AI API Pricing Comparison 2026: GPT-5.4, Claude Opus 4.7, Gemini 3.1, Grok & DeepSeek Ranked
Side-by-side AI API pricing comparison for May 2026. 73 active models from 11 providers ranked cheapest to premium — Claude Opus 4.7, GPT-5.4, Gemini 3.1, Grok 4.20, DeepSeek V3.2, Llama 4. Includes 2026 price cuts and trend analysis.
By AI Pricing Guru Editorial Team
AI Pricing Guru articles are maintained by the editorial workflow behind the site: daily pricing snapshots, provider source checks, and review passes for model launches, subscription limits, and billing changes.
I wrote this with the pricing table open, not as a generic AI-tools list. The useful question is simple: where does this choice change the bill, the cap, or the model-routing decision?
We track token pricing across every major AI API provider, updated daily. Here’s the complete comparison for May 2026, covering 73 active models from 11 providers (89 total including legacy releases).
2026 Price Trends: AI APIs Are 60-80% Cheaper Than 2025
The average cost per million tokens has dropped 60-80% since early 2025. Key milestones:
- DeepSeek unified pricing at $0.28/M input, 90% below OpenAI
- Google launched Gemini 3.1 Flash-Lite at $0.25/M, competing with open-source hosts
- OpenAI released GPT-4.1 nano at $0.10/M, their cheapest model ever
- Anthropic cut Opus pricing from $15/M (Opus 4.1) to $5/M (Opus 4.6), 67% reduction
Complete Pricing Table: Cheapest to Most Expensive
Budget Tier (Under $0.50/M Input)
| Model | Provider | Input/1M | Output/1M |
|---|---|---|---|
| DeepSeek V3.2 (cached) | DeepSeek | $0.028 | $0.42 |
| GPT-4.1 nano | OpenAI | $0.10 | $0.40 |
| Gemini 3.1 Flash-Lite | $0.25 | $1.50 | |
| Gemini 2.5 Flash | $0.30 | $2.50 | |
| Mistral Small | Mistral | $0.10 | $0.30 |
| Groq Llama 4 Scout | Groq | $0.11 | $0.34 |
| GPT-4o mini | OpenAI | $0.15 | $0.60 |
| Llama 4 Scout | Meta | $0.15 | $0.15 |
| Jamba 2 Mini | AI21 | $0.20 | $0.40 |
| Llama 4 Maverick | Meta | $0.20 | $0.20 |
| GPT-5.4 nano | OpenAI | $0.20 | $1.25 |
| Groq Llama 4 Maverick | Groq | $0.20 | $0.60 |
| Grok 4.1 Fast | xAI | $0.20 | $0.50 |
| Fireworks Llama 4 Maverick | Fireworks | $0.22 | $0.88 |
| Fireworks DeepSeek V3 | Fireworks | $0.22 | $0.88 |
| Claude Haiku 3 | Anthropic | $0.25 | $1.25 |
| Gemini 3.1 Flash-Lite | $0.25 | $1.50 | |
| DeepSeek V3.2 Chat | DeepSeek | $0.28 | $0.42 |
| Together Llama 4 Maverick | Together | $0.30 | $0.90 |
| Together DeepSeek V3 | Together | $0.30 | $0.90 |
| Gemini 2.5 Flash | $0.30 | $2.50 | |
| Codestral | Mistral | $0.30 | $0.90 |
| GPT-4.1 mini | OpenAI | $0.40 | $1.60 |
This is the sweet spot for high-volume applications. You can process millions of tokens for under $1.
Mid Tier ($0.50 - $3.00/M Input)
| Model | Provider | Input/1M | Output/1M |
|---|---|---|---|
| Gemini 3 Flash | $0.50 | $3.00 | |
| Command R | Cohere | $0.50 | $1.50 |
| GPT-5.4 mini | OpenAI | $0.75 | $4.50 |
| Groq DeepSeek R1 | Groq | $0.75 | $0.99 |
| Claude Haiku 3.5 | Anthropic | $0.80 | $4.00 |
| Claude Haiku 4.5 | Anthropic | $1.00 | $5.00 |
| Sonar | Perplexity | $1.00 | $1.00 |
| o4-mini | OpenAI | $1.10 | $4.40 |
| Gemini 2.5 Pro | $1.25 | $10.00 | |
| GPT-4.1 | OpenAI | $2.00 | $8.00 |
| o3 | OpenAI | $2.00 | $8.00 |
| Gemini 3.1 Pro | $2.00 | $12.00 | |
| Grok 4.20 | xAI | $2.00 | $6.00 |
| Jamba 2 Large | AI21 | $2.00 | $8.00 |
| Mistral Large | Mistral | $2.00 | $6.00 |
| GPT-5.4 | OpenAI | $2.50 | $15.00 |
| GPT-4o | OpenAI | $2.50 | $10.00 |
| Command R+ | Cohere | $2.50 | $10.00 |
| Command A | Cohere | $2.50 | $10.00 |
| Claude Sonnet 4.6 | Anthropic | $3.00 | $15.00 |
| Sonar Pro | Perplexity | $3.00 | $15.00 |
The mid tier is where most production apps live. GPT-5.4 mini and Gemini 2.5 Pro offer the best value here.
Premium Tier ($5.00+/M Input)
| Model | Provider | Input/1M | Output/1M |
|---|---|---|---|
| Claude Opus 4.6 | Anthropic | $5.00 | $25.00 |
| GPT-4 Turbo | OpenAI | $10.00 | $30.00 |
| o1 | OpenAI | $15.00 | $60.00 |
| Claude Opus 4.1 (legacy) | Anthropic | $15.00 | $75.00 |
The premium tier is shrinking. Most developers have migrated to cheaper, more capable newer models. There’s rarely a reason to use GPT-4 Turbo or Claude Opus 4.1 in 2026.
