Cheapest AI models for bulk workloads
When you're running millions of requests, value per million tokens swamps every other axis. Here are the strongest cheap models in 2026.
The podium
Top 3 picks
🥇Anthropic
Claude Haiku 4.5Fast, cheap, surprisingly smart.
value
10.0
speed
10.0
200K context$1.00 / $5.00
🥉Google
Gemini Nano 2On-device first. Free inference, private by default.
value
10.0
speed
10.0
32K contextFree / Free
Full ranking
Runners-up
| # | Model | Context | Price /M | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 4 | GPT-5 Mini OpenAI | 200K | $0.40 / $1.60 | View → |
| 5 | Mistral Small 3 Mistral | 128K | $0.20 / $0.60 | View → |
| 6 | GPT-OSS 20B OpenAI | 128K | $0.15 / $0.60 | View → |
| 7 | Qwen 3 Coder Alibaba | 128K | $0.50 / $1.50 | View → |
| 8 | DeepSeek V3 DeepSeek | 128K | $0.27 / $1.10 | View → |
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