Unit prices, specs, batch discounts and prompt-caching rules for the major text, image, video, voice and music APIs. Click a column header to sort. Price movements are recorded in the change log at the bottom.
By Yonsan (Fourth Place)Websitenote (AI)note (school refusal)SubstackX
Latest moves (10/3 – 10/20) — the light tier got another step cheaper, and a top-class model arrived at a mid-tier price.
① Claude Haiku 5.5 (10/7) is $0.10/$0.50, one tenth of Haiku 4.5's list price ($1/$5), matching GPT-6 Luna on input. But input above 100K tokens is $0.50/$2.50, and a new tokenizer produces more tokens for the same text, so Anthropic says the real saving is about 75% (press reports).
② Gemini 4 Argon (generally available 10/13) is $2/$10 at an introductory price, putting a top-class model at a mid-tier price. It lasts only until 11/30; from 12/1 it doubles to $4/$20.
③ GPT-6.1 Sol gets an Ultrafast tier (10/8–9): up to 8x faster output at $12/$60, six times the standard price. It is not a separate model; you call the same Sol with service_tier=ultrafast.
④ Nano Banana 2.1 (10/6): a 1K image goes from $0.067 to $0.0336, and the Gemini Omni Flash video price (about $0.10/s) is now official.
⑤ DeepSeek shipped no new model; it updated the insides of V4.1-Flash (10/17, same ID and price) and launched its own search and fetch APIs. On 10/15 it went down for about five hours and refunded the previous week.
⑥ Shutdowns scheduled: Veo 3.1 Preview on 10/22, GPT-4o and GPT-4.1 families on 2027/1/14, tts-1 and gpt-4o-mini-tts on 2027/1/6.
The $2/$10 mid tier has become the main battleground. GPT-6.1 Sol, GPT-6 Sol, Claude Sonnet 5.5 and Sonnet 5 all sit at $2/$10, so price no longer separates them; speed and capability do. Meanwhile the $10/$50 top tier has not moved since early September, with GPT-6.1 Astra shelved.
DeepSeek's peak hours overlap the Asian business day. Peak is weekdays (Mon–Fri) 01:00–04:00 and 06:00–10:00 UTC, which is 10:00–13:00 and 15:00–19:00 in Japan (Chinese public holidays excluded). Outside those 7 hours, prices are half. For users in Europe and the Americas, most working hours already fall off-peak; for batch jobs anywhere, scheduling outside the peak windows halves the bill.
Output tokens typically cost 4–6x as much as input. The total is driven mostly by output volume, so estimate "how much will it write" before choosing a model. Sorting by Tier lines up each company's equivalent models side by side.
| Provider | Model | Tier | Input | Output | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| OpenAI | GPT-6 Astra | Top | $10.00 | $50.00 | 9/3 newNew flagship. 1M context, cached input $1.00, cache write $12.50. Batch/Flex half price, Fast mode double. Sits above GPT-5.6 Sol: 2x on input, 1.7x on output |
| OpenAI | GPT-6.1 Sol | Upper | $2.00 / $4.00 | $10.00 / $15.00 | 9/29 newRight-hand figures apply above 272K. Cached input $0.10 ($0.20 above 272K), half of GPT-6 Sol. Model ID gpt-6.1-sol. Coding-focused: ties GPT-6 Astra on DeepSWE v1.1 and beats GPT-6 Sol by 6.4 points. Terminal-Bench Science averages $5.47 per task (Opus 5.5 $23.21, Astra $23.80). An Ultrafast version with up to 8x faster output is due in Codex "in the coming days." Same price as GPT-6 Sol, so pick this one for new work10/8 UltrafastThe Ultrafast tier is $12 / $60 ($24/$90 above 272K; cached input $0.60 / $1.20). Output up to 8x faster. Set with service_tier=ultrafast; it is not a separate model ID. At six times the standard price, reserve it for interactive uses that cannot wait |
| OpenAI | GPT-6 Sol | Mid (prev.) | $2.00 | $10.00 | 9/22 newPermanent priceThe tier below Astra. Overall intelligence on par with GPT-5.6 Sol at half the price (5.6 Sol is $4/$20). Cached input $0.20, cache write $2.50. 1.05M context, 128K output; above 272K, input 2x and output 1.5x. Batch/Flex half, Fast double. Six effort levels, none to max. On DeepSWE and OSWorld, however, GPT-5.6 Sol still has the higher top score, at a higher cost per task. Its output is cheaper than Terra ($2/$12) at the same input price, so there is little reason left to choose Terra |
| OpenAI | GPT-6 Luna | Light | $0.10 | $0.50 | 9/22 newPermanent priceInput halved and output down 60% from GPT-5.6 Luna ($0.20/$1.20). Cached input $0.01. Among the cheapest input prices of any generally available text model. 1.05M context. In ChatGPT, Free and Go users can use it in the desktop app |
