AI Calculator Pro
Best deal

Best value LLMs: most intelligence per dollar

Every LLM value ranking divides quality by the price the lab publishes. But the same model is resold by dozens of providers, often for a fraction of that — so the list price answers “is this vendor’s price fair?”, not “where do I get the most intelligence per dollar?”. This table ranks 177 scored models by Arena score against the cheapest price a major provider charges for them — first-party vendors, the big clouds, and established hosts like OpenRouter, DeepInfra, Together, Fireworks and Groq. Drawn from 6,029 offerings across 1,689 models, rebuilt daily.

Best deal near the top

Qwen3.8 27B 8,234 Elo per $/1M

The most Arena score per dollar among models within 5% of the best score we track. Arena 1441 at $0.1750 per 1M tokens blended at its vendor’s own price.

Best deal at each quality level

The right answer depends on how smart you need it to be — score per dollar on its own always points at the cheapest weak model. These are the best deals inside each capability band.

Near the top
Qwen3.8 27B
Arena 1441 · $0.1750/1M
within 5% of the best score we track (1504)
Strong enough for most work
GPT OSS 20B
Arena 1288 · $0.0400/1M
within 15% of the best score
Budget
Llama 3.2 1B Instruct
Arena 1055 · $0.0100/1M
within 30% of the best score
177
Models ranked
42
Cheaper somewhere else
−89%
Biggest saving
13
On the frontier

2 models reach the price/quality frontier only when priced at what you can actually pay: DeepSeek V4 Flash, Claude Opus 5 (Bedrock). On list prices alone they look like poor value.

