LLM Cost Calculator

Enter your token usage or budget to calculate API costs. See how much content you can generate and discover cheaper alternatives.

📊 Cost Calculation

Select Model

Input Mode

Tokens Text Estimate

Input Tokens (per request)

Output Tokens (per request)

Monthly Requests

Cost per Request $0.00

Monthly Cost $0.00

Cost Breakdown -

Monthly Tokens -

💰 Budget → Output Calculator

Enter your budget to see how much content you can generate

Your Budget

Output Tokens -

Words Generated -

Blog Posts (500 words) -

Chat Responses -

Based on selected model's output price. Actual results vary by content type.

📊 What Can 1M Tokens Produce?

Visualize token output in real-world terms

📝

750K

English Words

per 1M output tokens

📄

1,500

Blog Articles

~500 words each

💬

5,000

Chat Responses

~200 tokens each

📚

500

Documents Analyzed

~10 pages each

Tip: 1M tokens costs $0.15 with GPT-4o-mini, $15 with GPT-4o. Choose wisely based on task complexity!

🎯 Cost Per Task

Real-world cost estimates for common AI tasks

Task	Est. Tokens	GPT-4o-mini	GPT-4o	Claude 3.5
Write a blog post (1500 words)	~2k tokens	$0.0006	$0.015	$0.018
Translate a page	~1k tokens	$0.0003	$0.0075	$0.009
Summarize a document	~3k tokens	$0.0009	$0.0225	$0.027
Review a PR (~500 lines)	~5k tokens	$0.0015	$0.0375	$0.045
Draft an email	~500 tokens	$0.00015	$0.00375	$0.0045
AI Agent task (10 steps)	~20k tokens	$0.006	$0.15	$0.18

Estimates based on typical input/output ratios. Actual costs depend on prompt length and response detail.

🎨 Image Generation Costs

Cost per image for popular AI image generators

DALL-E 3 (OpenAI)

HD 1024×1792	$0.120
HD 1024×1024	$0.080
Standard 1024×1024	$0.040

$10 = ~125 HD images

Other Providers

Stable Diffusion 3	$0.035
FLUX.1 Pro	$0.055
Ideogram V2	$0.080

$10 = ~285 SD3 images

Your Budget

Images You Can Generate

DALL-E 3 HD: 125 | SD3: 285

💡 Cheaper Alternatives

Based on similar capabilities and context length

Select a model to see alternatives

💡 Cost Optimization Strategies

Reduce your API costs by 30-70% with these proven techniques

Prompt Caching

Reuse system prompts and repeated content. OpenAI, Anthropic, and Google offer 50-90% discounts on cached tokens.

Batch API

For non-real-time tasks, use batch endpoints. Most providers offer 50% discount with 24h turnaround.

Optimize Input/Output Ratio

Code tasks have high output ratio - prioritize low output price. Chat tasks are balanced - look at total price.

Model Tiering Strategy

Use cheaper models (GPT-4o-mini, Gemini Flash) for simple tasks. Reserve premium models for complex reasoning.

Need the cheapest LLM API, not just a calculator?

Use the live workload guide to compare low-cost chat, code, reasoning, long-context, and free-tier options before you estimate monthly spend.

Read the guide

OpenAI API pricing calculator

Planning GPT, o-series, embeddings, cached input, Batch API, or Responses API tool usage? Use the dedicated OpenAI calculator to separate token cost from cached context, delayed jobs, and billable tool calls.

Open OpenAI calculator

Estimating Azure OpenAI pricing?

Use the Azure-specific calculator to model OpenAI deployments by token volume, cache/batch assumptions, and enterprise cost controls.

Azure OpenAI calculator

Calculating Anthropic Claude API costs?

Use the Claude-specific calculator to model Sonnet, Haiku, Opus, prompt caching, batch jobs, and output-heavy workloads.

Claude pricing calculator

GPT-OSS pricing calculator

Planning gpt-oss-120b or gpt-oss-20b usage? Use the dedicated calculator to compare hosted token prices, free routes, cache settings, batch usage, and self-hosting tradeoffs.

