Price ranking

Cheapest LLM APIs

Ranked language models with a listed API price, cheapest first by a 3:1 input-weighted blend of the lowest observed provider offer. Each row shows the ModelCap Index position so cheap and capable can be read together.

Snapshot as of 1 October 2026

Ling 3.0 Flash VL from InclusionAI leads the cheapest LLM API list as of 1 October 2026 with a blended price of $0.031 per 1M tokens ($0.021 in / $0.062 out), holding ModelCap Index position #50; 115 models qualify.

Models on this list

115

With openly downloadable weights

With a listed API price

100

Cheapest LLM APIs (top 100 of 115)

Every row is a current, canonical language model with a public position on the ModelCap Index; the list filters by a published fact and orders by a published figure.

Cheapest LLM APIs: current, canonical language models with a public ModelCap Index position and a fresh or bounded-stale listed price above zero on the OpenRouter catalogue, ordered by 0.75 × input + 0.25 × output price per million tokens
#	Model	Blended $/1M	ModelCap Index	Input $/1M	Output $/1M	Context	Weights
1	Ling 3.0 Flash VLInclusionAI	$0.031	#5065.9	$0.021	$0.062	262K	Open weights
2	Ling 3.0 FlashInclusionAI	$0.032	#6362.2	$0.021	$0.063	262K	Open weights
3	gpt-oss-20bOpenAI	$0.036	#16637.8	$0.018	$0.09	131K	Open weights
4	Nex-N2.5-MiniNex AGI	$0.044	#3371.1	$0.025	$0.10	262K	Open weights
5	Llama 3.1 8B InstructMeta	$0.057	#23313.5	$0.05	$0.08	131K	Gated access
6	Nova Micro 1.0Amazon	$0.061	#22417.4	$0.035	$0.14	128K	API only
7	Gemma 3 4BGoogle	$0.063	#19427.4	$0.05	$0.10	131K	Gated access
8	Mercury 2.5Inception Labs	$0.068	#9055.8	$0.04	$0.15	260K	API only
9	gpt-oss-120bOpenAI	$0.07	#13244.6	$0.037	$0.17	131K	Open weights
10	Llama 3.2 1B InstructMeta	$0.071	#2754.9	$0.027	$0.201	60K	Gated access
11	Laguna XS 2.1Poolside	$0.075	#8357.5	$0.06	$0.12	262K	Restricted license
12	Gemma 3 12BGoogle	$0.075	#16338.1	$0.05	$0.15	131K	Gated access
13	Qwen3 30B A3B Instruct 2507Qwen	$0.084	#12050.6	$0.048	$0.193	262K	Open weights
14	Nemotron 3.5 LightningNVIDIA	$0.087	#8756.3	$0.059	$0.17	262K	Restricted license
15	Solar Mini 4Upstage	$0.087	#5365.5	$0.05	$0.20	524K	API only
16	Nemotron 3 Nano 30B A3BNVIDIA	$0.087	#17931.8	$0.05	$0.20	262K	Restricted license
17	Phi 4Microsoft	$0.088	#21919.6	$0.07	$0.14	16K	Open weights
18	Ling 3.0 Flash FinInclusionAI	$0.09	#5964.3	$0.06	$0.18	262K	Open weights
19	Granite 4.2 8BIBM Granite	$0.107	#17234.8	$0.06	$0.25	131K	Open weights
20	Qwen3.5-9BQwen	$0.112	#9554.9	$0.10	$0.15	262K	Open weights
21	Laguna S 2.1Poolside	$0.113	#4268.4	$0.09	$0.18	1M	Restricted license
22	Nex-N2.5-ProNex AGI	$0.119	#2077.8	$0.075	$0.25	262K	Open weights
23	Llama 3.2 3B InstructMeta	$0.12	#2628.4	$0.05	$0.33	131K	Gated access
24	Gemma 4 26B A4BGoogle	$0.121	#4168.4	$0.076	$0.255	262K	Open weights
25	Qwen3 Coder 30B A3B InstructQwen	$0.123	#9954.1	$0.07	$0.28	262K	Open weights
26	Qwen3 32BQwen	$0.13	#14441.2	$0.08	$0.28	131K	Open weights
27	gpt-oss-safeguard-20bOpenAI	$0.131	#17533.8	$0.075	$0.30	131K	Open weights
28	Mistral Small 3.2 24BMistral AI	$0.133	#14143.1	$0.094	$0.25	256K	Open weights
29	DeepSeek V4.1 FlashDeepSeek	$0.147	#1579.3	$0.03	$0.50	1M	Open weights
30	Llama 4 ScoutMeta	$0.15	#17732.9	$0.10	$0.30	1.3M	Gated access
31	Gemma 4 31BGoogle	$0.152	#2872.9	$0.09	$0.34	262K	Open weights
32	Qwen3 235B A22B Instruct 2507Qwen	$0.153	#6462.1	$0.087	$0.35	262K	Open weights
33	Llama 3.3 70B InstructMeta	$0.155	#17832.4	$0.10	$0.32	131K	Gated access
34	Solar Pro 4Upstage	$0.158	#11950.8	$0.09	$0.36	524K	API only
35	Gemma 3 27BGoogle	$0.172	#13344.5	$0.08	$0.45	131K	Gated access
36	Nemotron 3 SuperNVIDIA	$0.172	#13444.0	$0.08	$0.45	262K	Restricted license
37	MiMo-V2.6-FlashXiaomi	$0.175	#2575.7	$0.14	$0.28	1M	Open weights
38	MiMo-V2.5Xiaomi	$0.175	#4468.0	$0.14	$0.28	1M	Open weights
39	GPT-6 LunaOpenAI	$0.20	#3171.4	$0.10	$0.50	1M	API only
40	Qwen3 30B A3BQwen	$0.215	#17135.7	$0.12	$0.50	131K	Open weights
41	Qwen3.8 FlashQwen	$0.23	#1878.4	$0.15	$0.47	1M	Restricted license