1Llama 3.2 1B InstructBest value
Meta
1055$0.0100$0.0100105,500
2Llama 3.2 3B InstructBest value
Meta
1110$0.0200$0.020055,500
3Llama 3.1 8b InstructBest value
Meta
1187$0.0250$0.025047,480
4GPT OSS 20BBest value
OpenAI
1288$0.0400$0.040032,200
5Gemma 3 4B IT (Bedrock)Best value
AWS Bedrock
1291$0.0500$0.050025,820
6GPT OSS 120BBest value
OpenAI
1366$0.0542$0.054225,180
7Gemma 3 12B IT
Google
1334$0.0625$0.062521,344
8Google Gemma 3 12B (Bedrock)
AWS Bedrock
1334$0.0625$0.062521,344
9Amazon Nova Micro
AWS Bedrock
1268$0.0613$0.061320,702
10gemma-3-4b-it
Google
1291$0.0625$0.062520,656
11Command R7B
Cohere
1262$0.0656$0.065619,230
12Qwen3.5 FlashBest value
Alibaba
1398$0.0935$0.093514,952
13DeepSeek V4 FlashBest value
DeepSeek
1424$0.1750$0.0998
at OpenRouter
−43%14,276
14Phi 4
Microsoft
1217$0.0875$0.087513,909
15Gemma 3 27B IT
Google
1358$0.1000$0.100013,580
16Qwen2.5 Coder 32B Instruct
Alibaba
1230$0.0950$0.095012,947
17Amazon Nova Lite
AWS Bedrock
1298$0.1050$0.105012,362
18Ministral 8B
Mistral AI
1191$0.1000$0.100011,910
19Qwen3 32B
Alibaba
1340$1.22$0.1300
at DeepInfra
−89%10,308
20gpt-oss-20b (Bedrock)
AWS Bedrock
1288$0.1275$0.127510,102
21Qwen3 30B A3B
Alibaba
1317$0.1325$0.13259,940
22Step 3.5 Flash
StepFun
1404$0.1500$0.1425
at Vercel AI Gateway
−5%9,853
23Google Gemma 3 27B Instruct (Bedrock)
AWS Bedrock
1358$0.1400$0.14009,700
24GPT-5 Nano
OpenAI
1320$0.1375$0.13759,600
25GLM-4.7-Flash
Z.ai (Zhipu AI)
1353$0.1450$0.14509,331
26MiMo-V2-Flash
Xiaomi
1395$0.1750$0.1500
at Novita AI
−14%9,300
27GLM-4.7-Flash (Bedrock)
AWS Bedrock
1353$0.1525$0.15258,872
28Llama 4 Scout 17B 16E Instruct
Meta
1280$0.1500$0.15008,533
29Qwen3.8 27BBest value
Alibaba
1441$0.1750$0.17508,234
30MiMo-V2.5
Xiaomi
1427$0.1750$0.17508,154
31MiMo-V2-Omni
Xiaomi
1422$0.1750$0.17508,126
32Llama 4 Scout
Meta
1332$0.1675$0.16757,952
33Gemini 2.0 Flash
Google
1354$0.1750$0.17507,737
34Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite
Google
1330$0.1750$0.17507,600
35GPT-4.1 Nano
OpenAI
1300$0.1750$0.17507,429
36Llama-3.3-70B-Instruct
Meta
1275$0.2013$0.20136,335
37Hunyuan Hy3
Tencent
1441$0.3500$0.2310
at OpenRouter
−34%6,238
38gpt-oss-120b (Bedrock)
AWS Bedrock
1366$0.2625$0.26255,204
39Mistral Small 4
Mistral AI
1325$0.2625$0.26255,048
40GPT-4o mini
OpenAI
1310$0.2625$0.26254,990
41DeepSeek V3.2
DeepSeek
1420$0.3150$0.2900
at DeepInfra
−8%4,897
42GLM-4.5-Air
Z.ai (Zhipu AI)
1383$0.4250$0.3100
at Novita AI
−27%4,461
43Command R
Cohere
1163$0.2625$0.26254,430
44DeepSeek V3.1
DeepSeek
1417$0.3250$0.32504,360
45Qwen3-Next 80B-A3B Instruct
Alibaba
1419$0.8750$0.3425
at DeepInfra
−61%4,143
46Qwen3.5 35B-A3B
Alibaba
1396$0.6875$0.3550
at DeepInfra
−48%3,932
47DeepSeek V3.1 Terminus
DeepSeek
1417$0.3625$0.36253,909
48Llama 4 Maverick
Meta
1360$0.3775$0.3500
at OpenRouter
−7%3,886
49Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct
Alibaba
1421$0.3700$0.37003,841
50Qwen Plus
Alibaba
1327$0.6000$0.3900
at OpenRouter
−35%3,403
51MiniMax-M2.5
MiniMax
1359$0.5250$0.4000
at DeepInfra
−24%3,398
52Qwen3-Next 80B-A3B (Thinking)
Alibaba
1368$1.88$0.4125
at OpenRouter
−78%3,316
53MiniMax M1
MiniMax
1342$0.4125$0.41253,253
54MiniMax-M2.7
MiniMax
1405$0.5250$0.4375
at DeepInfra
−17%3,211
55Mistral Small 3.1 24B Instruct
Mistral AI
1278$0.4020$0.40203,179