| Anthropic | Claude Fable 5.1 | Top | $10.00 | $50.00 | 9/1 newBase price unchanged. Cache reads cut 75%, from $1.00 to $0.25 (0.025x input; other Claude models are 0.1x, so this one is an exception). Cache write $12.50 (5 min) / $20 (1 hr). Batch $5/$25 |
| Anthropic | Claude Mythos 5.1 | Top | $10.00 | $50.00 | RestrictedRestricted-access version of Fable 5.1, via a vetting program |
| Anthropic | Claude Fable 5 | Top (prev.) | $10.00 | $50.00 | One generation before 5.1. Cache reads still $1.00 |
| Sakana AI | Fugu Ultra v2.0 | Top | $5.00 / $10.00 | $30.00 / $45.00 | 9/11 new★A Japanese company (Sakana AI). Right-hand figures apply above 272K tokens. Not a single model but an "orchestrator" that routes work to other companies' models and recombines the answers. For hard, many-step problems. 1M context |
| Sakana AI | Fugu Max | Mid | $2.00 | $6.00 | 9/11 newSame architecture as Ultra, aimed at results per dollar. Sakana says it undercuts Sonnet 5 and Kimi K3 on output price by 40–60% |
| OpenAI | GPT-5.6 Sol / GPT-5.5 | Upper (prev.) | $5.00 / promo $4.00 | $30.00 / promo $20.00 | 1M context. No deprecation announced. Promo price ($4/$20) runs at least until 11/21. GPT-6 Sol matches it at half the price, so there is little reason to pick it for new work |
| Anthropic | Claude Opus 5.5 | Top | $4.00 | $20.00 | 9/22 newFirst of the 5.5 generation. 20% cheaper than Opus 5; cache read $0.50→$0.20, cache write $6.25→$5. Batch $2/$10. 1M context, 128K output (300K in Batch beta), model ID claude-opus-5-5. Anthropic reports it beats Fable 5.1 ($10/$50) on Terminal-Bench 4.0, 66.4 vs 55.8, while trailing GPT-6 Astra on some benchmarks. The "about 40% cheaper" claim compares medium effort with high effort; the model change alone is 20%. MigrationThinking cannot be turned off / forced tool use errors / the old computer-use tool is rejected, so some Opus 5 code will not run unchanged. |
| Anthropic | Claude Opus 5 | Top (prev.) | $5.00 | $25.00 | 1M context, five-level effort dial. Same price for five generations since Opus 4.5. Inference speed improved on 8/12 |
| Moonshot | Kimi K3 | Top | $3.00 / $0.30 | $15.00 | Right-hand figure is on cache hit. 1M context. No Batch support |
| Gemini 4 Argon | Top | $2.00 / from 12/1 $4.00 | $10.00 / from 12/1 $20.00 | 10/13 GADoubles 12/1Model ID gemini-4-argon. Announced 9/30, generally available 10/13. The introductory price lasts until 11/30; from 12/1 it is $4/$20. Cached input $0.10–0.20 (implicit caching only). No free tier. Aimed at software engineering, math and autonomous agents. Context up to 1M (third party). Argon-specific Batch price not confirmed | |
| Gemini 3.1 Pro | Top | $2.00 / $4.00 | $12.00 / $18.00 | Right-hand figures apply above 200K tokens. 3.5 Pro has been delayed three times and is unreleased, so this is the current Pro | |
| xAI | Grok 4.7 | Top | $2.00 / $4.00 | $6.00 / $12.00 | 9/21 newSame price as 4.6. A larger base model with longer reinforcement learning aimed at hours-long tasks. Right-hand figures apply above 200K. Cached input $0.50 ($1 above 200K), 500K context, four reasoning levels (low to xhigh), model ID grok-4.7. The double-price Fast variant is only available via Cursor and Grok Build, not the public API. xAI's own CursorBench 4.0 score is 46.3, short of Fable 5.1 (51.8). OpenRouter listed it at $1.60/$4.80 on 9/22, about 20% below list |
| xAI | Grok 4.6 | Top (prev.) | $2.00 / $4.00 | $6.00 / $12.00 | 8/12Same price as 4.5. 500K context, cached input $0.50, knowledge to 2026/2. Four reasoning depths (low/medium/high/xhigh). Artificial Analysis index 61, tied with GPT-5.6 Sol and one point behind Fable 5 |
| xAI | Grok 4.5 | Upper | $2.00 / $4.00 | $6.00 / $12.00 | Opus class. Doubles above 200K. Cached input $0.50. Not eligible for Batch discount |
| Zhipu | GLM-5.2 | Top | $0.40 – $1.40 | $1.26 – $4.40 | Conflicting prices744B MoE, 1M context, cached input $0.26. Z.ai first-party sources say $1.40/$4.40; aggregators such as OpenRouter say $0.40/$1.26, a gap of more than 3x. Check the route you actually use |
