AI API Cost Calculator
Estimate your monthly AI API spend across all major providers. Adjust your token volume and input/output ratio to see real-time cost comparisons.
Configure Your Usage
Input: 70%Output: 30%
700K input tokens + 300K output tokens per month
For general tasks, mid-tier models like Claude Sonnet 5, GPT-6 Sol, or Gemini 3.8 Flash offer a strong balance of quality and cost.
Estimated Monthly Costsfor 1M tokens/month
| Provider | Model | Released | Monthly Cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| Anthropic | Claude Opus 5.5Most Capable | Sep 2026 | $8.80 |
| Anthropic | Claude Fable 5.1Most Capable | Sep 2026 | $22.00 |
| Anthropic | Claude Mythos 5.1 | Sep 2026 | $22.00 |
| OpenAI | GPT-6 AstraMost Capable | Sep 2026 | $22.00 |
| OpenAI | GPT-6 Sol | Sep 2026 | $4.40 |
| OpenAI | GPT-6 Luna | Sep 2026 | $0.220 |
| Gemini 3.8 Flash | Sep 2026 | $1.65 | |
| Meta | Muse Spark 1.3 | Sep 2026 | $2.15 |
| Meta | Muse Spark 1.3 Contributor | Sep 2026 | $0.130 |
| DeepSeek | DeepSeek V4.1 FlashOpen Source | Sep 2026 | $0.570 |
| Alibaba | Qwen3.8-Omni-Flash | Sep 2026 | $0.246 |
| xAI | Grok 4.7 | Sep 2026 | $3.20 |
| Z.ai (Zhipu AI) | GLM-5.3-FlashX | Sep 2026 | $0.634 |
| Sakana AI | Fugu Ultra v2.0 | Sep 2026 | $12.50 |
| Sakana AI | Fugu Max | Sep 2026 | $3.20 |
| Unbiased | Pareto | Sep 2026 | $4.00 |
| Xiaomi | MiMo-V2.6-ProOpen Source | Sep 2026 | $0.566 |
| Xiaomi | MiMo-V2.6-FlashOpen Source | Sep 2026 | $0.182 |
| Gemini 3.7 Flash | Aug 2026 | $1.65 | |
| Meta | Muse Glimmer 30BOpen Source | Aug 2026 | $0.695 |
| Meta | Muse Spark 1.2 | Aug 2026 | $2.15 |
| Meta | Muse Spark 1.2 Contributor | Aug 2026 | $0.130 |
| Alibaba | Qwen3.8 27BOpen Source | Aug 2026 | $1.25 |
| Alibaba | Qwen3.8 2.4T-A95BOpen Source | Aug 2026 | $3.20 |
| Alibaba | Qwen3.8-Max | Aug 2026 | $3.20 |
| Alibaba | Qwen3.8-Flash | Aug 2026 | $0.246 |
| xAI | Grok 4.6 | Aug 2026 | $3.20 |
| NVIDIA | Nemotron 3.5 LightningBest ValueOpen Source | Aug 2026 | $0.116 |
| Microsoft | MAI-Code-1.1-Flash | Aug 2026 | $0.500 |
| Z.ai (Zhipu AI) | GLM-5.3Open Source | Aug 2026 | $2.30 |
| Z.ai (Zhipu AI) | GLM-5.3 FlashOpen Source | Aug 2026 | $0.255 |
| Tencent | Hy4 previewOpen Source | Aug 2026 | $1.33 |
| Anthropic | Claude Opus 5Most Capable | Jul 2026 | $11.00 |
| OpenAI | GPT-5.6 SolMost Capable | Jul 2026 | $8.80 |
| OpenAI | GPT-5.6 Terra | Jul 2026 | $5.00 |
| OpenAI | GPT-5.6 Luna | Jul 2026 | $0.500 |
| Gemini 3.6 Flash | Jul 2026 | $1.65 | |
| Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite | Jul 2026 | $0.960 | |
| Meta | Muse Spark 1.1 | Jul 2026 | $2.15 |
| xAI | Grok 4.5 | Jul 2026 | $3.20 |
| Moonshot AI | Kimi K3Open Source | Jul 2026 | $6.60 |
| poolside | Laguna S 2.1Open Source | Jul 2026 | $0.130 |
| Anthropic | Claude Fable 5 | Jun 2026 | $22.00 |
| Anthropic | Claude Sonnet 5 | Jun 2026 | $4.40 |
| MiniMax | MiniMax M3Open Source | Jun 2026 | $0.570 |
| Meituan | LongCat-2.0Open Source | Jun 2026 | $1.41 |
| Z.ai (Zhipu AI) | GLM-5.2Open Source | Jun 2026 | $2.30 |
| Anthropic | Claude Opus 4.8 | May 2026 | $11.00 |
