150	$0.600	128K	1220	120	VisionJSONFn
Llama 3.3 70B (Groq)	Groq	$0.590	$0.790	128K	1220	100	JSONFn
Llama 3.3 70B	Meta	$0.120	$0.380	128K	1220	100	JSONFn
Mistral Medium 3	Mistral AI	$0.400	$2.00	128K	1220	100	JSONFn
Llama 3.3 70B (Together)	Together AI	$0.880	$0.880	128K	1220	100	JSONFn
Llama 3.2 90B Vision	Meta	$0.900	$0.900	128K	1210	100	VisionJSONFn
Command R+	Cohere	$2.50	$10.00	128K	1200	65	JSONFn
DeepSeek V2.5	DeepSeek	$0.140	$0.280	128K	1200	100	JSONFn
Mixtral 8x22B (Fireworks)	Fireworks AI	$0.900	$0.900	64K	1200	100	JSONFn
Gemini 2.0 Flash Lite	Google	$0.075	$0.300	1.048576M	1200	180	VisionJSONFn
GPT-4 1	OpenAI	$2.00	$8.00	8.192K	1200	85	JSONFn
Sonar Pro	Perplexity	$3.00	$15.00	200K	1200	100	JSONFn
WizardLM-2 8x22B	Microsoft	$0.620	$0.620	64K	1200	100	JSONFn
Llama 3.1 70B	Meta	$0.400	$0.400	128K	1195	100	JSONFn
Phi-3.5 MoE	Microsoft	$0.170	$0.680	128K	1195	100	JSONFn
Gemini 1.5 Flash	Google	$0.075	$0.300	1M	1190	100	JSONFn
Gemma 2 27B	Google	$0.650	$0.650	8K	1190	100	JSONFn
Mistral Small	Mistral	$0.150	$0.600	128K	1185	120	JSONFn
Yi-Large	01.AI	$3.00	$3.00	32K	1185	100	JSONFn
GPT-4 1.5-mini	OpenAI	$0.400	$1.60	128K	1180	120	JSONFn
Grok 3-mini	xAI	$0.300	$0.500	128K	1175	140	JSONFn
Amazon Nova Lite	Amazon	$0.060	$0.240	300K	1170	100	JSONFn
Gemma 2 9B (Groq)	Groq	$0.200	$0.200	8K	1170	100	JSONFn
Phi-3 Medium	Microsoft	$0.170	$0.170	128K	1170	100	JSONFn
Yi-Lightning	01.AI	$0.140	$0.140	16K	1165	100	JSONFn
Gemma 2 9B	Google	$0.030	$0.090	8K	1160	100	JSONFn
Mixtral 8x7B (Groq)	Groq	$0.240	$0.240	32K	1160	100	JSONFn
Llama 3.2 11B Vision	Meta	$0.245	$0.245	128K	1160	100	VisionJSONFn
Phi-3.5 Mini	Microsoft	$0.130	$0.520	128K	1160	100	JSONFn
Qwen 2.5 7B	Alibaba	$0.040	$0.100	128K	1160	100	JSONFn
Sonar	Perplexity	$1.00	$1.00	127K	1160	100	JSONFn
InternLM 2.5 20B	Shanghai AI Lab	$0.180	$0.180	32K	1155	100	JSONFn
Gemini 1.5 Flash 8B	Google	$0.037	$0.150	1M	1150	100	JSONFn
GPT-4 1.5-nano	OpenAI	$0.100	$0.400	128K	1150	150	JSONFn
Phi-4	Microsoft	$0.065	$0.140	16.384K	1150	160	JSON
Command R	Cohere	$0.150	$0.600	128K	1140	85	JSONFn
Mistral Nemo 12B	Mistral AI	$0.020	$0.040	128K	1140	100	JSONFn
Amazon Nova Micro	Amazon	$0.035	$0.140	128K	1130	100	JSONFn
Command R7B	Cohere	$0.038	$0.150	128K	1120	100	JSONFn
GPT-3.5 Turbo	OpenAI	$0.500	$1.50	16K	1120	100	JSONFn
Llama 3.1 8B (Groq)	Groq	$0.050	$0.080	128K	1120	100	JSONFn
Llama 3.1 8B	Meta	$0.020	$0.050	128K	1120	100	JSONFn
Mistral 7B	Mistral AI	$0.110	$0.190	32K	1100	100	JSONFn
Mistral 7B (Together)	Together AI	$0.200	$0.200	32K	1100	100	JSONFn
Codestral 22B	Mistral AI	$0.300	$0.900	256K	--	100	JSONFn
Qwen 2.5 Coder 32B	Alibaba	$0.660	$1.00	128K	--	100	JSONFn

Frequently Asked Questions

Which LLM API is the cheapest in 2026?: As of April 2026, GPT-4.1 Nano and Gemini 2.0 Flash Lite offer the lowest per-token pricing for production workloads. Prices vary by input vs. output tokens, so the cheapest option depends on your specific usage pattern.
How often are LLM API prices updated?: We verify pricing directly from provider documentation every week. Each model listing shows a 'Last verified' date so you can confirm the data is current.
What is the difference between input and output token pricing?: Input tokens are the tokens you send to the API (your prompt), while output tokens are the tokens the model generates in its response. Most providers charge different rates for each, with output tokens typically costing 2-5x more than input tokens.
Do any LLM APIs offer free tiers?: Several providers offer limited free tiers or trial credits. Google's Gemini API has a generous free tier for lower rate limits. OpenAI and Anthropic offer sign-up credits for new accounts. Check each provider's pricing page for current free tier details.