API Prices Down to 1/10-1/30
GPT-4 in early 2023 was $30/1M input tokens, but as of 2026, even GPT-5-class frontier models are $2.50-$10, and lightweight models down to $0.05-$0.50/1M tokens. 1/10-1/30 in 3 years. Both semiconductor-efficiency gains and intensified competition contribute.
Main Model Prices (2026)
| Model | Input ($/1M) | Output ($/1M) |
|---|---|---|
| GPT-5.4 | $2.50 | $10 |
| GPT-5 Mini | $0.20 | $0.80 |
| GPT-5 Nano | $0.05 | $0.20 |
| Claude Opus 4.7 | $5 | $25 |
| Claude Sonnet 4.6 | $1 | $5 |
| Claude Haiku 4.5 | $0.20 | $1 |
| Gemini 3.1 Pro | $1.25 | $5 |
| Mistral Large 3 | $2 | $6 |
| DeepSeek V3 | $0.27 | $1.10 |
* Approximate. Prompt caching/batch API discount a further 50-90%.
Price-War Dynamics
Downward Pressure
- Increased number of competitors
- Hardware-efficiency gains like NVIDIA Blackwell, TPU v6
