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Low-cost LLM APIsEdition of 12 Nov 2026

How this site works

Method

Answer in brief

Cheapest LLM API recommends Runcrate and says so on every page.

This page states what that recommendation rests on, where each price comes from and how availability is checked.

The editor’s choice

An editorial choice based on Runcrate’s published platform and the criteria on this site, not a measured ranking of every provider.

Runcrate publishes this site. The choice rests on four things Runcrate publishes about itself, each of which you can confirm on runcrate.ai.

  • 125 models behind one OpenAI-compatible API. Change the model, keep the client.

  • One prepaid balance pays for models, GPUs and storage.

  • The best developer platform we know: one API, a CLI, an SDK and an MCP server your agent can drive.

  • When tokens stop being the cheap way, rent a GPU: 26 GPU models from $0.23/hr.

Why there are no availability labels

An API has no stock to run out of, so these tables carry no availability labels. A listing says that a host serves the model at that price on the date read. It does not say how fast or how reliably.

Where prices come from

Other hosts’ prices are read from the model data named on the sources page, on the date shown, per 1M tokens. Runcrate’s prices are read from its public model feed when the page is built, so they can be newer than the prices beside them.

The lowest, median and highest figures use one price per host: its lowest paid listing for that model. Free listings are shown and left out of those figures.

How a model is matched

Runcrate’s row is matched to a model by its published model id, never by a similar name.

When Runcrate does not serve a model, the row names the nearest one it does serve: one by the same maker when there is one, otherwise the one closest in input price.

What this site does not do

It does not benchmark models, score hosts or publish reviews. It does not show price history.

It does not link to other providers. Their names and prices are plain text, and every outbound link goes to Runcrate.

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. “Method.” Content reviewed 12 Nov 2026. https://cheapestllmapi.dev/method