56GPT-5.6 Luna
OpenAI
1429$0.4500$0.45003,176
57Llama 3.1 70B Instruct
Meta
1261$0.4000$0.40003,153
58GLM-4.6V
Z.ai (Zhipu AI)
1375$0.4500$0.45003,056
59DeepSeek V3
DeepSeek
1333$0.4375$0.43753,047
60MiniMax-M2
MiniMax
1342$0.5250$0.4463
at OpenRouter
−15%3,007
61GPT-5.4 nano
OpenAI
1373$0.4625$0.46252,969
62MiniMax-M3
MiniMax
1435$0.5250$0.4850
at DeepInfra
−8%2,959
63Qwq 32B
Alibaba
1162$0.4000$0.40002,905
64GPT-5.6 Luna (Bedrock)
AWS Bedrock
1429$2.25$0.4950
at Amazon Bedrock
−78%2,887
65MiMo-V2.5-ProBest value
Xiaomi
1465$0.5437$0.54372,694
66MiniMax-M2.1
MiniMax
1391$0.5250$0.52502,650
67MiniMax M2.1 (Bedrock)
AWS Bedrock
1391$0.5250$0.52502,650
68DeepSeek V4 Pro
DeepSeek
1439$0.5437$0.54372,646
69MiMo-V2-Pro
Xiaomi
1437$0.5437$0.54372,643
70Qwen3.5 27B
Alibaba
1408$0.8250$0.5363
at OpenRouter
−35%2,626
71Qwen3.7 Plus
Alibaba
1456$1.13$0.5600
at OpenRouter
−50%2,600
72MiniMax M2.5 (Bedrock)
AWS Bedrock
1359$0.5250$0.52502,589
73MiniMax M2 (Bedrock)
AWS Bedrock
1342$0.5250$0.52502,556
74Devstral 2
Mistral AI
1340$0.5250$0.52502,552
75Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite
Google
1415$0.5625$0.56252,516
76Claude 3 Haiku
Anthropic
1195$0.5000$0.50002,390
77Qwen/Qwen3-VL-235B-A22B-Instruct (Bedrock)
AWS Bedrock
1401$0.6000$0.60002,335
78Llama 3.3 70B
Meta
1315$0.6000$0.60002,192
79Llama 3 70B Instruct
Meta
1221$0.5675$0.56752,152
80Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct
Alibaba
1357$3.00$0.6725
at Novita AI
−78%2,018
81GPT-5 Mini
OpenAI
1373$0.6875$0.68751,997
82Gemini 3.7 FlashBest value
Google
1490$1.50$0.7500
at OpenRouter
−50%1,987
83Qwen3.5 122B-A10B
Alibaba
1418$1.10$0.7150
at OpenRouter
−35%1,983
84Qwen3.6 Plus
Alibaba
1437$1.13$0.7312
at OpenRouter
−35%1,965
85GLM-4.7
Z.ai (Zhipu AI)
1435$1.00$0.7375
at DeepInfra
−26%1,946
86GPT-4.1 Mini
OpenAI
1345$0.7000$0.70001,921
87Mistral Large 3
Mistral AI
1428$0.7500$0.75001,904
88GLM-4.6
Z.ai (Zhipu AI)
1440$1.00$0.7600
at OpenRouter
−24%1,895
89DeepSeek R1
DeepSeek
1373$0.7250$0.72501,894
90Qwen3 235B-A22B
Alibaba
1366$1.22$0.7963
at OpenRouter
−35%1,716
91Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite
Google
1436$0.8500$0.85001,689
92Mistral Medium 3.1
Mistral AI
1350$0.8000$0.80001,688
93Gemini 2.5 Flash
Google
1417$0.8500$0.85001,667
94Qwen3.5 397B-A17B
Alibaba
1438$1.35$0.8775
at OpenRouter
−35%1,639
95Kimi K2 Thinking
Moonshot AI
1371$1.08$0.8525
at Vercel AI Gateway
−21%1,608
96Kimi K2.5
Moonshot AI
1445$1.20$0.9000
at DeepInfra
−25%1,606
97Gemini 3 Flash
Google
1442$0.9000$0.90001,602
98GLM-5
Z.ai (Zhipu AI)
1445$1.55$0.9300
at OpenRouter
−40%1,554
99Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Thinking
Alibaba
1401$0.9320$0.93201,503
100GLM-4.5V
Z.ai (Zhipu AI)
1334$0.9000$0.90001,482
101Kimi K2
Moonshot AI
1371$0.9250$0.92501,482
102GPT-3.5-turbo
OpenAI
1094$0.7500$0.75001,459
103GLM-4.7 (Bedrock)
AWS Bedrock
1435$1.00$1.001,435
104GLM-4.5
Z.ai (Zhipu AI)
1429$1.00$1.001,429
105Kimi K2 Thinking (Bedrock)
AWS Bedrock
1371$1.08$1.081,275
106GLM-5.2
Z.ai (Zhipu AI)
1463$2.15$1.16
at DeepInfra
−46%1,258
107Kimi K2.5 (Bedrock)
AWS Bedrock
1445$1.20$1.201,204
108Qwen3-VL 235B-A22B
Alibaba
1401$1.22$1.221,144
109Kimi K2.6
Moonshot AI
1455$1.71$1.44
at DeepInfra
−16%1,012
110Gemini 3.6 Flash
Google
1476$1.50$1.50984
