The cheapest LLM APIs, ranked
All 25 tracked models, sorted by input price — lowest cost per million tokens first.
This ranks every model we track by its raw input price, regardless of capability tier, so a budget model and a flagship model compete on the same list. That makes it a fast way to find a floor price, but price and capability move together for a reason — the cheapest option here is rarely the most capable one. Need a specific capability level instead of just the lowest price? Our use-case guides filter by use case. And some providers also offer a separate free tier before you pay anything at all.
| # | Model | Provider | Input /1M | Output /1M | Context |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Mistral | $0.15 | $0.60 | Not published | |
| 2 | Meta (via Together AI) | $0.18 | $0.59 | 1M tokens | |
| 3 | OpenAI | $0.20 | $1.20 | ~1.05M tokens | |
| 4 | $0.25 | $1.50 | Not published | ||
| 5 | Meta (via Together AI) | $0.27 | $0.85 | ~1.05M tokens | |
| 6 | DeepSeek | $0.30 | $1.20 | 1M tokens | |
| 7 | Amazon | $0.30 | $2.50 | 1M tokens | |
| 8 | Alibaba | $0.40 | $1.60 | 1M tokens | |
| 9 | Mistral | $0.50 | $1.50 | Not published | |
| 10 | $0.75 | $3.75 | Not published | ||
| 11 | Anthropic | $1.00 | $5.00 | 200K tokens | |
| 12 | xAI | $1.00 | $2.00 | 256K tokens | |
| 13 | xAI | $1.25 | $2.50 | 1M tokens | |
| 14 | Amazon | $1.25 | $10.00 | Not published (preview) | |
| 15 | Mistral | $1.50 | $7.50 | Not published | |
| 16 | Anthropic | $2.00 | $10.00 | 1M tokens | |
| 17 | OpenAI | $2.00 | $12.00 | ~1.05M tokens | |
| 18 | $2.00 | $12.00 | ≤200K tokens tier | ||
| 19 | xAI | $2.00 | $6.00 | 500K tokens | |
| 20 | Alibaba | $2.00 | $6.00 | 1M tokens | |
| 21 | Cohere | $2.50 | $10.00 | 256K tokens | |
| 22 | OpenAI | $4.00 | $20.00 | ~1.05M tokens | |
| 23 | Anthropic | $5.00 | $25.00 | 1M tokens | |
| 24 | Anthropic | $10.00 | $50.00 | 1M tokens | |
| 25 | OpenAI | $10.00 | $50.00 | ~1.05M tokens |
Ranked on input price alone — output price, context window, and real-world quality all vary independently of this ranking. Check the model's own page before picking on price alone.
Frequently asked questions
Ranked by input price per million tokens — what you pay to send a request, before the model generates a response. Output tokens are usually billed at a different (often higher) rate, so check the Output column too before assuming the cheapest input price is the cheapest model overall for your workload.
No. A lower price on this list almost always means a smaller or less capable model — fine for simple, high-volume tasks, and a real problem for anything that needs strong reasoning. Match the model to the job first, then use price to pick between the remaining candidates.
No — every price here is the standard paid per-token rate from the provider's own pricing page, the same number shown everywhere else on PerTokens. A few providers also offer free, rate-limited, or trial access separately; that's covered on its own page, not folded into this ranking.
Every time a tracked price changes. Model prices are re-verified against each provider's official pricing page roughly every 48 hours, and this ranking is regenerated from the same dataset — see the changelog for a dated history of what moved.