Cheapest LLM API — April 2026

Last updated: April 15, 2026 Updated with latest DeepSeek V3.2 and Gemini pricing.

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?

DeepSeek V3.2: The Value Leader

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

• Input: $0.14 per million tokens
• Output: $0.28 per million tokens
• Cache hit: $0.014/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

Cost Comparison Examples

1M API Calls (Simple)

10K Tokens/Request (1M total)

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

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