| DeepSeek | DeepSeek V4 Pro | Top | $0.66 / $1.32 | $1.98 / $3.96 | 8/16 increaseLeft is off-peak, right is peak. Was $0.435/$0.87 flat. Partly reverses May's 75% cut. Still cheap for a top-tier model. The shutdown planned for 9/14 was cancelled, and pricing continues unchanged |
| OpenAI | GPT-5.6 Terra | Mid | $2.00 | $12.00 | Cut 20% on 7/30 (from $2.50/$15.00) |
| Anthropic | Claude Sonnet 5.5 | Mid | $2.00 | $10.00 | 9/28 newSame price as Sonnet 5. Output over 30% faster and up to 30% cheaper per task (Anthropic's measurements). Cache read $0.10 (halved from $0.20 on 10/7), cache write $2.50. Terminal-Bench 4.0: 70.6. Launched simultaneously on the Claude API, Amazon Bedrock, Google Cloud and Microsoft Foundry. The lighter Haiku 5.5 arrived on 10/7 |
| Anthropic | Claude Sonnet 5 | Mid (prev.) | $2.00 | $10.00 | Increase cancelledWas due to rise to $3/$15 on 9/1, but on 8/10 $2/$10 became the permanent price |
| Gemini 3.6 Flash | Mid | $1.50 | $7.50 | Released 7/21. 3.7 Flash will match this price when its intro pricing ends on 2027/1/1 | |
| Meta | Muse Spark 1.3 | Mid | ~$0.10 blended | ~$0.10 blended | 9/2 newSeparate input/output prices not published; only a blended price. A big cut from 1.2 ($1.25/$4.25) |
| Meta | Muse Spark 1.2 | Mid (prev.) | $1.25 | $4.25 | 1M context. An even cheaper tier exists for customers who allow training on their data |
| Meta | Muse Wonder 1.0 | Upper | $4.00 | $20.00 | 10/12UnverifiedClosed model. Cached input $0.20, context about 1.05M. The higher Muse Wonder Full has no API and is available only through a Muse Code subscription ($50 / $200 per month). The price comes from a third-party report (VentureBeat) and is not yet confirmed by Meta |
| Meta | Muse Spark Open | Mid | ~$1.25 | ~$4.25 | 10/15UnverifiedOpen weights (816B MoE, 42B active, 1M context). Released under Meta's own "Muse Model License," which places conditions on commercial use. Specs and license name are confirmed on Meta's official blog. Hosts such as Together and Fireworks are reported (third party) to charge the same $1.25/$4.25 (cache $0.15). Running it locally needs 1 TB or more of memory |
| xAI | Grok 4.3 | Mid | $1.25 | $2.50 | Value option for long text. 500K–1M context. 20% off with Batch |
| Gemini 3.8 Flash | Mid | $0.75 | $3.75 | 9/2 newDoubles 2027/1/1Same price as 3.7 Flash and better on every benchmark. Intro price until 2026/12/31, then $1.50/$7.50. Batch/Flex half, Priority 1.8x. A vetted Cyber variant also exists | |
| Gemini 3.7 Flash | Mid (prev.) | $0.75 | $3.75 | Released 8/13. Same price as 3.8, so little reason to choose it 10/8 deprecatedRequests are automatically routed to 3.8 Flash. Gemini 3.5 Flash was deprecated the same day (routed to 3.6 Flash) | |
| Zhipu | GLM-5.3-Flash | Light | $0.15 | $0.50 | Promo ended 9/9Promo: $0.075 / $0.25The 50%-off launch price ended at 24:00 on 2026-09-09 (Singapore time) and list price returned. Intelligence Index 57 |
| Zhipu | GLM-5-Turbo | Mid | $1.20 | $4.00 | Released 2026/3/15. A speed-focused line separate from GLM-5.2 |
| Zhipu | GLM-4.6 | Mid | $0.43 | $1.74 | Older generation. 200K context |
| MiniMax | MiniMax-M3 | Mid | $0.30 | $1.20 | After the "Permanent 50% off." Input up to 512K, cache read $0.12 |
| Anthropic | Claude Haiku 5.5 | Light | $0.10 / $0.50 | $0.50 / $2.50 | 10/7 newRight-hand figures apply above 100K tokens. Cache read $0.01 ($0.05 above 100K), Batch half price. 1M context, output up to 128K. One tenth of Haiku 4.5's ($1/$5) list price, but a new tokenizer yields more tokens, so the real saving is about 75% (Anthropic). Breaking changes: manual extended thinking, temperature settings and prefill return a 400 error. Confirmed on the official pricing page |
| Anthropic | Claude Haiku 4.5 | Light (prev.) | $1.00 | $5.00 | Haiku 5.5 arrived on 10/7 at one tenth of the list price, so there is little reason to pick this for new work |
| Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite | Light | $0.30 | $2.50 | For high throughput and low latency | |
| OpenAI | GPT-5.6 Luna | Light (prev.) | $0.20 | $1.20 | Cut 80% on 7/30 (from $1.00/$6.00). GPT-6 Luna ($0.10/$0.50) arrived on 9/22 and took over the lowest input price. No deprecation announced, but little reason to choose it for new work |