111Amazon Nova Pro
AWS Bedrock
1348$1.40$1.40963
112GLM-5 (Bedrock)
AWS Bedrock
1445$1.55$1.55932
113Qwen3 Max
Alibaba
1439$2.40$1.56
at OpenRouter
−35%922
114Grok 4.3
xAI
1397$1.56$1.56894
115GLM-5.1
Z.ai (Zhipu AI)
1464$2.15$1.66
at DeepInfra
−23%881
116GPT-5.4 mini
OpenAI
1412$1.69$1.69837
117Qwen3.7 Max
Alibaba
1474$3.75$1.88
at Novita AI
−50%786
118Claude 3.5 Haiku
Anthropic
1255$1.60$1.60784
119o3 Mini High
OpenAI
1337$1.74$1.74767
120GLM-5V-Turbo
Z.ai (Zhipu AI)
1437$1.90$1.90756
121Muse Spark 1.2
Meta
1487$2.00$2.00744
122Muse Spark 1.1
Meta
1478$2.00$2.00739
123o4-mini
OpenAI
1382$1.93$1.93718
124Claude Haiku 4.5
Anthropic
1395$2.00$2.00698
125o3-mini
OpenAI
1319$1.93$1.93685
126Qwen3.8 Max
Alibaba
1482$3.00$2.48
at DeepInfra
−17%599
127Qwen2.5 72B Instruct
Alibaba
1269$2.45$2.45518
128mistral-medium-3-5
Mistral AI
1421$2.83$2.83503
129Kimi K2 Thinking Turbo
Moonshot AI
1414$2.86$2.86494
130Grok 4.5
xAI
1452$3.00$3.00484
131Grok 4.6
xAI
1444$3.00$3.00481
132Qwen Max
Alibaba
1282$2.80$2.80458
133Gemini 3.5 Flash
Google
1475$3.38$3.38437
134Gemini 2.5 Pro
Google
1457$3.44$3.44424
135GPT-5.1
OpenAI
1422$3.44$3.44414
136Gemini 3 Pro
Google
1479$3.60$3.60411
137GPT-5
OpenAI
1406$3.44$3.44409
138o3
OpenAI
1422$3.50$3.50406
139GPT-4.1
OpenAI
1372$3.50$3.50392
140Mistral Large
Mistral AI
1177$3.00$3.00392
141GPT-5.6 Sol
OpenAI
1454$8.00$4.00
at OpenRouter
−50%364
142Claude Sonnet 5
Anthropic
1442$4.00$4.00361
143Claude Sonnet 5 (Bedrock)
AWS Bedrock
1442$4.00$4.00361
144Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview
Google
1480$4.50$4.50329
145GPT-5.6 Terra
OpenAI
1446$4.50$4.50321
146Command A
Cohere
1365$4.38$4.38312
147GPT-4o
OpenAI
1355$4.38$4.38310
148GPT-5.2
OpenAI
1412$4.81$4.81293
149GPT-5.6 Terra (Bedrock)
AWS Bedrock
1446$5.63$4.95
at Amazon Bedrock
−12%292
150Amazon Nova Premier
AWS Bedrock
1400$5.00$5.00280
151Command R+
Cohere
1204$4.38$4.38275
152GPT-5.4
OpenAI
1453$5.63$5.63258
153Kimi K3
Moonshot AI
1473$6.00$5.70
at DeepInfra
−5%258
154Claude Sonnet 4
Anthropic
1338$5.20$5.20257
155Claude Sonnet 4.6
Anthropic
1458$6.00$6.00243
156Anthropic Claude Sonnet 4.6 (Bedrock)
AWS Bedrock
1458$6.60$6.00
at Amazon Bedrock
−9%243
157Claude Sonnet 4.5 (latest)
Anthropic
1438$6.00$6.00240
158GPT-5.4 (Bedrock)
AWS Bedrock
1453$6.19$6.19235
159Grok 4
xAI
1410$6.00$6.00235
160GPT-5.6 Sol (Bedrock)
AWS Bedrock
1454$11.25$8.80
at Amazon Bedrock
−22%165
161Step 2 (16K)
StepFun
1321$8.02$8.02165
162Claude Opus 4.6
Anthropic
1497$10.00$10.00150
163Claude Opus 5Best value
Anthropic
1504$10.00$10.00150
164Claude Opus 5 (Bedrock)Best value
AWS Bedrock
1504$11.00$10.00
at Amazon Bedrock
−9%150
165Claude Opus 4.7
Anthropic
1483$10.00$10.00148
166Claude Opus 4.7 (Bedrock)
AWS Bedrock
1483$10.00$10.00148
167Claude Opus 4.8
Anthropic
1452$10.00$10.00145
168Claude Opus 4.8 (Bedrock)
AWS Bedrock
1452$10.00$10.00145
169Claude Opus 4.5 (latest)
Anthropic
1450$10.00$10.00145
170GPT-5.5
OpenAI
1466$11.25$11.25130
171GPT-5.5 (Bedrock)
AWS Bedrock
1466$12.38$12.38118
172Claude Fable 5
Anthropic
1495$20.00$20.0075
173Claude Fable 5 (Bedrock)
AWS Bedrock
1495$20.00$20.0075
174Claude Opus 4
Anthropic
1364$25.75$25.7553
175o1
OpenAI
1353$26.25$26.2552
176Claude Opus 4.1 (latest)
Anthropic
1418$30.00$30.0047
177GPT-4
OpenAI
1186$37.50$37.5032

