Comparing 18 Major LLM API Prices: 100x Cost Difference for Same Workload
mentorperplexed · reddit · 2026-08-01
A developer conducted a detailed comparison of standard API prices across 18 major models from OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, xAI, DeepSeek, and Mistral.
By calculating the cost of an identical workload (100k input tokens + 20k output tokens), the analysis reveals a massive gap: the cheapest option, Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite ($0.018), is over 100 times less expensive than the priciest, Claude Fable 5 ($2.00). The author notes that cheapest isn't always best, suggesting that model routing is the most cost-efficient setup—using cheap models for classification, mid-range for standard agents, and premium models only for complex reasoning. Output-heavy applications should also be wary of output token pricing.
Related event: API Costs of 18 Major LLMs Vary by Over 100x(2 posts)→
More from Models
- Reflection's Beam, a 501B-parameter open MoE model with 1M context, lands on Hugging Face under Apache 2.0 — QGallouedec · 2026-10-16
- Why are sub-15B open models so rare now? Labs seem to have settled on 24-27B minimum — Hot_Example_4456 · 2026-10-16
- User spots model openly generating "ideal responses" to train other models — liminal_bardo · 2026-10-16
- Reflection's 501B MoE Beam hits 463 tok/s on 8x GB200 with NVFP4 at day 0 — zhyncs42 · 2026-10-16
- Gemma 4 31B QAT on one 24GB card: 46 tok/s plain, ~80 with draft model on RTX 4090 — Subject_Poet_3861 · 2026-10-16
- JevBench v1.7.46 leaderboard: new d1-ultra tops 32 API systems at 76.1 composite — airesearch12 · 2026-10-16