Category
Cheapest AI APIs
| # | Model | Region | Tier | Price in / out | Context | Strengths | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Nemotron 3.5 Super VLNVIDIA · open | 🇺🇸 US | Strong | $0.1 / $0.4 | 1M | Open multimodal MoE (12B active) Lowest OpenRouter host price (Crusoe); other hosts $0.15-$0.25 in. | src |
| 2 | Claude Haiku 5.5Anthropic | 🇺🇸 US | Strong | $0.1 / $0.5 | 1M | Cheapest Claude (≤100K prompt; $0.50/$2.50 above) | src |
| 3 | GPT-6 LunaOpenAI | 🇺🇸 US | Strong | $0.1 / $0.5 | 1M | Lowest-price flagship family tier | src |
| 4 | Qwen3.8 FlashAlibaba (Qwen) | 🇨🇳 CN | Lite | $0.15 / $0.47 | 1M | Ultra-low price | src |
| 5 | GLM-5.3-FlashZhipu / Z.ai · open | 🇨🇳 CN | Lite | $0.15 / $0.5 | 1M | Cheapest GLM tier Open-weights status: verify | src |
| 6 | Mistral Small 4Mistral · open | 🇪🇺 EU | Lite | $0.15 / $0.6 | 262K | Cheap, efficient Open-weights status: verify | src |
| 7 | gpt-oss-120BOpenAI (via Together) · open | 🇺🇸 US | Strong | $0.15 / $0.6 | 131K | Open-weights OpenAI model | src |
| 8 | DeepSeek V4.1 FlashDeepSeek · open | 🇨🇳 CN | Strong | $0.3 / $1.2 | 1M | Very cheap; half off-peak Open-weights status: verify | src |
| 9 | MiniMax-M3MiniMax · open | 🇨🇳 CN | Strong | $0.3 / $1.2 | 1M | Very cheap (permanent 50% off; 2x above 512K input) Open-weights status: verify | src |
| 10 | Gemini 3.5 Flash-LiteGoogle | 🇺🇸 US | Lite | $0.3 / $2.5 | 1M | Low-latency | src |
| 11 | Gemini 3.8 FlashGoogle | 🇺🇸 US | Strong | $0.75 / $3.75 | 1M | Fast; promo price until 2026-12-31 (then $1.50/$7.50) | src |
| 12 | Grok 4.3xAI | 🇺🇸 US | Strong | $1.25 / $2.5 | 1M | Cheap, 1M context | src |
| 13 | DeepSeek V4 ProDeepSeek · open | 🇨🇳 CN | Pro | $1.32 / $3.96 | 1M | Low price; 50% off-peak Peak cache-miss rate; open-weights status: verify | src |