Best prices are third-party listings via models.dev, restricted to first-party vendors, the major clouds and established inference hosts — not rates we verify with each provider the way we verify first-party pricing. Cheaper obscure resellers exist in the data and are shown on each model page, but we will not rank on them. Use this as a shortlist to check: confirm quantisation, context limit, rate limits and data policy before switching, because a cheaper host is not always serving the same thing. Blended price weights input and output 3:1.

Intelligence scores are community Arena ratings from LMArena / arena.ai, used under CC BY 4.0. Snapshot last refreshed 27 August 2026. Scores are a relative signal, not an absolute measure of capability. A Measured score was voted on directly; an Estimated score is inherited from an identical base model (a regional/creator-prefixed hosting duplicate). See our methodology.

FAQ

What does “best value” mean here?

Arena score divided by price per 1M tokens, blended 3:1 input to output — but priced at the cheapest major provider selling that model, not at the model vendor's list price. A model is also flagged “Best value” when it sits on the price/quality frontier: nothing we track is both smarter and cheaper.

Why is this different from other value rankings?

Everyone else divides quality by the lab's list price. That answers whether a vendor's own price is fair, not what the most intelligence per dollar is. The same open-weight model is often resold 10–25× cheaper, so ranking on list price systematically undervalues models with a competitive hosting market.

Are these cheaper prices trustworthy?

They are third-party listings collected from models.dev, not rates we verify with each host the way we verify first-party pricing. We only quote first-party vendors, the major clouds and established inference hosts — the feed contains cheaper obscure resellers, and we deliberately do not rank on those, though you can see them on each model page. Treat the table as a shortlist to check: confirm quantisation, context limit, rate limits and data policy before switching, because a cheaper host is not always serving the same thing.

How often is it updated?

The site rebuilds daily against live pricing, so both the list prices and the third-party listings refresh every day, and the ranking moves with them.

Related

Estimates for planning only. Verify current pricing with each provider. Data rebuilt daily · https://aicalculatorpro.com/best-value-llm/