Vibe Coding Academy

    Student guide · Reviewed 21 October 2026

    AI Model Comparison Guide

    Compare OpenAI, Claude, Gemini, Grok, DeepSeek and more by task, quality, speed and total cost, with linked API prices.

    Week 10 model-selection lab Browse the Tool Hub

    Reviewed 21 October 2026 · Next scheduled review: 20 November 2026 · Every 30 days

    Model comparison — 21 October 2026

    USD per 1 million uncached text tokens, standard API processing, reviewed 21 October 2026. Direct-provider rates unless a hosting provider is named under the model. These are not chat subscriptions, builder credits or a quote for this academy’s running costs. This is a curated shortlist, not every available model.

    Rates exclude tools, cache writes/storage, regional premiums and taxes. Reasoning/thinking tokens can increase output charges. Check each model’s official pricing link for context tiers, regional rates and introductory-price expiry dates. Gateway prices may differ.

    Current models with input and output API prices and best-suited tasks and app features
    ModelInput / Output
    per 1M tokens    		Best suited for
    GPT-6 Luna
    OpenAI
    Official pricing
    		$0.10 / $0.50
    • Budget-first chatbots and short summaries
    • Tagging, classification and extraction
    • Focused, high-volume app features
    GPT-6.1 Sol
    OpenAI
    Official pricing
    		$2.00 / $10.00
    • More complex assistants and tool-using agents
    • Coding and multi-step workflows
    Claude Haiku 5.5
    Anthropic
    Official pricing
    		$0.10 / $0.50
    • Classification, extraction and routing
    • High-volume, latency-sensitive features
    Claude Sonnet 5.5
    Anthropic
    Official pricing
    		$2.00 / $10.00
    • Everyday coding and tool-using workflows
    • Writing and knowledge-work tasks to evaluate against your style guide
    Claude Opus 5.5
    Anthropic
    Official pricing
    		$4.00 / $20.00
    • Long-running agentic coding
    • Complex knowledge work and difficult reasoning
    Gemini 3.8 Flash
    Google
    Official pricing
    		$0.75 / $3.75
    • Software engineering and autonomous agents
    • Multimodal app workflows
    Gemini 4 Argon
    Google
    Official pricing
    		$2.00 / $10.00
    • Complex software engineering and multi-step agents
    • Mathematical and scientific problem solving
    Grok 4.7
    xAI
    Official pricing
    		$2.00 / $6.00
    • Coding and agentic workflows
    • Knowledge work, tool calls and structured outputs
    DeepSeek-V4.1-Flash-1017
    DeepSeek
    Official pricing
    		$0.30 / $1.20
    • Budget thinking and non-thinking tasks
    • JSON output and tool calls
    DeepSeek-V4-Pro-0813
    DeepSeek
    Official pricing
    		$1.32 / $3.96
    • Thinking and non-thinking workflows
    • Tool calls and structured text outputs
    Qwen3.8 Max
    Alibaba Cloud Model Studio
    Official pricing
    		$2.00 / $6.00
    • Thinking and non-thinking text workflows
    • Apps using international Model Studio deployment
    Mistral Large 3
    Mistral
    Official pricing
    		$0.50 / $1.50
    • Document question answering
    • Structured outputs and function calling
    Mistral Small 4
    Mistral
    Official pricing
    		$0.15 / $0.60
    • Budget instruction following and coding
    • Reasoning, function calls and structured output
    Command A
    Cohere
    Official pricing
    		$2.50 / $10.00
    • Document-grounded retrieval and citations
    • Multilingual tool use and agents
    Llama 3.3 70B Instruct Turbo
    Together AI (Meta model)
    Official pricing
    		$1.04 / $1.04
    • Multilingual dialogue and instruction following
    • Apps evaluating hosted open-weight alternatives

    A budget example — not a savings promise

    Hypothetical workload: 10,000 requests per month, each with 1,000 uncached input tokens and 500 total billable output tokens. Standard short-context processing only; no retries, tools, caching, taxes or extra reasoning tokens. Equal token counts do not imply equal answer quality.

    Monthly text cost = requests × (input tokens × input rate + output tokens × output rate) ÷ 1,000,000

    ModelInput / Output per 1MEstimated monthly text cost
    GPT-6 Luna$0.10 / $0.50$3.50
    GPT-6.1 Sol$2.00 / $10.00$70.00
    Claude Haiku 5.5$0.10 / $0.50$3.50
    Claude Sonnet 5.5$2.00 / $10.00$70.00
    Claude Opus 5.5$4.00 / $20.00$140.00
    Gemini 3.8 Flash$0.75 / $3.75$26.25
    Gemini 4 Argon$2.00 / $10.00$70.00
    Grok 4.7$2.00 / $6.00$50.00
    DeepSeek-V4.1-Flash-1017$0.30 / $1.20$9.00
    DeepSeek-V4-Pro-0813$1.32 / $3.96$33.00
    Qwen3.8 Max$2.00 / $6.00$50.00
    Mistral Large 3$0.50 / $1.50$12.50
    Mistral Small 4$0.15 / $0.60$4.50
    Command A$2.50 / $10.00$75.00
    Llama 3.3 70B Instruct Turbo$1.04 / $1.04$15.60
    GPT-4o (legacy baseline)$2.50 / $10.00$75.00
    GPT-4.1 (legacy baseline)$2.00 / $8.00$60.00
    GPT-4o mini (legacy baseline)$0.15 / $0.60$4.50

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    Sources checked in this review

    Last verified: 21 October 2026. Automated source-grounded reviews are scheduled every 30 days. Prices can change between reviews; recheck official pages before committing, especially introductory rates, context tiers, availability and data-use terms. Failed reviews retain the last verified snapshot and do not reset its verification date.