Token Calculator
Wondering how much your AI API usage actually costs? Our free AI token calculator helps developers, businesses, and creators estimate the cost of sending prompts to large language models like OpenAI’s GPT-4o, Anthropic’s Claude, and Google’s Gemini. Simply enter your text or token count, select your model, and get an instant cost estimate — no account required.
Start Calculating ↓Powerful tools for AI cost management
Make informed decisions about your AI model usage with accurate, up-to-date pricing information and powerful comparison features. Whether you are building a startup or managing enterprise API usage, our calculator helps you forecast expenses accurately.
Single Model Calculator
Get detailed cost breakdowns for specific models. See exactly how much you’ll spend on input and output tokens for your specific workload.
Multi-Model Comparison
Select multiple models and instantly compare their costs side-by-side. Easily identify the most cost-effective option for your token volume.
20+ Supported Models
Our database includes the latest models from OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, Meta, Mistral, Cohere, and more, with real-time pricing updates.
Supported Models
20+
Supported Providers
Average Savings Found
34.2%
When using the comparison tool
Calculate & Compare Costs
Choose between single model calculation or multi-model comparison to find the best pricing for your needs. Enter your estimated input and output tokens below.
Calculate Cost
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Select a model, enter your token count, and click Calculate to see the cost breakdown.
Current AI API Pricing (2026)
Prices shown per 1 million tokens. Updated July 2026.
| Provider | Model | Input (per 1M) | Output (per 1M) |
|---|---|---|---|
| OpenAI | GPT-5 | $1.25 | $10.00 |
| OpenAI | GPT-4.1 | $2.00 | $8.00 |
| OpenAI | GPT-4.1 Mini | $0.40 | $1.60 |
| OpenAI | GPT-4o | $2.50 | $10.00 |
| OpenAI | GPT-4o mini | $0.15 | $0.60 |
| Anthropic | Claude Opus 4.8 | $5.00 | $25.00 |
| Anthropic | Claude Sonnet 4.6 | $3.00 | $15.00 |
| Anthropic | Claude Haiku 4.5 | $1.00 | $5.00 |
| Anthropic | Claude 3.7 Sonnet | $3.00 | $15.00 |
| Gemini 2.5 Pro | $1.25 | $10.00 | |
| Gemini 2.0 Flash | $0.10 | $0.40 | |
| Meta | Llama 3.3 70B | $0.23 | $0.40 |
| Mistral | Mistral Large | $2.00 | $6.00 |
| Mistral | Mistral Small | $0.10 | $0.30 |
Which AI Model Should You Use?
Best for High-Volume, Low-Cost Apps
If you are running millions of requests and cost is the primary concern, Gemini 2.0 Flash ($0.10/$0.40) and Mistral Small ($0.10/$0.30) are the cheapest options available. GPT-4o mini ($0.15/$0.60) and Claude Haiku 4.5 ($1.00/$5.00) are strong alternatives with broader ecosystem support. These models handle classification, summarization, routing, and customer support tasks well at a fraction of flagship model costs.
Best Balance of Cost and Quality
GPT-4.1 Mini ($0.40/$1.60) and Claude Sonnet 4.6 ($3.00/$15.00) sit in the mid-tier sweet spot. GPT-4.1 Mini is the better pick if you need a large context window at low cost. Claude Sonnet 4.6 wins on instruction-following and reasoning quality for the price. Most production apps building chatbots, RAG pipelines, or document processing tools land here.
Best for Complex Tasks and Agents
GPT-5 ($1.25/$10.00) and Claude Opus 4.8 ($5.00/$25.00) are the current flagships. GPT-5 is cheaper on input and strong across reasoning and coding. Claude Opus 4.8 is the better choice for long-horizon agentic workflows and tasks requiring adaptive thinking. Use these where quality directly impacts revenue or where errors are costly.
Open Source Option
Llama 3.3 70B ($0.23/$0.40) is Meta’s strongest open-weight model available via API. It is competitive with GPT-4o on many benchmarks at a significantly lower price. A solid choice if you want flexibility to self-host later or avoid vendor lock-in.
What Is an AI Token?
Tokens are the fundamental building blocks that large language models (LLMs) like GPT-4, Claude, and Gemini use to process and generate text. You can think of tokens as pieces of words. Before an AI model can read your prompt or generate a response, the text is broken down into these tokens.
Input vs. Output Tokens
When using AI APIs, you are billed based on two distinct metrics: Input Tokens (the prompt or context you send to the model) and Output Tokens (the text the model generates in response). Lenders of these models format their pricing this way because generating new text (output) requires significantly more computational power than simply reading and understanding text (input).
How Tokens Affect Your Pricing
Because output tokens are computationally expensive, they typically cost 3 to 8 times more than input tokens. If you are building an application that summarizes massive documents (high input, low output), your costs will look vastly different than an application that writes long blog posts based on a short prompt (low input, high output). Our calculator takes both into account to give you a highly accurate estimate.
Frequently Asked Questions
How many tokens is 1,000 words?
Approximately 1,333 tokens. A helpful rule of thumb is that 1 token is roughly 3/4 of a word in English.
Do input and output tokens cost the same?
No. Output tokens typically cost 4-8x more than input tokens. Generating text is far more computationally intensive than processing your prompt.
Which AI model is cheapest for high-volume use?
Lightweight models like Claude Haiku 4.5 ($1/$5 per million tokens), GPT-4o mini ($0.15/$0.60), and Gemini 2.0 Flash ($0.10/$0.40) are designed for high-volume, cost-sensitive applications. For a balance of quality and cost, GPT-4.1 Mini and Claude Sonnet 4.6 are strong mid-tier options.
What is the cheapest AI API in 2026?
Gemini 2.0 Flash and Mistral Small are currently the cheapest at $0.10 per million input tokens. For models with stronger ecosystem support, GPT-4o mini at $0.15 per million input tokens is the most widely used budget option.
Is Claude cheaper than GPT-4.1?
It depends on the tier. Claude Haiku 4.5 ($1.00/$5.00) is more expensive than GPT-4.1 Mini ($0.40/$1.60) but cheaper than GPT-4.1 ($2.00/$8.00). Claude Sonnet 4.6 ($3.00/$15.00) costs more on input than GPT-4.1 but offers comparable output pricing. For budget-sensitive workloads, GPT-4.1 Mini has the edge. For reasoning quality per dollar, Claude Sonnet 4.6 is competitive.
How often does AI API pricing change?
Frequently. Major providers like OpenAI, Anthropic, and Google have updated pricing multiple times in the past 12 months, generally trending downward as competition increases. We update this page monthly to reflect current rates. Always verify against the provider’s official pricing page before committing a production budget.