42	GLM 5.3 FlashZ.ai	$0.237	#1778.9	$0.15	$0.50	1M	Open weights
43	Mistral Small 4Mistral AI	$0.262	#9455.0	$0.15	$0.60	262K	Open weights
44	GPT-4o-miniOpenAI	$0.262	#16138.8	$0.15	$0.60	128K	API only
45	Command R (08-2024)Cohere	$0.262	#22118.5	$0.15	$0.60	128K	API only
46	Qwen3 Coder NextQwen	$0.29	#11053.3	$0.12	$0.80	262K	Open weights
47	Llama 4 MaverickMeta	$0.304	#17434.8	$0.188	$0.652	1M	Gated access
48	GLM 4.5 AirZ.ai	$0.31	#12547.4	$0.13	$0.85	131K	Open weights
49	DeepSeek V3.2DeepSeek	$0.315	#6661.7	$0.28	$0.42	164K	Open weights
50	DeepSeek V4 Flash Vision ExpDeepSeek	$0.323	#2773.8	$0.216	$0.647	1M	Open weights
51	Qwen3 Next 80B A3B InstructQwen	$0.35	#9854.7	$0.10	$1.10	262K	Open weights
52	Qwen3.6 35B A3BQwen	$0.362	#7260.7	$0.15	$1.00	262K	Open weights
53	Qwen2.5 72B InstructQwen	$0.37	#18929.0	$0.36	$0.40	33K	Restricted license
54	Trinity Large ThinkingArcee AI	$0.387	#12448.3	$0.25	$0.80	262K	Restricted license
55	Qwen3 Next 80B A3B ThinkingQwen	$0.412	#12746.9	$0.15	$1.20	262K	Open weights
56	MiniMax-01MiniMax	$0.425	#14242.2	$0.20	$1.10	1M	License unverified
57	Step 3.7 FlashStepFun	$0.438	#11252.8	$0.20	$1.15	262K	Open weights
58	GLM 4.6VZ.ai	$0.45	#12249.0	$0.30	$0.90	131K	Open weights
59	GPT-5.4 NanoOpenAI	$0.463	#8456.5	$0.20	$1.25	400K	API only
60	DeepSeek V3.1 TerminusDeepSeek	$0.475	#7659.7	$0.30	$1.00	164K	Open weights
61	Qwen3 Coder 480B A35BQwen	$0.475	#11551.9	$0.30	$1.00	262K	Open weights
62	LongCat 2.0Meituan	$0.525	#1679.0	$0.30	$1.20	1M	Open weights
63	MiniMax M3MiniMax	$0.525	#4068.5	$0.30	$1.20	1M	Restricted license
64	MiMo-V2.6-ProXiaomi	$0.544	#683.1	$0.435	$0.87	1M	Open weights
65	Qwen3.7 PlusQwen	$0.56	#3071.9	$0.32	$1.28	1M	API only
66	Command A+Cohere	$0.60	#8556.5	$0.30	$1.50	192K	API only
67	Qwen3 VL 235B A22B InstructQwen	$0.632	#7859.5	$0.21	$1.90	262K	Open weights
68	Muse Glimmer 30BMeta	$0.637	#3470.7	$0.35	$1.50	131K	Open weights
69	Inkling SmallThinking Machines	$0.637	#8257.6	$0.45	$1.20	524K	Open weights
70	Qwen3.5-122B-A10BQwen	$0.715	#7759.5	$0.26	$2.08	262K	Open weights
71	Qwen2.5 Coder 32B InstructQwen	$0.745	#21023.6	$0.66	$1.00	33K	Open weights
72	Qwen3 235B A22B Thinking 2507Qwen	$0.747	#9654.8	$0.23	$2.30	131K	Open weights
73	Mistral Large 3 2512Mistral AI	$0.75	#7459.9	$0.50	$1.50	262K	API only
74	Qwen3 235B A22BQwen	$0.796	#9255.7	$0.455	$1.82	131K	Open weights
75	Gemini 3.5 Flash LiteGoogle	$0.85	#3271.2	$0.30	$2.50	1M	API only
76	Nova 2 LiteAmazon	$0.85	#16238.5	$0.30	$2.50	1M	API only
77	R1 0528DeepSeek	$0.913	#6761.5	$0.50	$2.15	164K	Open weights
78	DeepSeek V4 Pro 0813DeepSeek	$0.99	#2476.4	$0.66	$1.98	1M	Open weights
79	Seed 2.1 TurboByteDance Seed	$1.00	#2377.0	$0.50	$2.50	262K	API only
80	GLM 5.3Z.ai	$1.01	#1180.9	$0.222	$3.39	1M	Restricted license
81	Qwen3.8 27BQwen	$1.06	#3968.9	$0.42	$3.00	1M	Open weights
82	Kimi K2 ThinkingMoonshot AI	$1.07	#5265.6	$0.60	$2.50	262K	Restricted license
83	Hy4 previewTencent	$1.13	#2673.8	$0.751	$2.25	1M	Open weights
84	Qwen3.5 397B A17BQwen	$1.29	#4368.0	$0.55	$3.50	262K	Open weights
85	Qwen3 VL 235B A22B ThinkingQwen	$1.30	#10153.8	$0.40	$4.00	131K	Open weights
86	Kimi K2.7 CodeMoonshot AI	$1.34	#4965.9	$0.671	$3.35	262K	Restricted license
87	Nova Pro 1.0Amazon	$1.40	#19526.5	$0.80	$3.20	300K	API only
88	Gemini 3.8 FlashGoogle	$1.50	#982.7	$0.75	$3.75	1M	API only
89	Grok 4.20 Multi-AgentxAI	$1.56	#1379.8	$1.25	$2.50	2M	API only
90	GPT-5.4 MiniOpenAI	$1.69	#3669.5	$0.75	$4.50	400K	API only
91	InklingThinking Machines	$1.76	#4767.5	$1.00	$4.05	524K	Open weights
92	GLM 5V TurboZ.ai	$1.90	#4567.9	$1.20	$4.00	203K	API only
93	GLM 5 TurboZ.ai	$1.90	#10953.5	$1.20	$4.00	203K	API only
94	o4 MiniOpenAI	$1.93	#11751.2	$1.10	$4.40	200K	API only
95	Muse Spark 1.3Meta	$2.00	#584.6	$1.25	$4.25	1M	API only
96	Claude Haiku 4.5Anthropic	$2.00	#7559.8	$1.00	$5.00	200K	API only
97	Kimi K3Moonshot AI	$2.77	#1082.2	$0.365	$10.00	1M	Restricted license
98	Qwen3.8 Max (0902)Qwen	$3.00	#783.0	$2.00	$6.00	1M	API only
99	Grok 4.7xAI	$3.00	#2972.8	$2.00	$6.00	500K	API only
100	Mistral Medium 3.5Mistral AI	$3.00	#6561.9	$1.50	$7.50	262K	API only