| DeepSeek | DeepSeek V4.1-Flash | Light | $0.15 / $0.30 | $0.60 / $1.20 | 9/10 newLeft is off-peak, right is peak. Model ID deepseek-flash. 552B MoE (8B active for input, 16B for output), image input, weights released under MIT. Cache hits are extremely cheap at $0.003 ($0.006 peak). Requests to the old names deepseek-v4-flash and deepseek-v4-flash-vision-exp are served by this model and billed at its price (the old models themselves are retired)10/17 updateSame model ID and price, but the model itself was updated (V4.1-Flash-1017). DeepSWE v1.1 rose from 74.2 to about 77, with shorter task times and outputs. The same day DeepSeek launched its own Search API / Fetch API ($0.75 per 1,000 requests each; free through 11/1 via Claude Code and Codex) |
| DeepSeek | DeepSeek V4 Flash | Light | $0.22 / $0.44 | $0.66 / $1.32 | 8/16 increaseLeft is off-peak, right is peak. Was $0.14/$0.28 flat. Automatic caching brings input down to $0.007 ($0.014 peak) |
| DeepSeek | DeepSeek V4 Flash Vision | Light / exp. | $0.22 / $0.44 | $0.66 / $1.32 | 8/21Experimental. Image input, same price as V4 Flash. 1M context, 384,000-token output limit |
| DeepSeek | DeepSeek R1 | Reasoning | $0.55 | $2.19 | Input $0.14 on cache hit |
For text inside images, especially non-Latin scripts such as Japanese, choose GPT Image 2 or Nano Banana Pro; both are established as rarely garbling characters. If you just need volume, Nano Banana 2 costs one third of Pro.
| Provider | Model | Tier | Price | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| OpenAI | GPT Image 2.5 (Flare / Sunburst) | Top | $0.25 1K $0.30 2K $0.60 4K | 9/8 newTwo variants: Flare for fast volume work, Sunburst for precise editing. Both have the same price. Official pricing is per token (text input $5.00 / image input $8.00 / image output $30.00 per 1M tokens; cached $1.25 and $2.00); the per-image figures on the left are reseller street prices. Supports both generation and editing of reference images |
| OpenAI | GPT Image 2 | Top | $0.006 low $0.053 med $0.211 high | Batch 50%At 1024×1024. High quality at 3840×2160 is $0.401. Landscape/portrait are slightly cheaper at medium–high ($0.041/$0.165). Accurate Japanese text |
| Nano Banana Pro (Gemini 3 Pro Image) | Top | $0.039 std $0.134 2K $0.24 4K | Batch 50%Japanese text rarely breaks. Strong at realistic people and text layering. Image generation does not support caching | |
| ByteDance | Seedream 5.0 Pro | Mid | $0.045 ≤2.36MP $0.09 above | 8/12Generation and editing, multi-reference fusion. First reference image free, $0.003 per extra. On BytePlus ModelArk and also fal.ai, Replicate, etc. A Lite version exists |
| Nano Banana 2.1 | Mid | $0.0336 1K $0.0504 2K $0.113 4K | 10/6 GABatch 50%Model ID gemini-nano-banana-2.1. An update to Nano Banana 2; 1K drops from $0.067 to $0.0336, half price (the old 2K and 4K prices are unconfirmed, so a like-for-like comparison is not possible). Up to 14 reference images and aspect ratios from 1:4 to 8:1. The old gemini-3.1-flash-image is deprecated (shutdown date not announced). Confirmed on the official pricing page | |
| Nano Banana 2 | Mid (prev.) | $0.067 1K | Pro-level quality at Flash-level speed. 3–5 seconds per image, native 4K. One third the price of Nano Banana Pro. Nano Banana 2.1 arrived on 10/6 at half the 1K price | |
| xAI | grok-imagine-image-quality | Mid | $0.05 1K / $0.07 2K | Batch 50%Ends 11/2As announced in September, shutting down on 2026/11/2 (xAI) |
| xAI | grok-imagine-image | Light | $0.02 | Batch 50%1K. Can go down to $0.01 |
| Alibaba | Qwen-Image-2.1-Turbo | Light | $0.016 | 10/9UnverifiedA small 7B model that generates in 8 steps. 2K, transparency (RGBA) and multi-reference editing. The Model Studio API and open weights on Hugging Face / ModelScope launched the same day. The weights are reportedly under the non-commercial Qwen Research License. Price and terms come from third parties; the official text was not checked. Also usable locally in ComfyUI |
| MiniMax | image-01 | Light | $0.0035 | Cheapest. When volume matters more than quality |
| OpenAI | GPT Image 1 | Retiring | $0.02 – $0.19 | Retires 2026/10/23Avoid for new projects |
Even within one company, prices differ by more than 10x across tiers. Sort by Tier to line up equivalent models across companies, instead of seeing Veo Lite / Fast / Standard scattered. Turnover is fast; model names from six months ago are often gone.
