LLM Pricing Comparison 2026
Per-token vs Flat-rate
Detailed cost-per-million-tokens for top 10 LLMs + flat-rate alternatives. Includes hidden costs (rate limits, surcharges, currency conversion). Calculate real total cost before committing.
Per-token pricing (top 10 models)
| Model | Input $/MTok | Output $/MTok | Avg req cost* | 10k req/mo |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Claude Opus 4.7 | $15 | $75 | $0.150 | $1,500 |
| GPT-5 | $5 | $15 | $0.040 | $400 |
| Claude Sonnet 4.6 | $3 | $15 | $0.030 | $300 |
| Gemini 3 Pro | $1.50 | $10 | $0.018 | $180 |
| GPT-5-mini | $0.30 | $1.20 | $0.003 | $30 |
| Mistral Large 2 | $2 | $6 | $0.016 | $160 |
| DeepSeek-R1 | $0.55 | $2.20 | $0.005 | $53 |
| Qwen 3 | $0.40 | $1.20 | $0.003 | $32 |
| DeepSeek-V3 | $0.27 | $1.10 | $0.003 | $26 |
| Llama 4 Maverick | $0.20 | $0.60 | $0.002 | $16 |
* Avg req: 5k input + 1k output tokens. Updated .
Hidden costs to watch out for
⚠️ Provider surcharges
OpenRouter adds 5.5% on top of provider price. Some gateways add 15-25%.
⚠️ Currency conversion + IOF
Brazilian users: $20 ChatGPT Plus = ~R$100 with FX spread + 6.38% IOF. ~25% effective surcharge.
⚠️ Rate limit overage
OpenAI Plus throttles after high usage. Effective hourly cost goes up dramatically when productivity blocks.
⚠️ Multiple subscription tax
Need image+chat+audio+video? 5+ separate subscriptions = $100-300/mo even before usage.
💡 Flat-rate gateway: predictable cost
If your usage is predictable but spans multiple models, flat-rate is cheaper:
- Brainiall Pro $5.99/mo — 104 models flat. Equivalent to ~600-2000 GPT-5 requests/mo at per-token rates.
- Brainiall Pro Team $99/mo — 5 seats + 50k credits. Equivalent to ~2,500 GPT-5 reqs/mo per seat at per-token.
- Brainiall Business $499/mo — Unlimited + DPA + 99.95% SLA. Replaces ~5,000+ GPT-5 reqs/mo + Anthropic Pro + Midjourney + ElevenLabs + HeyGen stack ($150-300/mo+ per user).
When to pick which pricing model
→ Per-token (OpenAI/Anthropic direct)
Pick if: very low volume (under 50 reqs/mo), 1 model only, no need for multi-modal.
→ Hybrid (OpenRouter)
Pick if: 200+ obscure models needed, comfortable with surcharge, US-based.
→ Flat-rate (Brainiall)
Pick if: predictable volume, multi-modal needed (chat+image+video+audio), EU compliance, indie/small team.
→ Open-source self-host
Pick if: enterprise scale, on-prem requirement, ML team available, custom finetuning.
Get predictable LLM costs — start at $5.99/mo
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