Best Budget LLM APIs
Models under $1.00 per million tokens (blended 3:1 input:output ratio), ranked by quality score. If you are running any meaningful volume of API calls, the cost gap between these models and frontier closed-source alternatives is enormous.
Blended cost = (input price × 3 + output price) / 4. Cheapest reliable provider used. Prices verified February 2026 — check before budgeting.
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Premium tier (above $1.00/1M blended)
Higher quality, higher cost. Shown for comparison.
Why “blended” cost?
LLM APIs charge separately for input and output tokens. A 3:1 input:output ratio is a reasonable approximation for most real workloads (prompts are often longer than completions). The blended cost formula: (input price × 3 + output price) / 4. This makes models directly comparable on a single number. If your workload is output-heavy (long completions), multiply output price by your actual ratio for a more accurate estimate.
Prices change constantly. Always verify at the provider's official pricing page before committing to a provider for production workloads.