Cheapest Models

    Models at or under $0.20 per million input tokens ($1.50 output) — for classification, extraction, and high-volume workloads

    Compare
    Use Case
    Capabilities
    Provider
    Status
    Input Price ($/M tokens)
    Output Price ($/M tokens)
    Context Size (tokens)
    88
    Models
    59
    Providers
    41
    Vision Models
    68
    Tool-enabled
    0
    Free Models
    Features
    Alibaba Cloud(us-virginia)
    qwen-plus
    		$0.11$0.29$0.02

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    AvalAI
    qwen-plus
    		$0.40$4.00$0.20
    MiniMax
    minimax-text-01
    		$0.20$1.10—
    MiniMax
    minimax-m2.1-lightning
    		$0.12$0.48—
    MiniMax
    minimax-m2
    		$0.20$1.00$0.03

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    OpenRouter
    minimax-m2
    		$0.30$1.20$0.03
    NovitaAI
    llama-3.2-3b-instruct
    		$0.03$0.05—

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    OpenRouter
    llama-3.2-3b-instruct
    		$0.05$0.34—
    AWS Bedrock
    llama-4-scout-17b-instruct
    		$0.17$0.66—
    AWS Bedrock(us)
    llama-4-scout-17b-instruct
    		$0.19$0.73—
    NovitaAI
    llama-4-scout-17b-instruct
    		$0.18$0.59—

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    OpenRouter
    llama-4-scout
    		$0.10$0.30—
    NovitaAI
    llama-3.3-70b-instruct
    		$0.14$0.40—

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    OpenRouter
    llama-3.3-70b-instruct
    		$0.13$0.40—
    Nebius AI
    llama-3.3-70b-instruct
    		$0.13$0.40—
    Cerebras
    llama-3.3-70b-instruct
    		$0.85$1.20—

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    OpenRouter
    llama-guard-4-12b
    		$0.18$0.18—
    Inference.net
    llama-3.2-11b-instruct
    		$0.07$0.33—

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    OpenRouter
    llama-3.1-8b-instruct
    		$0.05$0.08$0.02
    Azure AI Foundry
    grok-4-1-fast-non-reasoning
    		$0.20$0.50—

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    AvalAI
    grok-4-1-fast-non-reasoning
    		$0.20$0.50$0.05

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    AvalAI
    grok-4-1-fast-reasoning
    		$0.20$0.50$0.05
    Azure AI Foundry
    grok-4-1-fast-reasoning
    		$0.20$0.50—

    S

    AvalAI
    grok-code-fast-1
    		$0.20$1.50$0.02

    S

    AvalAI
    grok-4-fast-non-reasoning
    		$0.20$0.50$0.05

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    AvalAI
    grok-4-fast-reasoning
    		$0.20$0.50$0.05
    Nebius AI
    gemma-3-27b
    		$0.10$0.30—

    S

    OpenRouter
    gemma-3-12b-it
    		$0.05$0.15—

    S

    OpenRouter
    gemma-3-4b-it
    		$0.05$0.10—

    S

    OpenRouter
    gemma-3n-e4b-it
    		$0.06$0.12—

    S

    AvalAI
    gemini-2.0-flash
    		$0.10$0.40$0.02

    S

    Metis
    gemini-2.0-flash
    		$0.10$0.40$0.02

    S

    Hormouz
    gemini-2.0-flash
    		$0.10$0.40$0.02

    S

    AvalAI
    gemini-2.5-flash-lite-preview-09-2025
    		$0.10$0.40$0.05

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    Metis
    gemini-2.5-flash-lite
    		$0.10$0.40$0.05
    Google Vertex AI
    gemini-2.5-flash-lite
    		$0.10$0.40$0.01
    Google AI Studio
    gemini-2.5-flash-lite
    		$0.10$0.40$0.01

    S

    OpenRouter
    gemini-2.5-flash-lite
    		$0.10$0.40$0.01

    S

    Hormouz
    gemini-2.5-flash-lite
    		$0.10$0.40$0.05

    S

    AvalAI
    gemini-2.5-flash-lite
    		$0.10$0.40$0.05

    S

    GapGPT
    gemini-2.5-flash-lite
    		$0.10$0.40—

    S

    GapGPT
    gpt-5-nano
    		$0.05$0.40—

    S

    OpenRouter
    gpt-5-nano
    		$0.05$0.40$0.01

    S

    Metis
    gpt-5-nano
    		$0.05$0.40$0.01
    Azure
    gpt-5-nano
    		$0.05$0.40$0.01

    S

    AvalAI
    gpt-5-nano
    		$0.05$0.40$0.01
    OpenAI
    gpt-5-nano
    		$0.05$0.40$0.01

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    Hormouz
    gpt-5-nano
    		$0.05$0.40$0.01
    Groq
    gpt-oss-20b
    		$0.10$0.50—
    NanoGPT
    gpt-oss-20b
    		$0.04$0.15—
    Page 5 of 6

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    • SCX.ai (Turbo)
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    • RouteWay
    • CloudRift
    • NanoGPT
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    • MiniMax
    • OpenRouter
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    © 2026 SOLOP. All rights reserved.

    Every model here costs at most $0.20 per million input tokens and $1.50 per million output tokens — some, like Qwen3 4B and Llama 3.2 3B, as little as $0.03. At these prices a million-token workload costs a few cents, which changes what's economical: classify every support ticket, summarize every call, run an LLM check on every commit.

    Cheap doesn't mean toy: GPT-OSS 120B, GLM-4.7 Flash, Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite, and Qwen3.5 9B punch far above their price on everyday tasks. Route high-volume work here and reserve frontier models for the requests that actually need them.

    Frequently asked questions

    What is the cheapest LLM API?

    In this catalog, Llama 3.2 3B and Qwen3 4B start around $0.03 per million input tokens, with GPT-OSS 20B at about $0.04 and GLM-4.7 Flash at $0.06. Prices differ per provider, so check the list — the same model is often cheaper through one provider than another.

    Are cheap models good enough for production?

    For classification, extraction, routing, summarization, and simple chat — usually yes. Small models fail mostly on multi-step reasoning and niche knowledge. A common pattern is a cheap model as the default with automatic escalation to a frontier model when confidence is low.

    How else can I cut LLM costs?

    Cache responses for repeated requests, use cached input pricing for long shared prefixes, batch offline work, and set per-project spending limits. Routing through a gateway also lets you switch to whichever provider currently offers the lowest price for the same model with zero code changes.

    Are there free models?

    Yes — free mappings show up at $0.00 in this list. They're rate-limited and best for prototyping; for production traffic, the paid models on this page are the reliable low-cost option.

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