API Pricing
AI API Pricing Guide 2026:
GPT-4o vs Claude vs Gemini vs Open Source
Side-by-side comparison of every major AI model with real cost-per-task analysis. Updated March 2026.
16 min read·Updated March 2026
Complete AI API Pricing Table (March 2026)
| Model | Provider | Input /1M | Output /1M | Context | Speed |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| GPT-4o | OpenAI | $2.50 | $10.00 | 128K | Fast |
| GPT-4o mini | OpenAI | $0.15 | $0.60 | 128K | Very Fast |
| o3 | OpenAI | $10.00 | $40.00 | 200K | Slow |
| o3-mini | OpenAI | $1.10 | $4.40 | 128K | Medium |
| Claude Opus 4 | Anthropic | $15.00 | $75.00 | 200K | Medium |
| Claude 3.5 Sonnet | Anthropic | $3.00 | $15.00 | 200K | Fast |
| Claude 3.5 Haiku | Anthropic | $0.80 | $4.00 | 200K | Very Fast |
| Gemini 2.0 Pro | $1.25 | $5.00 | 1M | Fast | |
| Gemini 2.0 Flash | $0.10 | $0.40 | 1M | Very Fast | |
| Llama 3.3 70B | Groq/Together | $0.59 | $0.79 | 128K | Fast |
| Mistral Large 2 | Mistral | $2.00 | $6.00 | 128K | Fast |
Real-World Cost Per Task (1,000 tasks)
Customer support reply
Gemini Flash$0.13 ✓
GPT-4o mini$0.20
Claude Haiku$1.20
GPT-4o$3.75
~500 input + 200 output tokens per reply
Document summarization
Gemini Flash$0.60 ✓
GPT-4o mini$0.90
Claude Sonnet$19.50
GPT-4o$15.00
~4,000 input + 500 output tokens per doc
Code generation
GPT-4o mini$0.63 ✓
Llama 3.3 70B$1.22
Claude Sonnet$15.00
Claude Opus 4$75.00
~1,000 input + 800 output tokens per task
Content moderation
Gemini Flash$0.05 ✓
GPT-4o mini$0.08
Claude Haiku$0.44
GPT-4o$0.88
~300 input + 50 output tokens per check
Which AI Model Should You Choose?
Choose GPT-4o if:
- You need vision (image understanding) combined with text generation
- You want the largest ecosystem of plugins and integrations
- You're building apps for non-technical users who expect "best quality"
Choose Claude if:
- You're processing long documents (200K context window)
- You need the best coding assistance quality
- Safety and instruction-following are critical
Choose Gemini 2.0 Flash if:
- Cost efficiency is the top priority
- You need 1M+ token context for very long documents
- You're doing multimodal tasks at high volume
Choose open-source (Llama, Mistral) if:
- Data privacy requires on-premise deployment
- You have the infrastructure to self-host
- Volume is so high that API costs exceed self-hosting costs (~$10,000+/month)
AI API Cost Optimization Strategies
- Prompt caching: Anthropic and OpenAI offer 90% discounts on cached prompt tokens. Cache your system prompts.
- Model routing: Use a cheap fast model (GPT-4o mini, Haiku) for classification/routing, then only invoke the expensive model when needed.
- Semantic caching: Cache semantically similar requests. Tools like GPTCache can reduce API calls by 30-70%.
- Output length control: Set explicit max_tokens limits. Unconstrained output is the biggest source of surprise costs.
- Batch API: OpenAI's Batch API offers 50% discount for asynchronous workloads (acceptable for non-real-time tasks).
Calculate Your Actual API Costs
Enter your usage parameters to see exact costs across all major models.
Open API Cost Calculator