Cheapest LLM APIs: common questions

Which model tops the cheapest LLM API list right now?

Ling 3.0 Flash VL (InclusionAI), as of 1 October 2026, with a blended price of $0.031 per 1M tokens ($0.021 in / $0.062 out) and ModelCap Index position #50.

How is the cheapest LLM API list built?

It contains current, canonical language models with a public ModelCap Index position and a fresh or bounded-stale listed price above zero on the OpenRouter catalogue, ordered by 0.75 × input + 0.25 × output price per million tokens. Nothing is estimated for the list itself: the filter is a published fact and the order is a published figure, and every row links to the model page that shows its evidence.

How many models qualify for the cheapest LLM API list?

115 models qualify; the page shows the first 100. The population is the live ModelCap Index, so a model appears here the moment it holds a public position and meets the filter.

Which model on this list ranks highest on the ModelCap Index?

Muse Spark 1.3 holds ModelCap Index position #5, the highest of any model in the list, and sits at #95 here by blended $/1m.

What is the cheapest model among the top ten on the ModelCap Index?

MiMo-V2.6-Pro (Index #6) at $0.544 blended per 1M tokens — $0.435 input, $0.87 output.

Why order by a blended price instead of the output price?

Most production traffic is prompt-heavy, so the list weights input at 75% and output at 25%; both raw prices are shown in the table so a generation-heavy workload can re-order by the output column on the model pages.

Which is the best open-weight model on this list?

Ling 3.0 Flash VL from InclusionAI is the highest-placed model with openly downloadable weights (#1 here, ModelCap Index #50).

How current is the cheapest LLM API list?

Positions, prices and context figures come from the same published snapshot dated 1 October 2026. Publication and page updates happen separately; use the snapshot date shown on the page.