| Provider | Model | Tier | Resolution | Price | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ByteDance | Seedance 2.5 | High | 1080p (reseller) | ~$0.57 | 7/31, API 8/75 seconds at 1080p is $2.843 on BytePlus. Native output of the official API is 480p/720p only; resellers' 1080p and 4K are upscaled. Up to 30 seconds with audio in one pass, references up to 30 images / 10 videos / 10 audio clips, timestamp-level editing |
| Veo 3.1 Standard | High | with audio | $0.40 | Some sources report $0.75/s via Vertex AI; prices vary widely by route. Veo 3.1 Preview shuts down on 10/22 (official; migrate to Gemini Omni Flash or a generally available version). Whether the GA version continues is unconfirmed | |
| Alibaba | Wan 3.0 | High | 1080p | $0.20 | 8/24$6 for 30 seconds at 1080p. Failed generations are not charged |
| MiniMax | H3 (Hailuo 3.0) | High | 2K (1440p) 24fps | $0.13 | 7/31Omni-modal. 5–15 seconds with stereo audio generated together. Accepts up to 9 images, 3 videos and 3 audio clips as references. There is no 1080p tier. $7.80 per minute |
| ByteDance | Seedance 2.0 | High | official | ~$0.14 | #1 qualityBilled at CNY 46 per 1M tokens. 15 seconds ≈ 308,880 tokens. Video input (editing) is CNY 28 per 1M |
| Luma AI | Ray 3 / Ray 3.2 | High | 1080p | ~$0.21 – $0.24 | 80 credits/second. About $12.60 for 60 seconds |
| Kuaishou | Kling 3.0 | Standard | 720p / 1080p | $0.075 – $0.14 | 4K, 60fps, 15 seconds, multilingual lip-sync. Official pricing uses credits (6–8/s without audio, 9–12/s with audio). Turbo version added in mid-June. Kling 4.0 launched on 10/15 (up to 30 seconds, 4K and HDR, up to 15 references), but API price and model ID are not published |
| Runway | Gen-4.5 | Standard | standard | $0.12 | 12 credits/second. About $1.20 for 10 seconds |
| MiniMax | H3 (third-party) | Standard | 2K / 768p | $0.124 / $0.077 | AIHubMix and others. Slightly cheaper than official. Segmind is more expensive at $0.1625 for 2K |
| Alibaba | Wan 3.0 | Standard | 720p | $0.10 | 8/24★Omni-Reference — besides text, images, audio and video, it accepts documents, spreadsheets, slides, PDFs and web pages as input and builds a video from them. 2–30 seconds; t2v, i2v and reference generation. Public beta 8/6, GA 8/24. Used in production for short dramas, ads, tourism promotion and music videos |
| Alibaba | Wan 2.7 | Standard | text-to-video | $0.10 | Older generation. Available on Together AI and others |
| Veo 3.1 Fast | Standard | standard | $0.10 – $0.15 | ||
| ByteDance | Seedance 2.0 Fast | Standard | 1080p | $0.09 | Rated "the cheapest at production quality" |
| MiniMax | H3 (Hailuo 3.0) | Standard | 768p | $0.08 – $0.09 | Effectively unusableOn the price list, but invitation-only closed beta. The API only accepts 2K as a resolution, and you are billed at the 2K price even if you specify 768p |
| ByteDance | Seedance 2.0 | Light | third-party | $0.04 – $0.067 | OpenRouter $0.067, PoYo from $0.04. Official API access is limited, so most real use goes through these |
| Luma AI | Ray 3 / Ray 3.2 | Light | 720p | ~$0.06 | 20 credits/second (at Plus plan rates) |
| xAI | Grok Imagine Video | Light | standard | $0.05 | Batch 50%$0.025/s with Batch. The only video model with an explicitly stated Batch discount |
| xAI | Grok Imagine Video 1.5 Lite | Light | 480p–1080p | $0.02 – $0.14 | 10/8Unverified$0.02 at 480p, $0.03 at 720p, $0.14 at 1080p (upscaled from 720p). 1–15 seconds, with audio. Prices are third-party; they are not in xAI's official release notes. One analysis also notes that xAI's own pricing page differs by up to 43% depending on how it is rendered |
| Alibaba | Wan 3.0 | Light | 480p | $0.05 | 8/24Alibaba Cloud Model Studio. CNY 0.30/s in mainland China (Beijing), CNY 0.37471/s in Singapore |
| Veo 3.1 Lite | Light | 720p no audio | $0.03 – $0.08 | Among the cheapest video options. First choice if you do not need audio | |
| Gemini Omni Flash | Standard | 720p | ~ $0.10 | 10/19 price publishedVideo output is $17.50 per 1M tokens, which is about $0.10/s at 720p; text output $9.00 (official pricing page). Model ID gemini-omni-1.1-flash. Announced at I/O on 5/19, Flash released 6/30. The preview endpoint gemini-omni-flash-preview shuts down on 10/22 | |
| OpenAI | Sora 2 | Ended | — | Discontinued | API ends 9/24App and web closed on 4/26. The API closes on 2026-09-24 (3/24 was the announcement to developers). OpenAI has not named a successor |
This area mixes "per minute" and "per token" pricing, so the numbers cannot be compared as they are. On top of that, GPT-Live-1 is priced for the voice layer only; the thinking is handed to a separate model and billed separately. Estimating from the listed price alone will leave you short.
