Step-by-step guide

LLM Cost Calculator: How Much Does Each AI Model Cost?

Calculate the exact cost of your AI API usage across GPT-5.2, Claude Sonnet 4.5, Gemini 3 Flash, DeepSeek, and more. Input your token volumes and see costs side by side.

Credit-based pay-per-use with token-settled billing. No monthly subscription. Paid credits never expire.

Replace multiple AI subscriptions with one wallet that includes routing, failover, and optimization.

Why teams start here first
No monthly subscription
Pay-as-you-go credits
Start with trial credits, then buy only what you consume.
Failover safety
Production-ready routing
Auto fallback across providers when latency, quality, or reliability changes.
Data control
Your policy, your choice
BYOK and zero-retention mode keep training and storage scope explicit.
Single API experience
One key, multi-provider access
Use Chat/Compare/Blend/Judge/Failover from one dashboard.
1

Understanding token pricing

Every AI model charges separately for input tokens (what you send) and output tokens (what the model generates). Prices are quoted per million tokens. A million tokens is roughly 750,000 words. Input is always cheaper than output because generation requires more compute. The ratio varies by model: GPT-5.2 charges 4x more for output, while Gemini 3 Flash charges 4x more for output as well. Always factor in both sides when estimating costs.

2

Current pricing table (April 2026)

Here are the per-million-token prices for the most popular models: GPT-5.2 ($3.00 input / $12.00 output), Claude Sonnet 4.5 ($2.50 / $10.00), Gemini 3 Flash ($0.10 / $0.40), DeepSeek V3 ($0.14 / $0.28), Claude Haiku 4.5 ($0.20 / $0.80), GPT-5.2 Mini ($0.30 / $1.20), Grok 3 ($3.00 / $9.00), Llama 4 Maverick ($0.20 / $0.60 via hosted providers). Prices change frequently - check provider pricing pages for the latest numbers.

3

Example cost calculations

Scenario A (startup chatbot, 10K messages/month, avg 500 input + 300 output tokens): GPT-5.2 costs $51/mo, Claude Sonnet $38/mo, Gemini Flash $1.70/mo. Scenario B (enterprise platform, 100K messages/month, avg 1000 input + 500 output tokens): GPT-5.2 costs $900/mo, Claude Sonnet $750/mo, Gemini Flash $34/mo, DeepSeek V3 $28/mo. Scenario C (high-volume API, 500K calls/month, avg 200 input + 100 output tokens): GPT-5.2 costs $900/mo, Gemini Flash $30/mo. The cost gap between frontier and budget models is enormous at scale.

4

How auto-routing cuts costs

Most applications send a mix of simple and complex queries. A customer support bot might field 60% routine questions and 40% complex ones. Auto-routing sends the simple queries to Gemini Flash or DeepSeek V3 (10-30x cheaper) and reserves frontier models for the hard problems. LLMWise's auto-router does this with zero-latency heuristic classification - no ML overhead, no extra API call. Typical savings: 25-40% on your total bill without any quality loss on the simple queries.

5

BYOK vs credit pricing

With Bring Your Own Key, you pay the provider directly at their listed rates. LLMWise charges zero credits for BYOK traffic - you get routing, failover, and analytics for free. With LLMWise credits, you pay a per-request cost (1 credit for chat, 3 for compare, 4 for blend, 5 for judge) that covers the underlying token cost plus the platform. Credits are simpler to budget but may cost slightly more per token than direct provider billing at very high volumes.

6

Free tier comparison across providers

OpenAI: small trial credit for new accounts, expires quickly. Anthropic: no free tier, though some third-party integrations offer limited free access. Google: Gemini Flash has a generous free tier in AI Studio (60 requests/minute). DeepSeek: no free tier but extremely low prices. LLMWise: 20 free credits on signup covering all models, no credit card required. For testing and prototyping, LLMWise's free credits are the most flexible because they work across every model.

Evidence snapshot

LLM Cost Calculator: How Much Does Each AI Model Cost? execution map

Operational checklist coverage for teams implementing this workflow in production.

Steps
6
ordered implementation actions
Takeaways
4
core principles to retain
FAQs
4
execution concerns answered
Read time
12 min
estimated skim time
Key takeaways
Gemini 3 Flash is 30x cheaper than GPT-5.2 per token - the right model choice matters more than any other optimization
A 100K messages/month app can cost $900/mo on GPT-5.2 or $34/mo on Gemini Flash, depending on quality requirements
Auto-routing typically saves 25-40% by sending simple queries to budget models automatically
BYOK gives you the lowest per-token cost; LLMWise credits give you the simplest billing experience

Common questions

How much does it cost to use an AI API?
It depends entirely on the model and your volume. At 10K messages per month, GPT-5.2 costs about $51/mo while Gemini 3 Flash costs $1.70/mo. The gap grows linearly with volume. Most production apps spend between $50 and $5,000 per month on AI API costs.
What is the cheapest AI model per token?
Gemini 3 Flash at $0.10/$0.40 per million tokens and DeepSeek V3 at $0.14/$0.28 are the cheapest models with strong general-purpose capability. For simple classification tasks, GPT-5.2 Mini at $0.30/$1.20 is also very cost-effective.
How do I compare AI API pricing across providers?
List your average input and output token counts per request, multiply by your monthly request volume, then multiply by each model's per-million-token price. Or use LLMWise Compare mode to test quality across models first, then pick the cheapest one that meets your quality bar.
How does LLMWise auto-routing save money?
The auto-router classifies each query by type (code, math, creative, simple Q&A) and sends it to the most cost-effective model for that category. Simple questions go to Gemini Flash or DeepSeek V3 at a fraction of the cost, while complex reasoning queries go to Claude or GPT-5.2. This typically saves 25-40% without any quality loss on the simple queries.

One wallet, enterprise AI controls built in

Credit-based pay-per-use with token-settled billing. No monthly subscription. Paid credits never expire.

Replace multiple AI subscriptions with one wallet that includes routing, failover, and optimization.

Chat, Compare, Blend, Judge, MeshPolicy routing + replay labFailover without extra subscriptions
Get LLM insights in your inbox

Pricing changes, new model launches, and optimization tips. No spam.