Provider Breakdown
OpenAI, Most Models, Best Coverage
13 models covering every price point. The GPT-5.4 and GPT-4.1 families give you granular control over the price-quality trade-off. Full OpenAI pricing → · Try OpenAI →
Anthropic, Premium Quality, Higher Prices
10 models. Claude Sonnet 4.6 is the coding champion, and prompt caching (90% savings) makes Anthropic competitive for repetitive workloads. Full Anthropic pricing → · Try Claude →
Google, Best Free Tier
8 models with generous free tiers. Gemini 2.5 Pro at $1.25/M is the cheapest premium model from a Tier 1 provider. Full Google pricing → · Try Gemini →
DeepSeek, Budget King
2 models that punch way above their price point. Automatic caching makes it even cheaper. Full DeepSeek pricing → · Try DeepSeek →
Inference Hosts (Groq, Together, Fireworks)
Run open-source models (Llama 4, DeepSeek) on optimized infrastructure. Groq offers the fastest inference at $0.05–$0.90/M input tokens; Together and Fireworks compete on price. Full Groq pricing → · Together AI pricing → · Try Groq →
Mistral AI, European Alternative
Seven models including Mistral Large 2 ($2/$6 per 1M) and the Ministral edge family ($0.04/$0.04 per 1M for 3B). Strong multilingual performance, GDPR-friendly hosting. Full Mistral pricing → · Try Mistral →
xAI (Grok), Real-Time-Web Reasoning
Grok 4.20 at $2/$6 per 1M and Grok 4.1 Fast at $0.20/$0.50 per 1M. Tight X/Twitter integration for real-time search. Full xAI Grok pricing → · Try Grok →
Cohere, Enterprise RAG Stack
Command R+ at $2.50/$10.00 per 1M plus Embed v3 and Rerank v3, a full RAG toolkit from a single vendor. Command R7B ships at $0.0375/$0.15 per 1M. Full Cohere pricing →
Meta Llama, Host-It-Anywhere Open Weights
Meta doesn’t sell an API, so Llama pricing is a cross-provider comparison. Llama 3.3 70B varies from $0.23/M (Deepinfra) to $0.90/M (Fireworks). Side-by-side comparison →
Perplexity, Web-Search-Native Sonar
Sonar Small at $0.20/M, Sonar Pro at $3/$15 per 1M. Every response comes with citations from live web search. Full Perplexity pricing →
The Bottom Line
The AI API market in 2026 is a buyer’s paradise. Prices have plummeted, quality has surged, and you have more options than ever. The winners:
- DeepSeek for raw cost efficiency
- Google Gemini 2.5 Pro for best value flagship
- OpenAI GPT-5.4 mini for best all-around production model
- Claude Sonnet 4.6 for coding
- Groq for fastest inference
Use our pricing comparison table to explore every tracked model, or try the token calculator to estimate costs for your specific workload. Need the fastest open-source inference? See Groq pricing. For deeper dives see our cheapest AI API ranking and best AI models of 2026 guide.
Generating high-volume content with AI? Tools like Writesonic offer AI writing starting at $13/month with a free trial, a cost-effective alternative to metering your own API calls for bulk copywriting.
FAQ
How does AI API pricing compare across OpenAI, Claude, Gemini, DeepSeek, and Llama in 2026?
For input tokens, DeepSeek V4 leads at $0.28 per 1M, followed by Gemini 2.5 Flash at $0.30 per 1M. OpenAI GPT-5.4 mini sits at $0.40 per 1M, Claude Sonnet 4.6 at $3 per 1M, and Llama 3.3 70B starts at $0.23 per 1M on Deepinfra. Output tokens stretch the gap further: Opus 4.7 charges $25 per 1M output while DeepSeek and Gemini Flash stay under $2.50 per 1M.
Where is the most accurate AI API pricing comparison table for 2026?
Our pricing comparison table tracks 55 models across 13 providers with input, output, and cached-input prices, all sourced from each provider’s official pricing page and reconciled against at least two independent sources before publishing. The table updates automatically within four hours of any provider change.
How often do AI API prices change in 2026?
Most providers update prices once per quarter, but flagship launches ship with new pricing more often. Anthropic, OpenAI, and Google have each cut at least one model price in 2026 already. We track daily and log every change to a pricing-history file so you can audit when each model’s input or output rate moved.
What is the cheapest AI API per token in 2026?
Cohere Command R7B is the cheapest first-party API at $0.0375 input and $0.15 output per 1M tokens. For Llama hosting, Deepinfra serves Llama 3.3 70B at $0.23 per 1M. Mistral Ministral 3B and Groq Llama 3.1 8B Instant round out the budget tier under $0.10 per 1M input. See our cheapest AI API ranking for the full top-10 ranked by per-token cost.
Should I pay per token via API or subscribe to ChatGPT Plus or Claude Pro?
Subscriptions make sense if you spend less than four hours per day in chat-style usage and don’t need automation. Once you script anything, the pay-per-token API is almost always cheaper because flat-rate plans cap usage at hidden message limits. Our subscription vs API calculator models the breakeven for your specific usage pattern.
Are these AI API price comparison numbers updated automatically?
Yes. The data on this page is rendered from our public pricing.json feed, which is regenerated every four hours by an autonomous pipeline that scrapes each provider’s pricing page, reconciles the readings against independent sources, and only publishes changes that two sources agree on within 1%.
Data updated daily. Last update: May 7, 2026.