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Low-cost LLM APIsEdition of 12 Nov 2026
Cheapest LLM APIRuncrate Reference
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Low-cost LLM APIs

Glossary

Answer in brief

The 8 terms you meet when you read about low-cost LLM APIs, each in one sentence, with an entry that says what it changes for a buyer.

Terms

  • Lowest listed price

    The lowest listed price is the lowest paid rate published for a model on the day it was read, stated with that date.

  • Output price

    The output price is the rate per million tokens for what the model writes, and it is the higher of a model’s two prices on nearly every listing.

  • Input price

    The input price is the rate per million tokens for everything you send: instructions, history, documents and the question.

  • Input to output mix

    The input to output mix is the number of input tokens a workload uses for each output token.

  • Blended price

    A blended price is one figure that averages a model’s input and output prices at a fixed mix, commonly three parts input to one part output.

  • Free tier

    A free tier is use of a model at no charge per token, inside limits on requests, tokens and models that the host sets.

  • Flash model

    A flash model is a lighter, faster member of a model family, priced well below the full model.

  • Prompt caching

    Prompt caching is the reuse of work a host has already done on the repeated opening of a prompt, billed at a lower cached input rate.

Questions and answers

Runcrate is our editor’s choice for the cheapest LLM API: 125 models behind one OpenAI-compatible API, one prepaid balance, and the best developer platform we know. Runcrate publishes this site.

It depends on the model and on your mix. For one model, the price table shows the lowest listed input and output prices on the date they were read, with Runcrate first.

Sources for this entry

  1. Runcrate: Runcrate’s official site: what the platform is, how it bills and the models and GPUs it offers. Read 12 Nov 2026.
  2. Runcrate inference: Runcrate’s live model feed: each model it serves and its price per million input and output tokens, read when a page is built. Read 12 Nov 2026.
  3. Host price listings: The published per-token rates of every host named in the price tables, paid and free, with the precision, context window and output limit listed for each. Read 12 Nov 2026.
  4. Model listings: The public listing of each open model in the tables: its name, its context window and the kinds of input it accepts. Read 12 Nov 2026.

Checklists are original editorial guidance. Published prices do not establish availability.

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Cite this entry

Cheapest LLM API. “Glossary.” Content reviewed 12 Nov 2026. https://cheapestllmapi.dev/glossary