AI price index
LLM API price per million input tokens, 2021 to 2028. Updated Oct 2026.
- Cheapest flagship
- $2
- -90% since Oct 2023
- Median flagship
- $10
- -50% since Oct 2023
- Cheapest budget
- $0.10
- -75% since Oct 2023
Show the data as a table
| Observed | Median flagship model | Cheapest flagship model | Cheapest budget model |
|---|---|---|---|
| Nov 20, 2021 | $60 | $60 | $0.80 |
| Feb 19, 2022 | $60 | $60 | $0.80 |
| May 21, 2022 | $60 | $60 | $0.80 |
| Aug 20, 2022 | $60 | $60 | $0.80 |
| Nov 20, 2022 | $20 | $20 | $0.40 |
| Feb 19, 2023 | $20 | $20 | $0.40 |
| May 21, 2023 | $20 | $20 | $0.40 |
| Aug 21, 2023 | $20 | $20 | $0.40 |
| Nov 20, 2023 | $20 | $20 | $0.40 |
| Feb 19, 2024 | $20 | $20 | $0.40 |
| May 21, 2024 | $10 | $10 | $0.50 |
| Jun 20, 2024 | $12.50 | $0.25 | |
| Aug 20, 2024 | $12.50 | $10 | $0.25 |
| Nov 19, 2024 | $8.75 | $2.50 | $0.15 |
| Feb 19, 2025 | $8.75 | $2.50 | $0.15 |
| May 21, 2025 | $8.75 | $2.50 | $0.15 |
| Jun 20, 2025 | $2.50 | $1.25 | |
| Aug 20, 2025 | $2.50 | $1.25 | $0.15 |
| Nov 20, 2025 | $1.25 | $1.25 | $0.05 |
| Dec 20, 2025 | $2 | ||
| Feb 19, 2026 | $2 | $1.25 | $0.05 |
| May 21, 2026 | $5 | $2 | $0.05 |
| Aug 20, 2026 | $5 | $2 | $0.05 |
| Oct 3, 2026 | $10 | $2 | $0.10 |
2028: trend vs our view
| Today | Trend | Our view | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Median flagship | $10 | $6.17 | $10 to $20 |
| Cheapest flagship | $2 | $0.402 | $2 to $5 |
| Cheapest budget | $0.10 | $0.038 | $0.10 to $0.30 |
- Frontier prices won’t fall. They are set against the work a model replaces, and every leader now sells a tier above the old $10 ceiling.
- Budget prices have hit the floor. Gemini Flash’s intro price doubles in 2027, and OpenAI’s cheapest model went $0.05 → $0.20 → $0.10.
- Watch cost per task, not per token. Reasoning and agents use more tokens per job, so bills rise even when prices fall.
Today, per million tokens (input / output)
| Maker | Flagship | Budget | In index |
|---|---|---|---|
| OpenAI | $10 / $50Flagship model | $0.10 / $0.50Cheapest model | since 2021 |
| Anthropic | $10 / $50Top model | $1 / $5Haiku tier | since 2024 |
| $2 / $12Gemini Pro tier | $0.75 / $3.75Gemini Flash tier | since 2025 | |
| Mistral | $0.50 / $1.5Mistral Large 3 | $0.15 / $0.60Mistral Small 4 | from 2027 |
| xAI | $2 / $6grok-4.6 | $1.25 / $2.5grok-4.3 | from 2027 |
| DeepSeek | $1.32 / $3.96deepseek-v4-pro | $0.30 / $1.2deepseek-flash | from 2027 |
Are LLM API prices going down?
At the bottom, yes: the cheapest flagship model went from $20 to $2 per million input tokens since Oct 2023. The median flagship went from $20 to $10.
What will LLM API prices be in 2028?
Our view: median flagship $10 to $20, cheapest flagship $2 to $5, budget models $0.10 to $0.30 per million input tokens. The trend line alone points lower.
How is the AI price index calculated?
Monthly list input prices from each model maker's own API (OpenAI, Anthropic, Google). A maker joins after a year of history. Resellers are left out.