LLM pricing, explained with data
Short, concrete explainers written from the same dataset the calculators use. Every number below is computed from 30 models' published prices, refreshed Oct 15, 2026 — not quoted from someone else's blog post.
How to estimate LLM API cost (and where the estimate goes wrong)
The arithmetic is the easy part. Choosing the inputs is where estimates fail.
Cached input pricing across LLM APIs
The single biggest lever on input-heavy bills — and the one most estimates ignore.
LLM pricing traps: tiers, promos, off-peak rates and cache writes
The headline rate is a starting point, not the bill.
Context window planning: what a 1M-token window actually costs
A big context window is a capacity limit, not a budget.
Use the data directly
Want these numbers in your own tooling?
Pro serves the same dataset as JSON and CSV, plus a bulk cost-estimation endpoint.
Pro pricing API docs