Business & money
AI API Cost Calculator
Enter your traffic and prompt size to see what an AI feature really costs per month — and which model tier changes that.
Everyday workhorse
Estimated monthly cost
$292
- Per request
- $0.0096
- Per day
- $9.60
- Per year
- $3,504
- Monthly tokens
- 49M
Same traffic on every tier
| Model tier | Per request | Per month | Per year |
|---|---|---|---|
| Frontier large | $0.05 | $1,460 | $17,522 |
| Frontier mid | $0.0096 | $292 | $3,504 |
| Frontier small | $0.0026 | $77.88 | $935 |
| Budget mini | $0.0004 | $12.78 | $153 |
| Open-weights hosted | $0.0007 | $20.08 | $241 |
What usually blows the budget
Output tokens cost several times more than input tokens on most providers, so verbose answers — not long prompts — are the usual reason a bill triples. Long chat histories are the second: every turn re-sends the whole conversation as input. Capping response length, trimming history and routing easy requests to a smaller tier typically cuts spend more than switching providers.
Prices here are directional list rates per million tokens grouped by tier. Confirm current pricing with your provider before committing to a budget.