$42 per billion input tokens with free output: an AI API price that looks like black magic
altryne · x · 2026-09-18
A pricing note making the rounds: an AI API provider charges $42 for one billion input tokens and nothing at all for output tokens — a price the poster calls "black magic."
The quoted tweet adds a joke from the team: when users complain about only $5 in free credits, their UX guy replies "try spending $1," implying real-world costs are absurdly low. The vendor isn't named, but the price point sits far below mainstream frontier-model pricing, another sign the inference cost war keeps grinding down.
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