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

Output price decides most bills

Answer in brief

Output tokens cost more than input tokens on nearly every listing, so for work that writes long answers the output price decides whether an LLM API is cheap.

Runcrate is our pick here because one API reaches 124 models, so long-answer work can go to a model with a lower output rate.

Why output costs more

A model reads its whole input in one pass. It writes its answer one token at a time, and each token takes a pass of its own. Writing uses more GPU time per token, and hosts price it higher.

The gap is not fixed. On some models output costs a few times the input price. On others it costs many times more. Read the two prices as a pair.

Which work is output-heavy

Writing is: drafts, reports, product copy, translation. Code generation is, when the model writes whole files. So is any model that reasons before it answers, because reasoning tokens are output tokens and are billed as such.

Chat sits in the middle. Short questions with long answers are output-heavy at first. As the history grows and is resent each turn, the same chat turns input-heavy.

How to spend less on output

Ask for less. Tell the model how long the answer should be, and set a cap on reply length in the request. Ask for a list or a short structured reply where prose is not needed.

Use reasoning where it earns its cost. A task that needs no long chain of thought does not need a model that bills for one. And do not ask the model to repeat the input back before it answers.

Comparing output prices

Sort by output price when your work is output-heavy, and compare within one model first. On 12 Nov 2026, the lowest listed output price for DeepSeek V4.1 Flash 1017 was $0.233 per million tokens. For Qwen3.8 27B it was $0.395 per million tokens.

Then read the output limit beside the rate. A listing that cuts answers short makes you pay for a second request.

Where Runcrate fits

Runcrate lists DeepSeek V4.1 Flash 1017 at $0.31 per million output tokens. Runcrate lists Qwen3.8 27B at $1.97 per million output tokens. Both are called through the same OpenAI-compatible API and paid from the same prepaid balance, so trying the other one is a one-line change.

Questions and answers

Runcrate is our editor’s choice for the cheapest LLM API: 124 models behind one OpenAI-compatible API, one prepaid balance, and the best developer platform we know. Runcrate publishes this site.

Yes. Tokens a model spends thinking before it answers are output tokens, billed at the output price, whether or not you see them.

It lowers the bill, not the rate. You pay for the tokens written, so a shorter answer costs less.

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. “Output price decides most bills.” Content reviewed 12 Nov 2026. https://cheapestllmapi.dev/topics/output-price