Efficient AI Models — Pricing & Comparison
Budget-friendly models optimized for speed and cost-effectiveness. Ideal for high-volume tasks, classification, extraction, and simple generation.
All Efficient Models — Sorted by Price
| # | Model | Provider | Input $/M | Output $/M | Context | 1M Requests* |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | GPT-5 nano 2025-08-07 | OpenAI | $0.05 | $0.4 | 128K | $$0.000250 |
| 2 | Gemini 2.0 Flash-Lite 2025-02-05 | $0.075 | $0.3 | 1000K | $$0.000225 | |
| 3 | Llama 4 Scout 2025-04-05 | Meta (via Together AI) | $0.08 | $0.3 | 10000K | $$0.000230 |
| 4 | GPT-4.1 nano 2025-04-14 | OpenAI | $0.1 | $0.4 | 128K | $$0.000300 |
| 5 | Gemini 2.0 Flash 2024-12-11 | $0.1 | $0.4 | 1000K | $$0.000300 | |
| 6 | Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite 2025-06-17 | $0.1 | $0.4 | 1000K | $$0.000300 | |
| 7 | Mistral Small 3.2 2025-12-02 | Mistral AI | $0.1 | $0.3 | 128K | $$0.000250 |
| 8 | Ministral 3 3B 2025-12-02 | Mistral AI | $0.1 | $0.1 | 256K | $$0.000150 |
| 9 | DeepSeek V4 Flash 2026-04-24 | DeepSeek | $0.14 | $0.28 | 1000K | $$0.000280 |
| 10 | GPT-4o mini 2024-07-18 | OpenAI | $0.15 | $0.6 | 128K | $$0.000450 |
| 11 | Mistral Small 4 2026-03-18 | Mistral AI | $0.15 | $0.6 | 128K | $$0.000450 |
| 12 | Ministral 3 8B 2025-12-02 | Mistral AI | $0.15 | $0.15 | 256K | $$0.000225 |
| 13 | Command R 2024-03-11 | Cohere | $0.15 | $0.6 | 128K | $$0.000450 |
| 14 | Llama 3.1 8B 2024-07-23 | Meta (via Together AI) | $0.18 | $0.18 | 128K | $$0.000270 |
| 15 | GPT-5.4 nano 2026-03-06 | OpenAI | $0.2 | $1.25 | 128K | $$0.000825 |
| 16 | Grok 4.1 Fast 2026-01-15 | xAI | $0.2 | $0.5 | 2000K | $$0.000450 |
| 17 | GPT-5 mini 2025-08-07 | OpenAI | $0.25 | $2 | 500K | $$0.001250 |
| 18 | Gemini 3.1 Flash-Lite Preview 2026-03-03 | $0.25 | $1.5 | 1000K | $$0.001000 | |
| 19 | DeepSeek V3.2 2025-12-01 | DeepSeek | $0.28 | $0.42 | 128K | $$0.000490 |
| 20 | Gemini 2.5 Flash 2025-05-20 | $0.3 | $2.5 | 1000K | $$0.001550 | |
| 21 | Grok 3 Mini 2025-02-17 | xAI | $0.3 | $0.5 | 128K | $$0.000550 |
| 22 | GPT-4.1 mini 2025-04-14 | OpenAI | $0.4 | $1.6 | 200K | $$0.001200 |
| 23 | Devstral 2 2025-12-09 | Mistral AI | $0.4 | $2 | 262K | $$0.001400 |
| 24 | Gemini 3 Flash 2025-12-17 | $0.5 | $3 | 1000K | $$0.002000 | |
| 25 | GPT-5.4 mini 2026-03-06 | OpenAI | $0.75 | $4.5 | 1050K | $$0.003000 |
| 26 | Claude 3.5 Haiku 2024-11-04 | Anthropic | $0.8 | $4 | 200K | $$0.002800 |
| 27 | Claude Haiku 4.5 2025-10-15 | Anthropic | $1 | $5 | 200K | $$0.003500 |
| 28 | Codex Mini 2026-02-02 | OpenAI | $1.5 | $6 | 200K | $$0.004500 |
* Estimated cost for 1M requests at 1,000 input + 500 output tokens each.
Calculate Your Efficient Model Costs
💡 Tips for Using Efficient Models
Efficient models can handle 10-100x more requests for the same budget as flagship models
Great for preprocessing, classification, summarization, and data extraction
Consider using efficient models as a "first pass" filter before sending complex items to flagship models
Compare Efficient Models
Frequently Asked Questions
What are efficient AI models best at?
Text classification, entity extraction, summarization, simple Q&A, translation, and other well-defined tasks. They excel when the task is straightforward and volume is high.
How much cheaper are efficient models?
Typically 10-50x cheaper per token than flagship models. For example, GPT-4o mini costs a fraction of GPT-5.2, making it viable for millions of daily requests.
Will I notice a quality difference?
For simple tasks, often not. For nuanced creative work or complex reasoning, yes. The key is matching model capability to task complexity.