| Provider | Model | Price | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| OpenAI | GPT-Live-1 | $0.05 / min | API since 9/10Its selling point is listening while talking (full duplex). Billed per second, and silence and background thinking time are billed at the same rate. Extra chargesThis covers the voice layer only; reasoning is delegated to a separate model such as GPT-6 Astra or GPT-5.6 Luna. A 10-minute call costs about $0.51 with Luna, about $0.86 with Astra. Endpoint v1/live/sessions, 128K context, knowledge to 2025/7. 12 voices, but the published list covers English accents plus Brazilian Portuguese and Filipino; Japanese is not listed. There is no mini in the API (mini is for ChatGPT's free plan). On 10/16, prompt-to-voice (create a voice from a text description; creating it is free) and nine voices (two Japanese) were added |
| OpenAI | gpt-realtime-2.1 | audio in $32 / out $64 per 1M tokens | Still sold at the same price after GPT-Live-1. Cached input $0.40. Measured at roughly $0.05/min. Input accumulates as the conversation grows, so beyond 10–15 minutes the effective per-minute cost rises |
| OpenAI | gpt-realtime-2.1-mini | audio in $10 / out $20 per 1M tokens | Measured at roughly $0.016/min, close to a third for the same use |
| Gemini 3.8 Live | audio in $0.005 / min audio out $0.018 / min | 9/15 newA native speech-to-speech model (no transcription step). Two model IDs: gemini-3.8-live and gemini-3.8-live-extended-thinking for multi-step reasoning. Reported to support 97 languages, including Japanese (secondary source; not confirmed in Google's own docs). About 1.18 s to first audio, near-real-time video input, SynthID watermark on all generated audio. UnverifiedPublished prices are for the standard model; the extended-thinking price has not been confirmed. Whether the identical numbers to 3.1 Flash Live are a coincidence or a copy is also unverified | |
| Gemini 3.1 Flash Live | audio in $0.005 / min audio out $0.018 / min | Among the cheapest for real-time conversation. For the same "1M audio output tokens," OpenAI charges $64 and Google $12. However, GPT-Live-1's $0.05/min covers only the listening-and-speaking layer, with thinking billed separately, whereas Google's model does the reasoning inside the voice model, so the numbers in this table cannot simply be ranked against each other |
| Provider | Model | Per 1,000 characters | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| ElevenLabs | Flash / Turbo | $0.05 | At 0.5 credits per character, effectively even cheaper |
| MiniMax | Speech Turbo | $0.06 ($60 / 1M chars) | |
| ElevenLabs | Multilingual v2 / v3 | $0.10 | High quality |
| MiniMax | Speech HD | $0.10 ($100 / 1M chars) | |
| OpenAI | gpt-4o-mini-tts | ~$0.015 / min | ConfirmedBilled per token, not per character (text input $0.60 / audio output $12.00 per 1M tokens), so the per-1,000-character cost varies with the text. Per minute, it is among the cheapest in this table. Scheduled to shut down on 2027/1/6 (as are tts-1 and tts-1-hd; the replacement is gpt-realtime-2.1-mini) |
| Cloud TTS (Standard / WaveNet) | $0.004 | Confirmed$4.00 / 1M characters. 4M characters free per month. Voice quality matches the price | |
| Cloud TTS (Neural2) | $0.016 | $16.00 / 1M characters | |
| Cloud TTS (Chirp 3: HD) | $0.03 | $30.00 / 1M characters. Google's high-quality tier | |
| Cloud TTS (Studio) | $0.16 | $160.00 / 1M characters. 40x Standard. Top tier for narration | |
| Gemini 3.8 Flash TTS | per token ~$0.81 / hour | 9/23 newDoubles 2027/1/1Text input $0.50 / audio output $9.00 per 1M tokens (3.1 Flash TTS was $1 / $20), less than half on audio output. Clones a voice from about 30 seconds of audio (Voice Replication), plus Voice Design from a text description and 30 prebuilt voices. 130 languages, up to two speakers per request. Free tier in AI Studio, Batch about half. From 2027/1/1: $1.00 / $18.00 | |
| Gemini 3.1 Flash TTS | per token | PreviousSucceeded by 3.8 Flash TTS. Text input $1.00 / audio output $20.00 per 1M tokens. Free tier available, half price with Batch. A separate line from the per-character Cloud TTS, so not directly comparable |
In this area many companies offer no official pay-as-you-go API. Google's Lyria 3.5 is $0.08 per song on the official API, and ElevenLabs and Stable Audio also have pay-as-you-go APIs. Suno has no official API (it announced an invite-only partner program in July) and Udio has no public API.
