Best Models for Roleplay

Models with strong character consistency, creative prose, and long context windows — compared by price and context size

Models

Providers

Vision Models

Tool-enabled

Free Models


Alibaba Cloud(cn-beijing)	glm-5	$0.57	$2.58	—
EmberCloud	glm-5	$0.72	$2.30	$0.14
Vertex AI (OpenAI-compatible)	glm-5	$1.00	$3.20	$0.10
Moonshot AI	kimi-k2.6	$0.95	$4.00	$0.16
Gonka24	kimi-k2.6	$0.22	$1.14	$0.05
Runware	kimi-k2.6	$0.60	$3.05	$0.13
Nebius AI	kimi-k2.6	$0.95	$4.00	—
NovitaAI	kimi-k2.6	$0.95	$4.00	$0.16
S OpenRouter	kimi-k2.6	$0.68	$3.42	$0.14
S AvalAI	kimi-k2.6	$0.95	$4.00	$0.16
CanopyWave	kimi-k2.6	$0.50	$2.80	$0.10
S Tundra	kimi-k2.6	$0.40	$2.20	$0.08
Mistral AI	mistral-small-2506	$0.10	$0.30	—
Mistral AI	mistral-large-2512	$0.50	$1.50	—
S OpenRouter	mistral-large-2512	$0.50	$1.50	$0.05
Runware	deepseek-v4-flash	$0.08	$0.15	$0.01
Fireworks AI	deepseek-v4-flash	$0.14	$0.28	$0.03
Alibaba Cloud(eu-frankfurt)	deepseek-v4-flash	$0.20	$0.40	$0.04
Together AI	deepseek-v4-flash	$0.14	$0.28	$0.03
CanopyWave	deepseek-v4-flash	$0.14	$0.28	$0.03
Alibaba Cloud(singapore)	deepseek-v4-flash	$0.20	$0.40	$0.04
S GapGPT	deepseek-v4-flash	$0.14	$0.28	—
Alibaba Cloud(cn-beijing)	deepseek-v4-flash	$0.14	$0.28	$0.03
DeepSeek	deepseek-v4-flash	$0.14	$0.28	$0.00
ByteDance	deepseek-v4-flash	$0.14	$0.28	$0.03
NovitaAI	deepseek-v4-flash	$0.14	$0.28	$0.03
S AvalAI	deepseek-v4-flash	$0.14	$0.28	$0.00
DeepInfra	deepseek-v4-flash	$0.14	$0.28	$0.03
Alibaba Cloud(us-virginia)	deepseek-v4-flash	$0.20	$0.40	$0.04
S OpenRouter	deepseek-v4-flash	$0.14	$0.28	$0.03
Alibaba Cloud	deepseek-v4-flash	$0.20	$0.40	$0.04
DeepInfra	deepseek-v4-pro	$1.74	$3.48	$0.14
Nebius AI	deepseek-v4-pro	$1.75	$3.50	—
Runware	deepseek-v4-pro	$0.96	$1.92	$0.08
S OpenRouter	deepseek-v4-pro	$0.43	$0.87	$0.00
Fireworks AI	deepseek-v4-pro	$1.74	$3.48	$0.14
Alibaba Cloud(eu-frankfurt)	deepseek-v4-pro	$2.40	$4.80	$0.20
CanopyWave	deepseek-v4-pro	$1.74	$3.48	$0.01
Alibaba Cloud(singapore)	deepseek-v4-pro	$2.40	$4.80	$0.20
Alibaba Cloud	deepseek-v4-pro	$2.40	$4.80	$0.20
S GapGPT	deepseek-v4-pro	$1.74	$3.48	—
S AvalAI	deepseek-v4-pro	$0.43	$0.87	$0.00
Together AI	deepseek-v4-pro	$1.74	$3.48	$0.20
DeepSeek	deepseek-v4-pro	$0.43	$0.87	$0.00
ByteDance	deepseek-v4-pro	$1.74	$3.48	$0.14
Alibaba Cloud(cn-beijing)	deepseek-v4-pro	$1.65	$3.30	$0.14
Alibaba Cloud(us-virginia)	deepseek-v4-pro	$2.40	$4.80	$0.20
S OpenRouter	glm-4.7	$0.40	$1.75	$0.08
ByteDance	glm-4.7	$0.60	$2.20	$0.11
Cerebras	glm-4.7	$2.25	$2.75	—

Frequently asked questions

What is the best AI model for roleplay?

It depends on your budget. DeepSeek V4 and GLM-5 are the best value for money and rarely break character, Kimi K2.6 is known for expressive creative prose, and Claude Opus 4.8 and Claude Sonnet 5 write the highest-quality prose if you're willing to pay premium per-token rates. Grok's non-reasoning models are a popular fast middle ground.

Can I use these models with SillyTavern or my own frontend?

Yes. LLM Gateway exposes an OpenAI-compatible chat completions API, so any frontend that supports a custom base URL — SillyTavern, RisuAI, Agnai, or your own app — works by pointing it at the gateway and using your LLM Gateway API key.

Which roleplay models have the largest context windows?

Grok 4.1 Fast supports up to 2 million tokens, and Claude Sonnet 5, GLM-5.2, DeepSeek V4, and MiniMax Text-01 all reach 1 million tokens. That's enough to keep an entire long-running roleplay, including character cards and lorebooks, in context.

How much does API roleplay cost compared to a subscription?

Usually less. A typical roleplay exchange runs a few thousand tokens, so on a model like DeepSeek V4 Flash (about $0.14 per million input tokens) even heavy daily use costs a fraction of a fixed chatbot subscription — and you only pay for what you use.