Cost guide

Cheapest AI models

This shortlist favors low combined input and output price first, then keeps enough context and capability signal to make the models usable in real traffic instead of just cheap on paper.

Live signalLowest combined TVP input and output price among paid models
Live signalEnough context to stay practical for chat, support, and content tasks
Live signalLive catalog availability instead of stale benchmark pricing
Live signalVisible capabilities to avoid choosing a model that cannot handle your route
Fast answer

Start with the live shortlist, then validate the route

This page is tuned for production buying. It focuses on paid, billable models so traffic planning is based on routes you can reliably meter, forecast, and scale.

Data source and freshness

Catalog-backed, not a static price sheet

TVP refreshes this page from the live OpenRouter model catalog. This render used 428 public model records and was synchronized Jul 14, 2026, 9:32 PM UTC. Pricing, availability, and context values can change.

Verify the exact route before sending production traffic, then use the linked model and provider pages as the source for current values. Read the TVP data methodology.

Shortlist

Top live candidates right now

inclusionai

inclusionAI: Ling-2.6-flash

Ling-2.6-flash is an instant (instruct) model from inclusionAI with 104B total parameters and 7.4B active parameters, designed for real-world agents that require fast responses, strong execution, and high token efficiency....

Context262,144
Input$0.01
Output$0.03

$0.01 input and $0.03 output keeps traffic cost low while preserving usable context for production routes.

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meta-llama

Meta: Llama 3.1 8B Instruct

Meta's latest class of model (Llama 3.1) launched with a variety of sizes & flavors. This 8B instruct-tuned version is fast and efficient. It has demonstrated strong performance compared to...

Context131,072
Input$0.02
Output$0.03

$0.02 input and $0.03 output keeps traffic cost low while preserving usable context for production routes.

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mistralai

Mistral: Mistral Nemo

A 12B parameter model with a 128k token context length built by Mistral in collaboration with NVIDIA. The model is multilingual, supporting English, French, German, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, Chinese, Japanese,...

Context131,072
Input$0.02
Output$0.03

$0.02 input and $0.03 output keeps traffic cost low while preserving usable context for production routes.

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sao10k

Sao10K: Llama 3 8B Lunaris

Lunaris 8B is a versatile generalist and roleplaying model based on Llama 3. It's a strategic merge of multiple models, designed to balance creativity with improved logic and general knowledge....

Context8,192
Input$0.04
Output$0.05

$0.04 input and $0.05 output keeps traffic cost low while preserving usable context for production routes.

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gryphe

MythoMax 13B

One of the highest performing and most popular fine-tunes of Llama 2 13B, with rich descriptions and roleplay. #merge

Context4,096
Input$0.06
Output$0.06

$0.06 input and $0.06 output keeps traffic cost low while preserving usable context for production routes.

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FAQ

What buyers usually ask

Why do free models not dominate this list?

This page is tuned for production buying. It focuses on paid, billable models so traffic planning is based on routes you can reliably meter, forecast, and scale.

What should I compare after price?

Context length and capability support usually matter next. A slightly more expensive model can save money if it reduces retries, prompt splitting, or fallback traffic.

Next step

Use the guide, then validate the route in live TVP data.

TVP keeps the shortlist connected to the current catalog, provider coverage, and token pricing so buyers can move from research to routing without starting over.