| Provider | Model | Price | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Suno | v4 family | $0.014 – $0.111 / song | No official API. Street prices via third parties. Direct subscription from Pro $10/month. Announced an invite-only "API partner program" on 7/2; pricing and timing not announced |
| Lyria 3.5 | $0.08 / song | 9/4 APIOfficial Gemini API price. A full-length song per request (MP3, 44.1 kHz stereo, lyrics text also returned). Inputs: text and images. Flat per song regardless of length. No free tier. Model ID lyria-3.5. The official pricing page lists it as generally available, while some press calls it preview | |
| Lyria 3 Pro / Clip | $0.04 – $0.08 / song | PreviousClip (30 s) $0.04, Pro (full length) $0.08. Both preview; succeeded by 3.5. The $0.05–$0.15 via MusicAPI listed before was a reseller price, not Google's, so it was replaced. The real-time version (Lyria RealTime) streams over WebSocket; price unconfirmed | |
| MiniMax | Music 3.0 / 2.6 | $0.15 / up to 5 min | No new sign-ups since 8/20New users cannot sign up. Existing paying users only. The free tier (music-3.0-free etc.) is gone. New users are directed to the MiniMax Audio app or the open weights on Hugging Face. The lyrics API is the same. Music 3.0 weights were released on 8/13 |
| ElevenLabs | Music | $0.15 / min | CorrectedFrom the official API pricing page. Up to 5 minutes per generation, 44.1 kHz. Commercial use requires Starter or higher. The earlier $0.80/min did not match the official figure and was wrong (probably a subscription-credit conversion) |
| Mureka (Kunlun) | V8 / V9 series | ~$0.045 / song | UnverifiedHas an official developer API. The price is a rough figure from third-party articles, not confirmed on an official page. Lyrics generation and stem export cost extra. Via WaveSpeedAI the pricing differs ($0.225 and up) |
| Udio | Standard / Pro | $10 – $30 / month | No pay-as-you-go API |
| Stability AI | Stable Audio 2.5 | ~$0.20 / generation | UnverifiedSeveral third parties report 20 credits per generation on the developer platform (1 credit = $0.01); not confirmed on an official page. Direct subscriptions run $5.99 – $89.99/month |
A Batch API lets you submit many requests at once asynchronously and collect results within 24 hours, in exchange for a lower price. It suits bulk jobs that do not need an immediate response. Prompt caching reuses the same long prefix to cut input cost. The two can be combined.
| Provider | Batch | Batch discount | Cache | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Anthropic | Yes | 50% off | 90% off | All active models. Batch and caching can be combined |
| OpenAI | Yes | 50% off | Up to 90% | GPT-4o and later. From GPT-5.6, cache writes carry a 1.25x surcharge. o3/o4-mini etc. do not support caching in Batch |
| Yes | 50% off | Implicit by default | Implicit caching applies automatically from Gemini 2.5. Image generation does not support caching. Cache hits work inside Batch too | |
| Zhipu | Yes | 50% off | Yes | Both across the GLM lineup |
| DeepSeek | Yes | ~50% off | Automatic | Batch is mostly via hosts such as SiliconCloud. Caching is automatic, no opt-out needed |
| xAI | Some models | Text 20% / image & video 50% | Yes | Text Batch discount applies only to Grok 4.3 and the 4.20 family; Grok 4.5 is excluded. We could not confirm a discount for 4.6 or 4.7. Images and video are a separate category at a flat 50% off. Max 25MB per request |
| Moonshot | Older models only | 60% of list price | Yes | Batch covers K2.7 Code / K2.6 / K2.5. The latest K3 does not support Batch |
| MiniMax | Limited info | Not disclosed | Automatic | Caching is automatic with no setup. Batch is hinted at, but the official docs give no discount rate |
| Meta | To research | Unconfirmed | To research | The Model API only entered public preview on 7/9, and discount schemes appear not to be in place yet |
Almost every provider measures idle time since the cache was last used. Each hit resets the timer, so as long as an agent keeps sending requests, even a 5-minute TTL will not expire. The risk is when the gap between requests exceeds the TTL: a single tool run takes too long, the agent waits on a human decision, or it only calls once every few tens of minutes.
