AI API Pricing Comparison July 2026

[chawkian]

---

title: "AI API Pricing Comparison July 2026: 60+ Models, All Numbers"
published: true
tags: ai-pricing, cost, comparison, deepseek, gpt
canonical_url: https://aiwave.live/blog/ai-api-pricing-comparison-2026
description: "Complete AI API pricing comparison for July 2026. Chinese models from $0.005 to Western models at $15/1M tokens. Cost scenarios for 10K and 1M calls."

AI API Pricing Comparison July 2026: 60+ Models, All Numbers

Pricing is the most searched topic in the AI developer space. This page aggregates current per-token pricing for every model available on AIWave, plus major Western models for comparison.

How Pricing Works

All AI API pricing is per million tokens. A "token" is roughly 0.75 English words. Models charge separately for input and output, and output typically costs 2-5x more than input.

Chinese Models (via AIWave)

Model	Input ($/1M)	Output ($/1M)	Context	Best For
DeepSeek V4 Flash	$0.14	$0.28	1M	Bulk tasks, autocomplete
DeepSeek V4 Pro	$0.42	$0.84	1M	Complex coding
GLM-5	$0.20	$0.60	128K	Chinese content
Kimi K3	$0.30	$0.90	128K	General
Qwen 3.5 397B	$0.46	$0.92	128K	Balanced
Qwen 3.5 9B	$0.05	$0.10	128K	Cheapest capable
MiniMax M2.5	$0.30	$0.90	128K	General
ERNIE Tiny	$0.005	$0.01	8K	Classification
ERNIE 5.1	$0.60	$1.80	128K	Advanced Chinese

Prices from AIWave pricing. All models use OpenAI-compatible API format.

Western Models (for comparison)

Model	Input ($/1M)	Output ($/1M)	Context
GPT-4o	$2.50	$10.00	128K
GPT-4o Mini	$0.15	$0.60	128K
Claude Sonnet 4	$3.00	$15.00	200K
Claude Haiku	$0.25	$1.25	200K
Gemini 2.5 Pro	$1.25	$10.00	1M
Gemini 2.5 Flash	$0.15	$0.60	1M

Cost Scenarios

10K calls/month (3K in + 1K out each)

Model	Monthly	Annual
ERNIE Tiny	$0.08	$0.96
DeepSeek V4 Flash	$0.22	$2.64
GLM-5	$0.30	$3.60
DeepSeek V4 Pro	$0.64	$7.68
GPT-4o	$3.80	$45.60
Claude Sonnet 4	$5.70	$68.40

Formula: (3000/1M x input + 1000/1M x output) x 10000

1M calls/month

Model	Monthly
DeepSeek V4 Flash	$22
GLM-5	$30
GPT-4o	$380
Claude Sonnet 4	$570

Getting Started

All models above are available through AIWave with a single API key. No Chinese payment method needed. The $1 free credit covers thousands of queries across any model.

For the latest prices, check aiwave.live/pricing.

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Originally published on the AIWave Blog - one API for DeepSeek, GLM, Kimi, Qwen & 50+ Chinese AI models.

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Resources

• AIWave Python SDK

[michelle632713miller-ui]

I have a more favorable price, we can communicate with each other!