| Gemini 3.1 Flash-Lite | May 2026 | $0.625 | |
| Gemini 3.5 Flash | May 2026 | $3.75 | |
| Alibaba | Qwen3.7-Max | May 2026 | $4.00 |
| Anthropic | Claude Opus 4.7 | Apr 2026 | $11.00 |
| OpenAI | GPT-5.5 | Apr 2026 | $12.50 |
| Mistral | Mistral Medium 3.5Open Source | Apr 2026 | $3.30 |
| DeepSeek | DeepSeek V4 ProOpen Source | Apr 2026 | $2.11 |
| xAI | Grok 4.3 | Apr 2026 | $1.63 |
| NVIDIA | Nemotron 3 Nano OmniCheapestOpen Source | Apr 2026 | $0.00 |
| Anthropic | Claude Opus 4.6 | Mar 2026 | $11.00 |
| Anthropic | Claude Sonnet 4.6 | Mar 2026 | $6.60 |
| Mistral | Mistral SmallOpen Source | Mar 2026 | $0.285 |
| Mistral | Mistral LargeOpen Source | Dec 2025 | $0.800 |
| Anthropic | Claude Haiku 4.5 | Oct 2025 | $2.20 |
| Meta | Llama 4 ScoutOpen Source | Apr 2025 | $0.00 |
| Meta | Llama 4 MaverickOpen Source | Apr 2025 | $0.00 |
| Gemini 2.5 Pro | Mar 2025 | $3.88 | |
| OpenAI | o3-mini | Jan 2025 | $2.09 |
| OpenAI | o1 | Dec 2024 | $28.50 |
| OpenAI | GPT-4o-mini | Jul 2024 | $0.285 |
| OpenAI | GPT-4o | May 2024 | $4.75 |
| Cohere | Command R+ | Apr 2024 | $4.75 |
| Cohere | Command R | Mar 2024 | $0.800 |
Cost breakdown for Nemotron 3.5 Lightning:
700K input tokens x $0.08/1M + 300K output tokens x $0.20/1M = $0.116/month
Frequently Asked Questions
How much does the Claude API cost?▾
Claude API pricing varies by model tier. Claude Fable 5.1, the top generally available tier, costs $10/1M input tokens and $50/1M output tokens. Claude Opus 5.5, released September 22, 2026 and now Anthropic's recommended starting point for most workloads, is $4/1M input and $20/1M output with cache reads at $0.20. Claude Opus 5 remains available at $5/1M input and $25/1M output, and Claude Sonnet 5 is $2/1M input and $10/1M output; all four ship with a 1M context window. Claude Haiku 4.5 is the most affordable at $1/1M input and $5/1M output with a 200K context window.
What is the cheapest AI API?▾
In our pricing data, the cheapest paid APIs include NVIDIA Nemotron 3.5 Lightning at $0.08/1M input tokens, and poolside Laguna S 2.1 and OpenAI GPT-6 Luna at $0.10/1M input. Google shut down Gemini 2.0 Flash, once a $0.10 budget default, on June 1, 2026. Open-weight models like DeepSeek V4.1 Flash and Qwen3.8-27B are free to self-host, though you will pay for compute infrastructure.
How are AI API tokens counted?▾
AI tokens are the basic units of text that language models process. One token is roughly 4 characters or about 0.75 words in English. A 1,000-word article is approximately 1,333 tokens. Pricing is typically quoted per 1 million tokens, with input (prompt) and output (completion) priced separately.
Which AI API is best for production?▾
The best AI API for production depends on your use case. Claude Sonnet 5 and GPT-6 Sol offer strong all-around performance at the same $2/$10 rate. For budget-sensitive applications, GPT-6 Luna and Gemini 3.8 Flash deliver solid results at a fraction of the price. For tasks requiring deep reasoning, Claude Opus 5.5 leads the independent Vals and Artificial Analysis indexes at $4/$20, and Claude Fable 5.1 or GPT-6 Astra are top choices at $10/$50.