Gemini's explicit cache is the one exception. It is a fixed 60 minutes from creation and is not extended by use. For long sessions, set a longer TTL or extend it explicitly via the update API.
| Provider | Type | Default TTL | Clock starts | Extended on hit | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Anthropic | Prompt caching | 5 min | Last use | Resets | Can be extended to 1 hour with ttl:"1h", but writes then cost 2x (normally 1.25x), so you need 3+ reads to break even. The default changed from 1 hour to 5 minutes on 2026/3/6 |
| OpenAI | GPT-5.5 and earlier | 5–10 min idle | Last use | Resets | Two limits: "cleared after 5–10 minutes idle" and "at most 1 hour after last use." GPT-5 family / 4.1 support extended retention up to 24 hours |
| OpenAI | GPT-5.6 and later | 30 min | Last use | Resets | Kept for at least 30 minutes. Much more relaxed than earlier generations |
| Implicit | Not disclosed | Automatic | Automatic | On by default from Gemini 2.5. No setup | |
| Explicit | 60 min | Creation | Not extended | The only case that differs from other providers. Set freely with ttl/expire_time, no upper or lower bound. An API exists to update the TTL after creation | |
| MiniMax | Automatic caching | 5 min | Last use | Extended free | Explicitly stated as "no setup required" |
| DeepSeek | Context caching | No TTL | — | — | Cached on disk; unused entries are deleted after hours to days. You need not think about expiry, but there is also no way to guarantee retention |
| Moonshot | Context caching | Managed | — | — | Optimized automatically by the system. There is no TTL parameter at all |
| Zhipu | Caching | Unconfirmed | — | — | To researchThe cached input price ($0.26/1M) is published, but the expiry rules could not be found |
A record of "what it used to cost" and "since when this price applies." Prices mostly go down, but introductory prices can be extended or doubled, so dated changes are noted ahead of time.
gemini-omni-flash-preview and Veo 3.1 Preview shut down on 10/22.deepseek-flash unchanged; the model itself was updated. DeepSWE v1.1 74.2 → about 77, Terminal-Bench 4.0 42.3, shorter task times and outputs. The price table is unchanged at $0.15/$0.60 off-peak and $0.30/$1.20 peak.gemini-4-argon (announced 9/30; limited to early testers until now). $2 / $10 is an introductory price through 11/30; from 12/1 it is $4 / $20. Cached input is 95% off ($0.10–0.20). No free tier. Context up to 1M (third party). The official page gives Batch as 50% off overall, but an Argon-specific price is unconfirmed.service_tier=ultrafast. Available in the API, Codex and ChatGPT Work; in ChatGPT only Pro $500, Enterprise and Education. Third parties date it 10/8, the official list shows 10/9.claude-haiku-5-5, 1M context, output up to 128K.gemini-nano-banana-2.1. 1K $0.067 → $0.0336, 2K $0.0504, 4K $0.113 (Batch half price). Up to 14 reference images, aspect ratios 1:4 to 8:1. The old gemini-3.1-flash-image is deprecated, and 2.1 is the recommended replacement for Imagen 3/4.gpt-6.1-sol.gpt-6-sol and gpt-6-luna; 1.05M context, 128K output; above 272K, input 2x and output 1.5x. Batch/Flex half, Fast double. Six effort levels: none / low / medium / high / xhigh / max.claude-opus-5-5, 1M context, 128K output (300K in the Message Batches beta), knowledge to 2026/6. Fast mode (Claude API only, research preview) gives about 2.5x output speed at 2x the price. Also on AWS, Google Cloud and Microsoft.grok-4.7, four reasoning levels (low to xhigh).gemini-3.8-live (conversation at scale) and gemini-3.8-live-extended-thinking (with multi-step reasoning). Audio in $0.005 / min, audio out $0.018 / min, about 2.3 cents per conversation minute.deepseek-v4-pro are handled by V4.1-Flash" — was withdrawn before it took effect.deepseek-v4-flash and deepseek-v4-flash-vision-exp are discontinued, and requests to them are served by V4.1-Flash at Flash prices. Do not confuse this with V4 Pro.v1/live/sessions, 128K context (at 90% it hands off to an 8,192-token summary), instructions up to 16,384 tokens, knowledge to 2025-07-31. 12 voices, but the published list covers English accents (Australian, British, Irish, North American, Southern US) plus Brazilian Portuguese and Filipino; Japanese is not listed.gpt-image-2.5-flare and gpt-image-2.5-sunburst. Flare is for fast volume work, Sunburst for precise editing. Both have the same price.lyria-3.5). Rolled out to the Gemini app the same day. Better vocals and song structure (verses, choruses, bridge), 44.1 kHz stereo. Inputs: text and images; outputs: MP3 and lyrics text. Caching, function calling and the Live API are not supported.gpt-6-astra. Batch and Flex half price, Fast mode double. Sits above the previous top model GPT-5.6 Sol ($5 / $30): 2x on input, 1.7x on output. Rolled out first through Daybreak, a program for cybersecurity companies.music-3.0-free and others) is gone. New users are directed to the MiniMax Audio app or the open weights on Hugging Face.