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Cheapest LLM APIs: OpenAI's GPT-5 nano leads in cost comparison

By PulseAugur Editorial · [1 sources] ·

A comparison of 20 Large Language Model APIs in October 2026 reveals significant price variations, with OpenAI's GPT-5 nano being the cheapest at $0.45 per 1 million input and output tokens. The study highlights that output tokens are considerably more expensive than input tokens, and some models offer introductory or off-peak pricing that can drastically alter their cost-effectiveness. Several Google Gemini models provide free tiers, offering a cost-saving option for certain use cases. AI

IMPACT Provides cost benchmarks for developers selecting LLM APIs, highlighting significant price differences and free tier availability.

RANK_REASON Comparison of LLM API pricing and features. [lever_c_demoted from research: ic=1 ai=1.0]

Read on dev.to — LLM tag →

AI-generated summary · Google Gemini · from 1 sources. How we write summaries →

Cheapest LLM APIs: OpenAI's GPT-5 nano leads in cost comparison

How we ranked this

Signal score
47 / 100
Composite score across the factors below. Higher = stronger signal that this story matters right now.
Newsworthiness bucket
Tool
Comparison of LLM API pricing and features. [lever_c_demoted from research: ic=1 ai=1.0]
Source corroboration
Single-source cluster
Only one publisher covered this so far. Single-source stories can still rank when the publisher is high-authority, but they lack cross-source corroboration.
Topics
product, infra
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High
Clearly on-topic for AI-industry coverage.
Story freshness
Breaking (< 6h)
Fresh story with cross-source coverage still developing. Ranking may shift as more sources report.

Full methodology in our editorial standards.

COVERAGE [1]

  1. dev.to — LLM tag TIER_1 English(EN) · FreeTier ·

    Cheapest LLM APIs per 1M tokens (Oct 2026): 20 models compared, plus free tiers

    <p><em>Disclosure: I wrote this with help from AI tools and checked every number against our own data files, which link each provider page. The PDF, the API and the directory are my own products; the API and the dataset are paid.</em></p> <p>All prices below are standard list pri…

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