Cheapest AI model for coding
Top pick: GLM-5.3 Flash (Together) (Together) at about $5.50/mo for an example 20M input + 5M output tokens per month. Needs tier ≥2; 17 of 25 models qualify. Prices last checked 2026-10-13.
Cheapest qualifying models, ranked
| # | Model | Provider | Input $/M | Output $/M | Context | Tier | Example $/mo | vs top pick |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | GLM-5.3 Flash (Together) | Together | $0.15 | $0.5 | — | 2 | $5.50 | Top pick |
| 2 | GPT-OSS 120B (Groq) | Groq | $0.15 | $0.6 | 131072 | 2 | $6.00 | +$0.50/mo |
| 3 | DeepSeek V4.1 Flash | DeepSeek | $0.3 | $1.2 | 1000000 | 2 | $12.00 | +$6.50/mo |
| 4 | Mistral Large 3 | Mistral | $0.5 | $1.5 | — | 2 | $17.50 | +$12.00/mo |
| 5 | Mistral Large 4 | Mistral | $0.68 | $2.09 | 1000000 | 3 | $24.05 | +$18.55/mo |
Caveat: Coding quality varies a lot by language and repo size; run your own tests before switching.
How the example bill is computed
We assume 20M input and 5M output tokens per month and multiply by each model's standard per-1M-token price. For the top pick, GLM-5.3 Flash (Together) (Together): (20M × $0.15) + (5M × $0.5) = $5.50 per month (prices checked 2026-10-13).
Tiers 1–4 are our own rough capability judgment (1 = light, 4 = frontier), not a benchmark. This job needs tier ≥2, so only those models are ranked (17 of 25 qualify). Standard pay-as-you-go text prices only: no batch or cached-input discounts. Cost only, not quality; different tokenizers count the same text differently.
Related head-to-head comparisons
Other jobs: Simple Q&A / chat · Long documents · Hard reasoning. See every model on the full price table or estimate your own bill with the savings calculator.