benchr
For high-volume tasks such as RAG document ingestion, user chat routing, and structured data extraction, choosing a budget-friendly model is essential. Below is the ranked list of all models on benchr that cost **$1.00 or less per million input tokens**, or are open-weights intended for free self-hosting.
| Model | Provider | Input / 1M | Output / 1M | License |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Loading budget models... | ||||
Key Highlights in the Low-Cost Space
- DeepSeek V4-Flash ($0.14/$0.28): Disrupted the market by offering a million-token context window at a fraction of standard API prices. It holds strong coding and reasoning scores despite its speed and low cost.
- GPT-5 Mini ($0.25/$2.00): OpenAI's primary low-cost entry, offering high speed (160 tok/s) and full API feature integration (such as Structured Outputs and Batch Jobs).
- Claude Haiku 4.5 ($1.00/$5.00): While pricier than DeepSeek and GPT-5 Mini, it features high prompt caching capabilities and Anthropic's signature safety and formatting alignment.
Want to compare these with the flagship models? Check out the full AI Model Rankings or compute exact volume pricing on our Cost Calculator.