Budget Models
Cheapest LLM APIs in 2026: Under $1 per Million Tokens
Looking for a cheap LLM API? These models cost less than $1 per million input tokens while still delivering solid performance. Perfect for high-volume applications, rapid prototyping, batch processing, and anyone watching their API bill. Sorted by price so you can find the cheapest option that meets your quality needs.
Top Picks
Cheapest
Lfm 2.2 6b
Liquid
$0.0100/1M input
Most Capable
Maestro Reasoning
Arcee-ai
$0.9000/1M input
Largest Context
Grok 4 Fast
xAI
2Mcontext
Related Categories
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Cost per 1M Tokens / Flagship Models
All Budget Models
| Provider | Model | Input $/1M | Output $/1M | Context | Quality |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Liquid | Lfm2 8b A1b | $0.0100 | $0.0200 | 32.8K | N/A |
| Liquid | Lfm 2.2 6b | $0.0100 | $0.0200 | 32.8K | N/A |
| Ibm-granite | Granite 4.0 H Micro | $0.0170 | $0.1100 | 131K | N/A |
| Gemma 3n E4b It | $0.0200 | $0.0400 | 32.8K | 65.8Frontier | |
| Meta | Llama Guard 3 8b | $0.0200 | $0.0600 | 131.1K | N/A |
| Meta | Llama 3.1 8b Instruct | $0.0200 | $0.0500 | 16.4K | 46.6Good |
| Mistral | Mistral Nemo | $0.0200 | $0.0400 | 131.1K | N/A |
| Meta | Llama 3.2 1b Instruct | $0.0270 | $0.2000 | 60K | 28.7Economy |
| Liquid | Lfm 2 24b A2b | $0.0300 | $0.1200 | 32.8K | N/A |
| OpenAI | GPT Oss 20b | $0.0300 | $0.1100 | 131.1K | 65.7Frontier |
| Qwen | Qwen2.5 Coder 7b Instruct | $0.0300 | $0.0900 | 32.8K | N/A |
| Mistral | Mistral Small 3.1 24b Instruct | $0.0300 | $0.1100 | 131.1K | 63.0Strong |
| Gemma 2 9b It | $0.0300 | $0.0900 | 8.2K | 58.8Strong | |
| Meta | Llama 3 8b Instruct | $0.0300 | $0.0400 | 8.2K | 48.7Good |
| Qwen | Qwen Turbo | $0.0325 | $0.1300 | 131.1K | N/A |
| Amazon | Nova Micro V1 | $0.0350 | $0.1400 | 128K | N/A |
| Cohere | Command R7b 12 2024 | $0.0375 | $0.1500 | 128K | N/A |
| OpenAI | GPT Oss 120b | $0.0390 | $0.1900 | 131.1K | 47.7Good |
| NVIDIA | Nemotron Nano 9b V2 | $0.0400 | $0.1600 | 131.1K | N/A |
| Gemma 3 4b It | $0.0400 | $0.0800 | 131.1K | 63.0Strong | |
| Gemma 3 12b It | $0.0400 | $0.1300 | 131.1K | 69.9Frontier | |
| Qwen | Qwen 2.5 7b Instruct | $0.0400 | $0.1000 | 32.8K | N/A |
| Sao10k | L3 Lunaris 8b | $0.0400 | $0.0500 | 8.2K | N/A |
| Arcee-ai | Trinity Mini | $0.0450 | $0.1500 | 131.1K | N/A |
| Meta | Llama 3.2 11b Vision Instruct | $0.0490 | $0.0490 | 131.1K | N/A |
| Qwen | Qwen3.5 9b | $0.0500 | $0.1500 | 256K | N/A |
| NVIDIA | Nemotron 3 Nano 30b A3b | $0.0500 | $0.2000 | 262.1K | 65.7Frontier |
| OpenAI | GPT 5 Nano | $0.0500 | $0.4000 | 400K | 49.9Good |
| Qwen | Qwen3 8b | $0.0500 | $0.4000 | 41.0K | N/A |
| Allenai | Olmo 2 0325 32b Instruct | $0.0500 | $0.2000 | 128K | 53.8Strong |
| Mistral | Mistral Small 24b Instruct 2501 | $0.0500 | $0.0800 | 32.8K | 57.8Strong |
| Meta | Llama 3.2 3b Instruct | $0.0510 | $0.3400 | 80K | 38.6Good |
| xAI | Glm 4.7 Flash | $0.0600 | $0.4000 | 202.8K | 74.7Frontier |
| Qwen | Qwen3 14b | $0.0600 | $0.2400 | 41.0K | N/A |
| Amazon | Nova Lite V1 | $0.0600 | $0.2400 | 300K | N/A |
| Gryphe | Mythomax L2 13b | $0.0600 | $0.0600 | 4.1K | N/A |
| Qwen | Qwen3.5 Flash 02 23 | $0.0650 | $0.2600 | 1M | 80.6Frontier |
| Microsoft | Phi 4 | $0.0650 | $0.1400 | 16.4K | 54.6Strong |
| Baidu | Ernie 4.5 21b A3b Thinking | $0.0700 | $0.2800 | 131.1K | N/A |
| Baidu | Ernie 4.5 21b A3b | $0.0700 | $0.2800 | 120K | N/A |
| Qwen | Qwen3 Coder 30b A3b Instruct | $0.0700 | $0.2700 | 160K | N/A |
| Qwen | Qwen3 235b A22b 2507 | $0.0710 | $0.1000 | 262.1K | 52.2Strong |
| Bytedance-seed | Seed 1.6 Flash | $0.0750 | $0.3000 | 262.1K | N/A |
| OpenAI | GPT Oss Safeguard 20b | $0.0750 | $0.3000 | 131.1K | N/A |
| Mistral | Mistral Small 3.2 24b Instruct | $0.0750 | $0.2000 | 128K | N/A |
| Gemini 2.0 Flash Lite 001 | $0.0750 | $0.3000 | 1.0M | 72.0Frontier | |
| Qwen | Qwen3 Vl 8b Instruct | $0.0800 | $0.5000 | 131.1K | N/A |
| Qwen | Qwen3 30b A3b Thinking 2507 | $0.0800 | $0.4000 | 131.1K | 38.2Good |
| Qwen | Qwen3 30b A3b | $0.0800 | $0.2800 | 41.0K | 38.2Good |
| Qwen | Qwen3 32b | $0.0800 | $0.2400 | 41.0K | 42.2Good |
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