LLM Cost Comparison Tool 2026 - All Major Models
All models - sorted by monthly cost
| Model | Cost/req | Monthly | |
|---|---|---|---|
Gemini Flashcheapest overall | $0.000225 | $0.6750 | |
GPT-4o minicheapest openai | $0.000450 | $1.35 | |
Claude Haiku 4.5 | $0.00280 | $8.40 | |
o3-mini | $0.00330 | $9.90 | |
Gemini 1.5 Pro | $0.00375 | $11.25 | |
Mistral Large | $0.00500 | $15.00 | |
GPT-4o | $0.00750 | $22.50 | |
Claude Sonnet 4.6best value | $0.0105 | $31.50 | |
o1best reasoning | $0.0450 | $135.00 | |
Claude Opus 4.6most capable | $0.0525 | $157.50 |
Monthly cost = cost per request x requests per day x 30. Select rows to compare models side by side.
Which AI model is cheapest per 1,000 words in 2026?
Gemini Flash at $0.075 per 1 million input tokens is the cheapest major model in 2026. Processing 1,000 words (roughly 1,300 tokens) costs about $0.0001. GPT-4o mini at $0.15 per 1M is the cheapest OpenAI option. Claude Haiku 4.5 at $0.80 per 1M is the cheapest Anthropic model.
The cheapest model is not always the right choice. For tasks requiring nuanced reasoning, coding, or long-context processing, a more capable model often produces better output with fewer retries and less post-processing, which can make it cheaper in practice. Use the AI token counter to measure your exact token usage per request, then run those numbers through the comparison table above to calculate your real monthly cost. The ChatGPT vs Claude vs Gemini comparison guide covers quality differences if cost alone does not determine your choice.
GPT-4o vs Claude Sonnet 4.6 vs Gemini 1.5 Pro: which is best value?
GPT-4o costs $2.50 input and $10.00 output per 1M tokens with a 128K context window. Claude Sonnet 4.6 costs $3.00 input and $15.00 output with a larger 200K context window. Gemini 1.5 Pro costs $1.25 input and $5.00 output with a 1 million token context window.
For most production workloads, GPT-4o and Claude Sonnet 4.6 are closest in capability. Gemini 1.5 Pro is significantly cheaper and offers the largest context window, making it the best choice for processing very long documents. Use the OpenAI cost calculator or Claude API pricing calculator to model exact spend at your volume. The right model depends on your output quality requirements, context length needs, and budget.
How much does $50 per month buy you on each AI model?
At $50 per month with a balanced input-output ratio, GPT-4o mini gives you roughly 125,000 requests. Gemini Flash gives over 500,000 requests. GPT-4o gives about 14,000 requests. Claude Opus 4.6 gives approximately 2,000 requests. Switch to Monthly Budget mode above to see exact numbers for your token ratio.
For startups and developers building AI-powered features, the cheapest models handle most standard tasks well. Reserve the expensive models for high-stakes outputs where quality is critical and volume is low. A tiered approach, using Haiku or mini for classification and routing while using Sonnet or GPT-4o for final generation, is a common cost optimization pattern.