Cheapest AI Models of 2026, best Price per Token

Ranked by blended price: (input + 3× output) ÷ 4, the industry-standard weighting that reflects realistic chat-style traffic. Lower is cheaper.

Data updated: August 11, 2026

#ModelVendorArena EloSWE-benchPrice in/out ($/M)Context

Full AI model comparison

Frequently asked questions

Which AI model is cheapest in 2026?

The table above sorts by blended price per million tokens. Small models like Gemini Flash, GPT-5 mini and Claude Haiku are one to two orders of magnitude cheaper than the flagships and handle most high-volume production workloads.

How can I estimate my monthly AI bill?

Multiply requests per month by the tokens each request consumes and by the price per million tokens. Our free LLM cost calculator does it for 40+ models at once with official list prices.