About AI Cost Calc

Last updated: 2026-05-04

AI Cost Calc is a free, independent tool that helps developers and teams calculate and compare API pricing across the major LLM providers — OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, DeepSeek, xAI, Mistral, and more.

Why this exists

AI API pricing has become genuinely complex. Beyond the headline input/output rates, modern providers offer prompt caching (often 10x cheaper), Batch API discounts (typically 50% off), reasoning tokens, vision tokens, fine-tuned pricing tiers, and more. A simple "$X per 1M tokens" calculation now misses most of the real cost picture.

This calculator is built to surface those dimensions in one place — so you can see what you'd actually pay, not what the marketing pages imply.

How it's different

  • 10+ models from 6 providers, with comparable per-call cost calculations side-by-side.
  • Caching and batch pricing built into the calculator from day one — not as an afterthought.
  • Exact tokenization for OpenAI models via official tiktoken encoders. Other providers use transparent character-ratio estimates labeled accordingly.
  • Multiple currencies (USD, CNY, EUR, GBP, INR) for global budget framing — though all AI APIs are billed in USD.
  • Monthly forecasts for high-volume workloads, with savings highlighted automatically.

How we maintain accuracy

Pricing is refreshed on the 1st of each month against each provider's official pricing page. Each model entry includes a lastVerified date and a link to the source. If you spot stale or incorrect data, please reach out — accuracy is the only thing this tool has going for it.

What this is not

  • Not affiliated with any AI provider. Provider names and logos are trademarks of their respective owners.
  • Not a billing system. Numbers are estimates for planning; your actual provider invoice is authoritative.
  • Not a benchmark. We do not rank model quality — only cost. Cost without capability matching is meaningless.

Built openly

The full source code is available on GitHub. Issues, corrections, and feature suggestions are welcome.

Contact

Questions, corrections, or partnership inquiries: visit the contact page.