Open GPT-OSS calculator

Gemini API pricing calculator

Estimating Google Gemini usage? Use the dedicated calculator to model token spend, cache usage, batch share, audio input, and Search grounding before comparing Gemini with Claude, OpenAI, or GPT-OSS alternatives.

Open Gemini calculator

AI voice agent cost calculator

Building a calling agent? Estimate speech-to-text, LLM tokens, text-to-speech, telephony minutes, platform fees, and retry cost in one workflow.

Calculate voice agent cost

OpenRouter vs Groq pricing comparison

Comparing a routed OpenRouter setup with a direct Groq workload? Use the dedicated comparison page to select live model rows, enter monthly token volume, and see which option is cheaper for your exact input/output mix.

Compare OpenRouter and Groq

📊 Real-World Cost Examples

Estimated monthly costs based on typical usage patterns. Budget models include DeepSeek, Gemini Flash; Premium includes GPT-4o, Claude 3.5 Sonnet.

Scenario	Usage Pattern	Est. Tokens	Budget Model	Premium Model
SaaS AI Feature	10k MAU, 5 msg/user/day	~75M/month	$20-50	$150-400
Internal Tool	50 users, 20 queries/day	~30M/month	$8-20	$60-150
AI Agent System	1000 tasks/day, 10 steps each	~300M/month	$80-200	$600-1500
Code Review Bot	200 PRs/day, 2k lines avg	~120M/month	$30-80	$240-600

Estimates assume 1:1 input/output ratio. Actual costs vary by model and usage pattern.

📖 Token Estimation Deep Dive

Understanding token consumption helps you estimate costs accurately and optimize prompts

Tokens by Language

Language	Chars/Token	Example
English	~4 chars	"Hello world" = 2 tokens
中文	~1.5 chars	"你好世界" = 3 tokens
日本語	~1.5 chars	"こんにちは" = 3 tokens
Code	~3 chars	More symbols = more tokens

Typical Token Ranges by Task

Task Type	Input	Output
Simple Chat	100-500	200-800
Summarization	2k-10k	200-500
Code Generation	500-2k	1k-5k
Document Analysis	5k-50k	500-2k

Precise Token Counting with tiktoken

For accurate estimates, use OpenAI's tiktoken library (works for most models):

pip install tiktoken
import tiktoken
enc = tiktoken.encoding_for_model("gpt-4o")
len(enc.encode("Your text here"))

Hidden Costs to Watch Out For

Your actual bill may be higher than calculated. Factor in these often-overlooked costs:

Failed Retries

Rate limits, timeouts, and errors still consume tokens. Budget 10-20% extra for retries.

Development & Testing

Debugging, prompt iteration, and testing can consume 2-5x your production usage initially.

Context Window Bloat

Long conversations accumulate context. A 10-turn chat may use 10x the tokens of turn 1.

Pro tip: Set up usage alerts and monitor your API dashboard daily during development.

❓ Calculator FAQ

This calculator provides estimates based on official API pricing. Actual costs may vary due to token counting differences between models, retries, and usage patterns. Use it for budgeting, but monitor actual usage.

Common reasons: 1) Failed requests still cost tokens, 2) Context accumulates in conversations, 3) Development/testing usage, 4) Token counting varies by model. Add 20-30% buffer to estimates.

Depends on your use case. Chat/Q&A: balanced, look at total. Code generation: output-heavy, prioritize low output price. Document analysis: input-heavy, prioritize low input price.

1) Use prompt caching for repeated content, 2) Batch non-urgent requests, 3) Use cheaper models for simple tasks, 4) Optimize prompts to reduce token count, 5) Implement response length limits.

Currently, DeepSeek V3 offers the best value for most tasks. Gemini 2.0 Flash is excellent for Google ecosystem. GPT-4o-mini and Claude 3.5 Haiku are solid budget options from major providers.

Image tokens vary by resolution: ~85 tokens for 512x512, ~1k+ for high-res. Audio is typically ~1 token per 0.5 seconds. Check provider docs for exact formulas.