Cheapest AI model for a coding assistant
Coding assistants (Cursor-style autocomplete, function generation) typically read a small context window and generate a larger completion. We benchmarked at 500 input + 1,500 output, which represents typical autocomplete + small-function generation patterns.
Ranked cheapest first
| # | Model | Input $/M | Output $/M | Per 1M calls |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| #1 | Llama 3.1 8B Meta |
$0.18 | $0.18 | $360 |
| #2 | GPT-5 Nano OpenAI |
$0.05 | $0.40 | $625 |
| #3 | GPT-4.1 Nano OpenAI |
$0.10 | $0.40 | $650 |
| #4 | Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite |
$0.10 | $0.40 | $650 |
| #5 | GPT-4o mini OpenAI |
$0.15 | $0.60 | $975 |
| #6 | Llama 3.1 70B Meta |
$0.59 | $0.79 | $1,480 |
| #7 | Qwen 2.5 Coder 32B Alibaba |
$0.80 | $0.80 | $1,600 |
| #8 | Llama 3.3 70B Meta |
$0.88 | $0.88 | $1,760 |
| #9 | DeepSeek V3 DeepSeek |
$0.27 | $1.10 | $1,785 |
| #10 | Qwen 2.5 72B Alibaba |
$0.90 | $0.90 | $1,800 |
| #11 | GPT-5.4 Nano OpenAI |
$0.20 | $1.25 | $1,975 |
| #12 | Gemini 3.1 Flash-Lite |
$0.25 | $1.50 | $2,375 |
| #13 | GPT-4.1 Mini OpenAI |
$0.40 | $1.60 | $2,600 |
| #14 | DeepSeek V3.1 DeepSeek |
$0.60 | $1.70 | $2,850 |
| #15 | GPT-5 Mini OpenAI |
$0.25 | $2.00 | $3,125 |
| #16 | Gemini 2.5 Flash |
$0.30 | $2.50 | $3,900 |
| #17 | Qwen3 Coder 480B Alibaba |
$2.00 | $2.00 | $4,000 |
| #18 | Gemini 3 Flash |
$0.50 | $3.00 | $4,750 |
| #19 | Llama 3.1 405B Meta |
$3.50 | $3.50 | $7,000 |
| #20 | GPT-5.4 Mini OpenAI |
$0.75 | $4.50 | $7,125 |
| #21 | o3-mini OpenAI |
$1.10 | $4.40 | $7,150 |
| #22 | o4-mini OpenAI |
$1.10 | $4.40 | $7,150 |
| #23 | GLM-5.1 zhipu |
$1.40 | $4.40 | $7,300 |
| #24 | Claude Haiku 4.5 Anthropic |
$1.00 | $5.00 | $8,000 |
| #25 | Mistral Large Mistral |
$2.00 | $6.00 | $10,000 |
| #26 | DeepSeek R1 DeepSeek |
$3.00 | $7.00 | $12,000 |
| #27 | GPT-4.1 OpenAI |
$2.00 | $8.00 | $13,000 |
| #28 | o3 OpenAI |
$2.00 | $8.00 | $13,000 |
| #29 | GPT-5.1 OpenAI |
$1.25 | $10.00 | $15,625 |
| #30 | GPT-5 OpenAI |
$1.25 | $10.00 | $15,625 |
| #31 | Gemini 2.5 Pro |
$1.25 | $10.00 | $15,625 |
| #32 | GPT-4o OpenAI |
$2.50 | $10.00 | $16,250 |
| #33 | Gemini 3.1 Pro |
$2.00 | $12.00 | $19,000 |
| #34 | GPT-5.3 OpenAI |
$1.75 | $14.00 | $21,875 |
| #35 | GPT-5.2 OpenAI |
$1.75 | $14.00 | $21,875 |
| #36 | GPT-5.4 OpenAI |
$2.50 | $15.00 | $23,750 |
| #37 | Claude Sonnet 4.6 Anthropic |
$3.00 | $15.00 | $24,000 |
| #38 | Claude Opus 4.8 Anthropic |
$5.00 | $25.00 | $40,000 |
| #39 | GPT-5.5 OpenAI |
$5.00 | $30.00 | $47,500 |
| #40 | GPT-4 Turbo OpenAI |
$10.00 | $30.00 | $50,000 |
| #41 | Claude Opus 4.8 (Fast Mode) Anthropic |
$10.00 | $50.00 | $80,000 |
| #42 | o3-pro OpenAI |
$20.00 | $80.00 | $130,000 |
| #43 | GPT-5 Pro OpenAI |
$15.00 | $120.00 | $187,500 |
| #44 | GPT-5.2 Pro OpenAI |
$21.00 | $168.00 | $262,500 |
| #45 | GPT-5.5 Pro OpenAI |
$30.00 | $180.00 | $285,000 |
| #46 | GPT-5.4 Pro OpenAI |
$30.00 | $180.00 | $285,000 |
Workload assumption: 500 input tokens + 1,500 output tokens per call, scaled to 1M calls. Pricing as of 2026-05-31.
How to use this ranking
The winner is mathematically cheapest at the listed workload shape — that's not the same as "best for the use case." Cheaper models often have lower reasoning depth, smaller context windows, or worse instruction-following. Use this as the cost baseline, then test the top 2-3 candidates on your real prompts via the live counter.
Pricing snapshots come from each provider's published rate cards and are tracked in the full pricing changelog. Tokenizer accuracy per model is documented in the methodology.