LLM API Pricing Trends
As of October 26, 2026, the frontier token price index is 15, 85% below its March 2023 base. The median flagship model costs $5.63 per million blended tokens across 37 active constituents, and 5 entries, exits, or price changes landed in the latest snapshot.
Track how LLM API costs have evolved since GPT-4's launch in March 2023. The update ledger records changes between pricing snapshots; the charts show the longer trend.
- Largest recorded cut
- o3$40 → $8 output per 1M · −80% on Jul '26
- Cheapest frontier output
- Grok 4.3$2.5/1M output · xAI
- Frontier price index
- 100 → 1585% below March 2023 · -6.2% month over month
Latest LLM pricing updates
These rows changed between the previous generated price-index snapshot and the October 26, 2026 snapshot. “Entered” and “exited” describe index membership. Price changes use the index's blended rate: three parts input to one part output.
| Model | Tier | Snapshot update |
|---|---|---|
| Mistral Large 4 | mid | Entered at $1.03/1M blended |
| Claude Haiku 5.5 | budget | Entered at $0.200/1M blended |
| Gemini 4 Argon | frontier | Entered at $4.00/1M blended |
| Kimi K3.1 Pro | frontier | Entered at $4.00/1M blended |
| GPT-6.1 Terra | mid | Entered at $2.00/1M blended |
Snapshot changes can include a corrected registry value or cohort change. Check the live LLM API pricing comparison before changing a production budget.
Frontier token price trend (March 2023 = 100)
Median blended token price across active frontier models, normalized to GPT-4 launch pricing. Lower means cheaper.
Output price history by model
Output price per million tokens over time. Toggle models to compare.
Radar markers identify recorded price changes in this dated history; they do not represent measured alert lead time or provider announcement timestamps. Radar events attach the published provider source when the change is confirmed.
Current LLM API prices
Per million tokens, highest output price first
Prices per million tokens from official API pricing. Does not include batch, cached, or volume discounts.
Questions
How much have LLM API prices dropped?
The frontier LLM token price index is 15 as of October 26, 2026, which is 85% below its March 2023 base of 100. The index uses a 3:1 input-to-output blend and the median price across active frontier models, so it measures the cohort rather than one provider's cheapest SKU.
Which LLM provider is cheapest right now?
Grok 4.3 from xAI has the lowest current output rate in this page's selected frontier history set at $2.5/1M tokens. That is not a universal cheapest-model verdict: the live comparison includes more models, while this history page keeps only rows with usable dated snapshots.
Why do reasoning models cost more?
Reasoning models like o1, o3, and DeepSeek R1 generate internal chain-of-thought tokens before producing the final answer. These thinking tokens consume compute but are billed as output tokens, making the effective cost per useful output token significantly higher.
Will LLM prices keep dropping?
There is no guarantee of a straight decline. Frontier token prices remain 85% below March 2023, but the current index moved down 6.2% month over month as the active model mix and published rates changed. Use the monthly series instead of assuming every new model will be cheaper.
Get the weekly price-change file
Material API price moves, new model rates, and the pricing changes worth adding to your next review.
Read a sample issueJoin 6,100+ subscribers.
One email each week. Unsubscribe anytime.