I compared the standard API list prices of 18 models from OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, xAI, DeepSeek, and Mistral. To make the numbers easier to understand, I calculated the cost of the same sample workload across different models: 100,000 input tokens 20,000 output tokens Standard short-context pricing No batch, caching, tool-use, or priority-processing discounts Approximate cost for this workload: Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite: $0.018 DeepSeek V4 Flash: $0.0196 Mistral Small 4: $0.027 GPT-5.6 Luna: $0.044 DeepSeek V4 Pro: $0.0609 Mistral Large 3: $0.080 Grok 4.3: $0.175 Claude Haiku 4.5: $0.20 Grok 4.5: $0.32 Claude Sonnet 5: $0.40 GPT-5.6 Terra: $0.44 Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview: $0.44 Claude Opus 5: $1.00 GPT-5.6 Sol: $1.10 Claude Fable 5: $2.00 The basic calculation is: Total cost = [(input tokens ÷ 1,000,000) × input price] + [(output tokens ÷ 1,000,000) × output price] The difference between the cheapest and most expensive option in this example is more than 100x. That does not mean the cheapest model is automatically the best choice. These models differ significantly in reasoning quality, coding performance, context handling, speed, reliability, and tool-use capabilities. The most cost-efficient setup may be model routing rather than relying on a single provider: Cheap models for classification, extraction, translation, and short summaries Mid-range models for everyday agents and structured generation Premium models for complex reasoning, coding, and high-stakes tasks Output-heavy applications should pay particular attention to output pricing. A model with inexpensive input tokens can still become costly if it generates long responses. I run Karekod Blog and published the complete comparison, including all 18 models, input/output prices, TRY conversions, and the calculation formula here: https://www.karekod.org/blog/yapay-zeka-token-fiyati/ The data was checked against the official pricing pages of the six providers. Which model currently offers the best quality-to-price ratio in your real-world projects? Disclosure: I manage the website linked above. AI assistance was used to organize this post, while the prices were checked against official provider documentation. submitted by /u/mentorperplexed
Originally posted by u/mentorperplexed on r/ArtificialInteligence