AI model price index
What a typical model costs today, and where prices are heading. Median blended price per 1M tokens (3 input : 1 output) across paid models.
Checked Oct 21, 2026
$0.85
median, all paid models
$0.263–$3.00
middle half of the market
—
change (from the second day)
Median price by tier
The chart appears once there are two daily points.
| Tier | Models | Median | 25th–75th pct. | Change |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| All paid models | 363 | $0.85 | $0.263–$3.00 | — |
| Frontier (intelligence index 40+) | 25 | $4.00 | $1.65–$8.00 | — |
| Mid-tier (index 20–40) | 77 | $1.19 | $0.525–$3.00 | — |
| Small (index under 20) | 111 | $0.425 | $0.15–$1.00 | — |
Cheapest for their tier
Models priced furthest below the median of their tier today.
| Model | Index | Blended / 1M | vs tier median |
|---|---|---|---|
| GLM 5.3 Flash | 41.8 | $0.061 | −98.5% |
| Ling 3.0 Flash | 20.1 | $0.032 | −97.4% |
| Ling 3.1 Flash | 41.1 | $0.112 | −97.2% |
| Claude Haiku 5.5 | 43.4 | $0.20 | −95% |
| Solar Mini 4 | 24.1 | $0.088 | −92.7% |
| Ling 3.0 Flash VL | 24.6 | $0.09 | −92.5% |
| gpt-oss-20b | 10 | $0.036 | −91.5% |
| DeepSeek V4 Flash 0423 | 24.4 | $0.114 | −90.5% |
Tiers use the Artificial Analysis intelligence index; models without an index count only in “all paid models”. Free models, batch/flex variants and routers are excluded. See the methodology and individual price changes.