Compare AI Models by Price Tier
Side-by-side comparisons of AI models organized by price: budget tier under $1/1M tokens, mid-range $1-3/1M tokens, and premium $5+/1M tokens. Benchmarks, pricing, and use case recommendations.
Compare AI models by price-to-capability ratio. Three tiers, clear tradeoffs, no marketing fluff.
Model Tiers
Budget Tier: Under $1/1M Tokens
Price: $0.25–$1.00 per million input tokens
Best for: Prototyping, preprocessing, hobby projects, high-volume workflows
Models:
- Gemini 3 Flash — FREE input tokens, 1M context, 78% SWE-bench
- GPT-5 mini — $0.25/1M, cheapest OpenAI option
- Kimi k2.5 — $0.60/1M, vision capable, open source
- Claude Haiku 4.5 — $1.00/1M, fastest responses
Bottom line: 75-80% of frontier performance at 5-20% of the cost.
Mid-Range Tier: $1–$3/1M Tokens
Price: $1.00–$3.00 per million input tokens
Best for: Production apps, daily coding, reliable reasoning
Models:
- GPT-5.2 — $1.75/1M, best price-performance for coding
- Claude Sonnet 4.5 — $3.00/1M, most reliable reasoning
- Gemini 2.5 Pro — $2.50/1M, strong multimodal
Bottom line: 90-95% of frontier capability at 20-35% of premium cost. The production sweet spot.
Premium Tier: $5+/1M Tokens
Price: $5.00–$21.00+ per million input tokens
Best for: Complex research, enterprise workloads, maximum accuracy
Models:
- Claude Opus 4.5 — $5.00/1M, best reasoning (80.9% SWE-bench)
- GPT-5.2 Pro — $21.00/1M, highest precision tier
Bottom line: When errors are expensive, the premium pays for itself.
Quick Selection Guide
| Your Constraint | Recommended Tier | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Cost is everything | Budget | Process millions of tokens for dollars |
| Production reliability | Mid-range | Best balance of capability and cost |
| Maximum reasoning | Premium | That final 5% of accuracy matters |
Methodology
Pricing: List prices from official sources, verified monthly
Benchmarks: SWE-bench Verified where available
Use cases: Based on hands-on testing, not spec sheets
See /verify/methodology/ for full verification standards.
Related Resources
- /compare/ — All comparisons (models + tools)
- /models/ — Individual model deep-dives
- /value/free-stack/ — Free tier access guide
- /value/smart-spend/ — When to upgrade from free
Last updated: February 16, 2026. Pricing subject to change—always verify current rates.
- 2026-01-30 | Budget Tier LLM Comparison: Best Models Under $1/1M Tokens Compare the best budget LLMs for 2026: GPT-5 mini, Gemini 3 Flash, Kimi k2.5, and Claude Haiku 4.5. Pricing, benchmarks, and use case recommendations for hobbyists and high-volume preprocessing.
- 2026-01-30 | Mid-Range Tier LLM Comparison: Best Models $1-$3/1M Tokens Compare the best mid-range LLMs for 2026: GPT-5.2, Claude Sonnet 4.5, and Gemini 2.5 Pro. Pricing, benchmarks, and use case recommendations for production apps and daily coding.
- 2026-01-30 | Premium Tier LLM Comparison: Best Models $5+/1M Tokens Compare the best premium LLMs for 2026: Claude Opus 4.5 and GPT-5.2 Pro. Pricing, benchmarks, and use case recommendations for complex reasoning, research tasks, and enterprise workloads requiring maximum accuracy.