Cheapest LLM API — March 2026

Last updated: March 2, 2026 No pricing changes since February 2026.

Looking to save money on AI API costs? This guide covers the cheapest LLM API options in 2026, with real pricing and use cases.

Quick Answer: Which is Cheapest?

Provider	Model	Input/M	Output/M	Verdict
Google	Gemini 2.0 Flash-Lite	$0.075	$0.30	Cheapest overall
Google	Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite	$0.10	$0.40	Cheapest with free tier
Google	Gemini 2.0 Flash	$0.10	$0.40	Free tier, proven
DeepSeek	V3.2	$0.28	$0.42	Best value for quality

DeepSeek V3.2: The Value Leader

DeepSeek V3.2 unified chat and reasoning into one model:

Input: $0.28 per million tokens
Output: $0.42 per million tokens
Cache hit: $0.028/M input (90% off)
Context: 128K
Strengths: Chat and reasoning at one price, open weights available

At $0.28/M input, DeepSeek is still far cheaper than GPT-5 or Claude for most tasks.

Gemini Flash-Lite: Cheapest Overall

Google's Gemini 2.0 Flash-Lite wins on pure price:

Input: $0.075 per million tokens
Output: $0.30 per million tokens
Context: 1M tokens
Free tier: Available

For high-volume, simple tasks, Gemini 2.0 Flash-Lite is unbeatable. The 2.5 Flash-Lite version ($0.10/$0.40) is slightly more capable.

When to Use Each

Use Case	Recommended	Why
High volume simple tasks	Gemini 2.0 Flash-Lite	Cheapest at $0.075/M input
Best quality/value	DeepSeek V3.2	Chat + reasoning at $0.28/M
Coding tasks	Mistral Codestral	Optimized for code
Complex reasoning	GPT-5 Mini	Better quality, still affordable

Cost Comparison Examples

1M API Calls (Simple)

Provider	Cost
GPT-5.4 Pro	$250
Claude Opus 4.6	$25
Gemini 2.0 Flash-Lite	$0.075
DeepSeek V3.2	$0.28

10K Tokens/Request (1M total)

Provider	Cost
GPT-5.4 Pro	$300
Claude Opus 4.6	$30
Gemini 2.0 Flash-Lite	$0.75
DeepSeek V3.2	$2.80

How to Switch

DeepSeek is OpenAI API-compatible — just change the base URL:

# DeepSeek V3.2
from openai import OpenAI
client = OpenAI(
    api_key="your-deepseek-key",
    base_url="https://api.deepseek.com"
)

# Google Gemini
import google.generativeai as genai
genai.configure(api_key="your-key")

More Resources

LLM API Pricing 2026 — Full comparison
Best AI Coding Tools — Tools with free tiers

Last updated: March 2026

Cheapest LLM API (March 2026) — DeepSeek $0.14 vs Gemini Flash $0.10 Per 1M Tokens