Open-Weight API Prices: 7.4× Gap at the Frontier
Open-weight models have lower median API prices in every capability tier, with the largest price gap at the frontier. Compare costs and provider counts.
Updated Oct 21, 2026
What does an AI model really cost?
Live prices for 462 models from 67 developers, the monthly bill for real workloads, and every price change as it happens.
modelin / out per 1M
Claude Opus 5.5$4.00 / $20.00Claude Sonnet 5.5$2.00 / $10.00Claude Fable 5.1$10.00 / $50.00GPT-6 Astra$10.00 / $50.00Gemini 4 Argon$2.00 / $10.00GPT-6.1 Sol$2.00 / $10.00Claude Opus 5$5.00 / $25.00 17 free · 177 open-weight · 11 retiring soon
Cheapest models right now
Full ranking →| # | Model | Input / 1M | Output / 1M | Context | Capabilities |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Mistral Nemo Mistral AI | $0.029 | $0.03 | 131K | toolsJSONopen weights |
| 2 | Extract Scaledown | $0.04 | $0 | 1M | vision |
| 3 | Summarize Scaledown | $0.04 | $0 | 1M | vision |
| 4 | Ling 3.0 Flash inclusionAI | $0.021 | $0.063 | 262K | toolsreasoningJSONopen weights |
| 5 | gpt-oss-20b OpenAI | $0.018 | $0.09 | 131K | toolsreasoningJSONopen weights |
| 6 | Granite 4.0 Micro IBM Granite | $0.017 | $0.112 | 131K | JSONopen weights |
| 7 | Gemma 3 4B | $0.04 | $0.05 | 131K | visionJSONopen weights |
| 8 | Llama 3 8B Lunaris Sao10K | $0.04 | $0.05 | 8K | JSONopen weights |
Most capable models
Compare them →| # | Model | Input / 1M | Output / 1M | Context | Capabilities |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Claude Opus 5.5 Anthropic | $4.00 | $20.00 | 1M | visiontoolsreasoningJSON |
| 2 | Claude Sonnet 5.5 Anthropic | $2.00 | $10.00 | 1M | visiontoolsreasoningJSON |
| 3 | Claude Fable 5.1 Anthropic | $10.00 | $50.00 | 1M | visiontoolsreasoningJSON |
| 4 | GPT-6 Astra OpenAI | $10.00 | $50.00 | 1.05M | visiontoolsreasoningJSON |
| 5 | Gemini 4 Argon | $2.00 | $10.00 | 1.05M | visionaudiotoolsreasoningJSON |
| 6 | GPT-6.1 Sol OpenAI | $2.00 | $10.00 | 1.05M | visiontoolsreasoningJSON |
| 7 | Claude Opus 5 Anthropic | $5.00 | $25.00 | 1M | visiontoolsreasoningJSON |
| 8 | Claude Fable 5 Anthropic | $10.00 | $50.00 | 1M | visiontoolsreasoningJSON |
Latest analysis
All articles →Best value for money
Full ranking →| # | Model | Input / 1M | Output / 1M | Context | Capabilities |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | GLM 5.3 Flash Z.ai | $0.041 | $0.12 | 1.05M | visiontoolsreasoningJSONopen weights |
| 2 | Ling 3.1 Flash inclusionAI | $0.075 | $0.225 | 262K | toolsreasoningJSON |
| 3 | Claude Haiku 5.5 Anthropic | $0.10 | $0.50 | 1M | visiontoolsreasoningJSON |
| 4 | MiMo-V2.6-Flash Xiaomi | $0.14 | $0.28 | 1.05M | visionaudiotoolsreasoningJSONopen weights |
| 5 | GPT-6 Luna OpenAI | $0.10 | $0.50 | 1.05M | visiontoolsreasoningJSON |
| 6 | GLM 5.3 Z.ai | $0.079 | $1.40 | 1.05M | toolsreasoningJSONopen weights |
| 7 | DeepSeek V4 Flash Vision Exp DeepSeek | $0.216 | $0.647 | 1.05M | visiontoolsreasoningJSONopen weights |
| 8 | Qwen3.8 27B Qwen | $0.04 | $1.35 | 1M | visiontoolsreasoningJSONopen weights |
New this week
All new models →| Model | Input / 1M | Output / 1M | Context | Capabilities |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| MiniMax M3.1 Flash (free) MiniMax | $0 | $0 | 1M | visiontoolsreasoningJSONfree |
| DeepSeek V4.1 Flash 1017 DeepSeek | $0.30 | $1.20 | 1.05M | visiontoolsreasoningJSONopen weights |
| Glimpse Elorian | $0.60 | $3.00 | 262K | visiontoolsreasoningJSON |
| Xing4.0 29B A4B (free) Xingchen Agi | $0 | $0 | 262K | toolsreasoningJSONopen weightsfree |
| Beam 1.0 501B A23B Reflection | $0.30 | $1.00 | 1.05M | toolsreasoningJSONopen weights |
| Mercury 3 Inception | $0.10 | $0.35 | 1M | toolsreasoningJSON |
Latest changes
Price changes show up here from the second daily snapshot.