Price Overview: February 2026
The AI pricing landscape has shifted dramatically. Claude Opus dropped 67% (from $15/$75 to $5/$25), while xAI's Grok 4 commands premium pricing at $30/M output. Here's the complete breakdown:
| Model | Provider | Input $/M | Output $/M | Context | Tier |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Grok 4 | xAI | $15.00 | $30.00 | 256K | Premium |
| GPT-5.2 Pro | OpenAI | $10.00 | $30.00 | 200K | Premium |
| Claude Opus 4.6 NEW | Anthropic | $5.00 | $25.00 | 1M | Premium |
| Gemini 3.1 Pro NEW | $2.00 | $12.00 | 1M+ | Best Reasoning | |
| Gemini 3 Pro | $3.50 | $10.50 | 1M+ | Premium | |
| Claude Sonnet 4.6 NEW | Anthropic | $1.00 | $5.00 | 1M | Best Value |
| GPT-5 mini | OpenAI | $0.25 | $1.00 | 128K | Best Value |
| Gemini 3 Flash | $0.10 | $0.40 | 1M | Budget | |
| Claude Haiku 4.5 | Anthropic | $0.25 | $1.25 | 200K | Budget |
| Llama 4 405B | Meta (via API) | $0.80 | $2.40 | 128K | Open Source |
| GPT-OSS-20B | OpenAI | $0.05 | $0.15 | 32K | Cheapest |
Frontier Models Deep Dive
Claude Opus 4.6 — The New Price Leader
Anthropic's flagship dropped from $15/$75 to $5/$25 per million tokens—a 67% reduction that makes it competitive with GPT-5's mid-tier. With a 1M token context window (doubled from Opus 4.5), it's now the best value for complex reasoning tasks.
- Best for: Complex coding, research, agentic workflows
- Context window: 1,000,000 tokens
- SWE-Bench: 80.9% (industry leading)
- Cost for 1M input + 100K output: $7.50
GPT-5.2 Pro — Maximum Intelligence
OpenAI's most capable model at $10/$30. Excels at mathematical reasoning and code generation but the price premium is significant. Best reserved for tasks where accuracy is paramount.
Gemini 3.1 Pro — Benchmark Leader NEW
Released February 19, 2026, Google's latest flagship scores 77.1% on ARC-AGI-2 (2x Gemini 3 Pro) and 44.4% on Humanity's Last Exam—both records. At $2/$12 per million tokens, it's significantly cheaper than competing flagships while leading most benchmarks. Read our full Gemini 3.1 Pro review →
- Best for: Complex reasoning, math, agentic workflows
- Context window: 1,000,000+ tokens
- ARC-AGI-2: 77.1% (industry leading)
- Cost for 1M input + 100K output: $3.20
Grok 4 — Premium Positioning
xAI's flagship at $15/$30 is the most expensive option. The 4-agent architecture (Grok, Harper, Benjamin, Lucas) offers unique capabilities but the 600x cost premium over budget options requires careful justification.
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Open Calculator →Mid-Tier: The Sweet Spot
Claude Sonnet 4.6 — Best Overall Value
At $1/$5 per million tokens with a 1M context window, Sonnet 4.6 delivers ~90% of Opus capability at 1/5 the cost. For most production workloads, this is the optimal choice.
| Task Type | Recommended Model | Est. Cost/1K Tasks |
|---|---|---|
| Code Generation | Claude Sonnet 4.6 | $2-5 |
| Document Analysis | Gemini 3 Pro | $3-8 |
| Customer Support | GPT-5 mini | $0.50-1 |
| Complex Research | Claude Opus 4.6 | $10-25 |
| Complex Reasoning | Gemini 3.1 Pro NEW | $2-6 |
Budget & Open-Source Options
For high-volume, cost-sensitive applications:
- GPT-OSS-20B ($0.05/$0.15): OpenAI's open-source model. Surprisingly capable for simple tasks.
- Gemini 3 Flash ($0.10/$0.40): Google's speed-optimized model with 1M context.
- Llama 4 405B ($0.80/$2.40 via Together/Fireworks): Meta's open model, self-hostable for zero marginal cost.
Reasoning Models: o3 and o4-mini
OpenAI's reasoning models trade speed for accuracy. Pricing is different—charged by "reasoning tokens" consumed during thinking:
| Model | Input $/M | Output $/M | Best For |
|---|---|---|---|
| o4-mini-high | $1.00 | $4.00 | Technical precision, coding |
| o3 | $3.00 | $12.00 | Complex reasoning, math |
| o3-mini | $0.50 | $2.00 | Balanced reasoning/cost |
Cost Calculator Tips
Quick Estimation Formula
Monthly Cost = (Input Tokens × Input Price) + (Output Tokens × Output Price)
Average ratios: Chat apps = 3:1 input:output | Code gen = 1:2 | Summarization = 10:1
Example: A chatbot handling 100K conversations/month, averaging 500 input + 300 output tokens each:
- GPT-5 mini: (50M × $0.25/M) + (30M × $1/M) = $42.50/month
- Claude Sonnet 4.6: (50M × $1/M) + (30M × $5/M) = $200/month
- Claude Opus 4.6: (50M × $5/M) + (30M × $25/M) = $1,000/month
Our Recommendations
For Startups & SMBs
Start with Claude Sonnet 4.6 or GPT-5 mini. Both offer excellent capability-to-cost ratios. Use Opus/GPT-5.2 Pro only for edge cases requiring maximum accuracy.
For Enterprises
Implement a tiered routing strategy: Route simple queries to Flash/Haiku, standard to Sonnet/GPT-5 mini, complex to Opus. This can cut costs 60-80%.
For Developers
Consider Llama 4 405B for self-hosting. Initial infra investment pays off at ~$500/month in API costs.
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Get a Free Consultation →Pricing Changes to Watch
- Gemini 3.1 Pro: NEW Just released at $2/$12—significantly cheaper than Claude Opus while leading benchmarks. See our review.
- Claude Opus 4.6: Just dropped 67%. May stabilize or continue falling.
- GPT-5.3: Expected Q2 2026. Likely to reset pricing tiers.
- Grok 4.5: xAI hinted at enterprise tier discounts coming.
This article is updated weekly as pricing changes. Last verified: February 20, 2026.