# LLM API Pricing Comparison 2026: GPT vs Claude vs Gemini vs Llama

> Complete API pricing breakdown for every major LLM in 2026 — OpenAI GPT-5.4, Claude Opus/Sonnet, Gemini 3.1 Pro/Flash, Llama, DeepSeek, and Mistral. With cost-per-task calculations.

Published: 2026-03-15  
Canonical: https://aimastermindlab.com/knowledge-base/llm-api-pricing-comparison-2026

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API pricing is the most important factor for production AI applications. A 10x price difference between models compounds into thousands of dollars monthly. Here's every major model's pricing as of March 2026.

## Full Pricing Table (Per 1M Tokens)

### Frontier Models (Maximum Capability)

| Model | Provider | Input | Output | Context |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| **Claude Opus 4.6** | Anthropic | $15.00 | $75.00 | 1M tokens |
| **GPT-5.4 Pro** | OpenAI | ~$15.00 | ~$60.00 | 1M tokens |
| **GPT-5.4 Thinking** | OpenAI | ~$15.00 | ~$30.00 | 1M tokens |
| **Gemini 3.1 Pro** | Google | $2.00 | $12.00 | 1M tokens |

### Mid-Tier Models (Best Value)

| Model | Provider | Input | Output | Context |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| **Claude Sonnet 4.6** | Anthropic | $3.00 | $15.00 | 200K tokens |
| **GPT-5.3 Instant** | OpenAI | ~$1.00 | ~$4.00 | 128K tokens |
| **Gemini 3.1 Flash** | Google | ~$0.50 | ~$3.00 | 1M tokens |

### Budget Models (Maximum Throughput)

| Model | Provider | Input | Output | Context |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| **Claude Haiku 4.5** | Anthropic | $0.80 | $4.00 | 200K tokens |
| **Gemini 3.1 Flash-Lite** | Google | $0.25 | $1.50 | 1M tokens |
| **GPT-4o-mini** | OpenAI | ~$0.15 | ~$0.60 | 128K tokens |

### Open-Source (Self-Hosted = Free)

| Model | Provider | Self-Hosted | API | Context |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| **Llama 4** | Meta | Free | Via providers | 128K+ |
| **DeepSeek V4** | DeepSeek | Free | Very cheap | 1M tokens |
| **Mistral Large** | Mistral | Free | ~$2/$6 | 128K |
| **Qwen 3** | Alibaba | Free | Via providers | 128K+ |

## Cost-Per-Task Estimates

### Simple Query (500 input + 200 output tokens)
| Model | Cost per query | 10K queries/day |
|---|---|---|
| Gemini Flash-Lite | $0.0004 | $4/day |
| GPT-4o-mini | $0.0002 | $2/day |
| Claude Haiku | $0.001 | $10/day |
| Claude Sonnet | $0.005 | $50/day |
| Claude Opus | $0.023 | $230/day |

### Code Review (2K input + 1K output tokens)
| Model | Cost per review | 100 reviews/day |
|---|---|---|
| Gemini Flash-Lite | $0.002 | $0.20/day |
| GPT-5.3 Instant | $0.006 | $0.60/day |
| Claude Sonnet | $0.021 | $2.10/day |
| GPT-5.4 Thinking | $0.060 | $6.00/day |
| Claude Opus | $0.105 | $10.50/day |

### Document Summarization (10K input + 2K output tokens)
| Model | Cost per doc | 50 docs/day |
|---|---|---|
| Gemini Flash-Lite | $0.006 | $0.30/day |
| Claude Haiku | $0.016 | $0.80/day |
| Claude Sonnet | $0.060 | $3.00/day |
| Gemini Pro | $0.044 | $2.20/day |
| Claude Opus | $0.300 | $15.00/day |

## How to Choose

### Use Frontier Models When:
- Accuracy is critical (legal, medical, financial)
- Complex reasoning or multi-step tasks
- Code architecture and large refactors
- You need maximum quality and cost is secondary

### Use Mid-Tier Models When:
- General-purpose chat and assistance
- Code generation and reviews
- Content creation and editing
- Good balance of quality and cost

### Use Budget Models When:
- High-volume classification or tagging
- Content moderation at scale
- Translation and summarization
- Prototyping and testing

### Use Open-Source When:
- Data privacy is non-negotiable
- You have GPU infrastructure
- You need to fine-tune for specific tasks
- Zero marginal cost matters (high volume)

## The Smart Strategy: Model Routing

Production applications shouldn't use one model for everything. Route requests by complexity:

1. **Simple queries** → Gemini Flash-Lite or GPT-4o-mini ($0.25-0.60/M)
2. **Standard tasks** → Claude Sonnet or GPT-5.3 Instant ($1-15/M)
3. **Complex reasoning** → Claude Opus or GPT-5.4 Pro ($15-75/M)

This "model routing" approach typically reduces costs 60-80% compared to using a frontier model for everything.

## TL;DR
Gemini 3.1 Flash-Lite ($0.25/M input) is the cheapest frontier model. Claude Sonnet 4.6 offers the best quality-per-dollar for most tasks. Opus 4.6 and GPT-5.4 are for when accuracy justifies 10-50x higher costs. Open-source models (Llama, DeepSeek) are free to self-host. Use model routing to cut costs 60-80%.

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Calculate exact costs with our [LLM pricing calculator](/compare/llm-pricing), compare models on the [models page](/models), and see the full [AI tools directory](/tools).
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Source: https://aimastermindlab.com/knowledge-base/llm-api-pricing-comparison-2026 — AI Mastermind Lab (https://aimastermindlab.com)