What is the cheapest LLM for chatbots?

The cheapest LLM suitable for chatbots is Japanese Stable Diffusion XL via Fireworks AI at $0.0001 per million tokens (blended rate). There are 200 models in this category.

Should I use an open-source LLM for chatbots?

There are 18 open-weight models available for chatbots. Open-weight LLMs like Llama and Mistral can be self-hosted for lower per-token costs at scale, but require infrastructure investment. For lower volumes, API-based providers often offer better value.

10 Best LLMs for Chatbots in 2026

The 10 best LLMs for chatbots in 2026, ranked by value. Compare chat-class models from OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, and more for building conversational AI at the best price.

200

Models Compared

$0.0001

Cheapest

1140

Top ELO

ELO-Rated

What is the best LLM for chatbots?

The best LLM for chatbots is Qwen3 Embedding 0 6B Batch via Deepinfra at $0.0037 per million tokens. With an Arena ELO of 1140, it offers the best balance of quality and cost. 200 models are compared across all providers.

What Makes a Good LLM for Chatbots?

Low latency for real-time conversation

Affordable per-token pricing at scale

Natural, coherent dialogue

Instruction following and safety alignment

Chatbots Models — Ranked by Value

200 models

Sorted by value: models with higher Arena ELO and lower price rank first. Models without ELO scores are sorted by cheapest price.

#	Model	Provider	Input	Output	Quality	Released↓
177	Allenai Olmocr 2 7B 1025	Deepinfra	$0.090	$0.190	—	Oct 25
200	Zai Org GLM 4.7 Flash	Deepinfra	$0.060	$0.400	—	Sep 1
53	GPT 5 Nano	Azure OpenAI	$0.050	$0.400	Strong	Aug 7
43	Qwen: Qwen3 Coder 30B A3B Instruct 30BOpen	Deepinfra	$0.070	$0.260	Good	Jul 14
97	Voxtral Mini 3B 2507	AWS Bedrock	$0.040	$0.040	—	Jul 1
89	Paddlepaddle Paddleocr VL	Novita AI	$0.020	$0.020	—	Jun 30
180	Baidu: ERNIE 4.5 21B A3B 21B	Novita AI	$0.070	$0.280	—	Jun 30
181	Baidu: ERNIE 4.5 21B A3B Thinking 21B	Novita AI	$0.070	$0.280	—	Jun 30
117	Baichuan Baichuan M2 32B	Novita AI	$0.070	$0.070	—	Jun 1
157	Minimax M1 80K	Fireworks AI	$0.100	$0.100	—	Jun 1
21	DeepSeek R1 0528 Qwen3 8B	Novita AI	$0.060	$0.090	Frontier	May 28
108	OpenAI: gpt-oss-20b 20B	Deepinfra	$0.030	$0.140	—	May 1
122	OpenAI: gpt-oss-120b 120B	Deepinfra	$0.039	$0.190	—	May 1
132	OpenAI: gpt-oss-120b (exacto) 120B	OpenRouter	$0.047	$0.228	—	May 1
171	OpenAI: gpt-oss-safeguard-20b 20B	AWS Bedrock	$0.070	$0.200	—	May 1
194	GPT Oss 20B 1 0	AWS Bedrock	$0.070	$0.300	—	May 1
1	Qwen3 Embedding 0 6B Batch	Deepinfra	$0.0050	Free	Good	Apr 28
3	Qwen3 Reranker 0 6B	Deepinfra	$0.010	Free	Good	Apr 28
4	Qwen3 Embedding 4B Batch	Deepinfra	$0.010	Free	Good	Apr 28
5	Qwen3 Embedding 8B	Deepinfra	$0.010	Free	Good	Apr 28
6	Qwen3 Embedding 0 6B	Deepinfra	$0.010	Free	Good	Apr 28
7	Qwen3 Embedding 4B	Deepinfra	$0.020	Free	Good	Apr 28
8	Qwen3 Reranker 4B	Deepinfra	$0.025	Free	Good	Apr 28
14	Qwen3 4B Fp8	Novita AI	$0.030	$0.030	Good	Apr 28
15	Qwen3 Embedding 8B Batch	Deepinfra	$0.040	Free	Good	Apr 28
17	Qwen3 Reranker 8B	Deepinfra	$0.050	Free	Good	Apr 28
26	Qwen3 8B Fp8	Novita AI	$0.035	$0.138	Good	Apr 28
29	Qwen3 235B A22b Instruct 2507	Deepinfra	$0.071	$0.100	Good	Apr 28
34	Qwen: Qwen3 235B A22B Instruct 2507 235BOpen	OpenRouter	$0.085	$0.120	Good	Apr 28
36	Qwen3 1.7b Fp8 Draft	Fireworks AI	$0.100	$0.100	Good	Apr 28
37	Qwen3 1.7b	Fireworks AI	$0.100	$0.100	Good	Apr 28
38	Qwen3 1.7b Fp8 Draft 40960	Fireworks AI	$0.100	$0.100	Good	Apr 28
39	Qwen3 1.7b Fp8 Draft 131072	Fireworks AI	$0.100	$0.100	Good	Apr 28
40	Qwen3 0.6b	Fireworks AI	$0.100	$0.100	Good	Apr 28
52	Qwen: Qwen3 14B 14BOpen	OpenRouter	$0.072	$0.288	Good	Apr 28
54	Qwen: Qwen3 30B A3B 30BOpen	Deepinfra	$0.080	$0.280	Good	Apr 28
55	Qwen: Qwen3 32B 32BOpen	Deepinfra	$0.080	$0.280	Good	Apr 28
130	qwen-turbo	Alibaba Cloud	$0.050	$0.200	—	Apr 28
44	Llama 4 Scout 17B 16e Instruct	Deepinfra	$0.080	$0.300	Frontier	Apr 5
144	Cogito V1 Preview Llama 3B	Fireworks AI	$0.100	$0.100	—	Apr 1
172	AllenAI: Olmo 2 32B Instruct 32B	OpenRouter	$0.060	$0.240	—	Mar 25
91	Google: Gemma 3n 4B 4B	Together AI	$0.020	$0.040	—	Mar 12
113	Phi 4 Multimodal Instruct	Deepinfra	$0.050	$0.100	—	Feb 26
196	Phi-4-mini-instruct	Azure OpenAI	$0.075	$0.300	—	Feb 26
199	Phi-4-mini-reasoning	Azure OpenAI	$0.080	$0.320	—	Feb 26
49	Gemini 2.0 Flash Lite Preview 02 05	Google	$0.075	$0.300	Strong	Feb 5
50	Gemini 2.0 Flash Lite 001	Google	$0.075	$0.300	Strong	Feb 5
51	Gemini 2.0 Flash Lite	Google	$0.075	$0.300	Strong	Feb 5
123	Command R7b 12 2024 7B	OpenRouter	$0.045	$0.180	—	Feb 3
31	DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 1.5b	Fireworks AI	$0.100	$0.100	Frontier	Jan 20

Best LLM for Other Use Cases

Cheapest Models Coding Summarization Creative Writing Data Extraction RAG Customer Support Code Review Translation AI Agents

Frequently Asked Questions

The #1 LLM for chatbots in 2026 is Qwen3 Embedding 0 6B Batch via Deepinfra at $0.0037 per million tokens. It has an Arena ELO of 1140, placing it among the highest-rated models. This top-10 ranking considers both quality (Arena ELO) and cost to find the best value across 23+ providers.