cheap AI API pricing

Here are some of the cheapest AI API options depending on what you need:

Low-cost text / chat APIs

• OpenAI
  • Small/efficient models are usually among the cheapest mainstream options.
  • Good if you want reliable docs, tooling, and broad support.
• Anthropic
  • Not usually the absolute cheapest, but good value for quality.
• Google Gemini API
  • Often competitively priced, especially for lightweight usage.
• Mistral API
  • Often a cost-effective choice for chat/text.
• Together AI / Fireworks / Groq / OpenRouter
  • Useful aggregators or hosting platforms that can give access to cheaper open models.

Cheapest open-model providers

If your priority is pure price, look at:

• Groq for very fast inference on supported open models
• Together AI
• Fireworks AI
• DeepInfra
• OpenRouter (price varies by model/provider)

These often offer access to models like Llama, Mixtral, Qwen, etc. at low rates.

Cheapest image APIs

• Stability AI
• Replicate (depends heavily on model)
• Fal.ai
• OpenAI image models can be convenient, but not always the cheapest

Cheapest embeddings / classification

• OpenAI small embedding models
• Cohere
• Voyage AI
• Open-source hosted options via Together/Fireworks/DeepInfra

Best way to save money

• Use small models for most requests
• Cache repeated prompts/results
• Keep context windows short
• Use streaming only when needed
• Route simple tasks to cheaper models, harder tasks to better ones
• Batch requests when possible

Quick recommendation

If you want the best mix of cheap + easy + reliable, start with:

1. OpenAI small model
2. Google Gemini
3. Mistral
4. Together AI / Fireworks / Groq for open-model cost savings

If you want, I can make you a side-by-side price comparison table for text models, image models, or embeddings.