How many frontier LLM models are available?

There are currently 154 frontier models tracked on Sector HQ. Pricing is collected every 6 hours from all major inference providers.

How is blended price calculated?

Blended price uses the formula (3 × input + 1 × output) / 4 per million tokens, reflecting typical usage where input tokens outnumber output tokens roughly 3:1.

Cheapest Frontier-Grade LLM APIs in 2026

The most capable LLMs available — GPT-4o, Claude, Gemini Pro, and other frontier models. Compare pricing across providers.

What is the cheapest frontier-grade LLM?

The cheapest frontier-grade LLM API is DeepSeek R1 0528 Qwen3 8B via Novita AI at $0.068 per million tokens. 154 frontier models are compared across all providers.

Frontier-Grade Models by Price

154 models

#	Model	Provider	Input	Output	Quality	Released↓
121	Claude Sonnet 4.6 Default	Google Vertex AI	$3.00	$15.00	Frontier	Feb 5
122	Claude Sonnet 4.6	Anthropic	$3.00	$15.00	Frontier	Feb 5
132	Claude Opus 4.6 Default	Google Vertex AI	$5.00	$25.00	Frontier	Feb 5
134	Claude Opus 4.6	Azure OpenAI	$5.00	$25.00	Frontier	Feb 5
136	Claude Opus 4.6 V1	AWS Bedrock	$5.50	$27.50	Frontier	Feb 5
54	Gemini 3 Flash Preview	Google	$0.500	$3.00	Frontier	Jan 1
96	Gemini 3 Pro	Replicate	$2.00	$12.00	Frontier	Jan 1
97	Gemini 3 Pro Image Preview	Google	$2.00	$12.00	Frontier	Jan 1
98	Gemini 3 Pro Preview	Google Vertex AI	$2.00	$12.00	Frontier	Jan 1
100	GPT 5.2 Chat Latest	OpenAI	$1.75	$14.00	Frontier	Dec 11
103	GPT 5.2 Chat	Azure OpenAI	$1.75	$14.00	Frontier	Dec 11
104	GPT 5.2 Codex	OpenAI	$1.75	$14.00	Frontier	Dec 11
105	GPT 5 2	Azure OpenAI	$1.75	$14.00	Frontier	Dec 11
151	GPT 5.2 Pro	OpenAI	$21.00	$168.00	Frontier	Dec 11
12	DeepSeek: DeepSeek V3.2 Exp Open	Deepinfra	$0.210	$0.320	Frontier	Dec 1
17	DeepSeek V3.2	Deepinfra	$0.260	$0.380	Frontier	Dec 1
34	DeepSeek V3.2 Speciale	OpenRouter*	$0.480	$1.44	Frontier	Dec 1
40	accounts/fireworks/models/deepseek-v3p2	Fireworks AI	$0.560	$1.68	Frontier	Dec 1
33	GPT 5.1 Codex Mini	Azure OpenAI	$0.250	$2.00	Frontier	Nov 13
71	GPT 5.1 Codex Max	Azure OpenAI	$1.25	$10.00	Frontier	Nov 13
74	GPT 5.1 Codex	OpenAI	$1.25	$10.00	Frontier	Nov 13
76	GPT 5 1	Azure OpenAI	$1.25	$10.00	Frontier	Nov 13
78	GPT 5.1 Chat	Azure OpenAI	$1.25	$10.00	Frontier	Nov 13
80	GPT 5.1 Chat Latest	OpenAI	$1.25	$10.00	Frontier	Nov 13
133	Claude Opus 4.5	AWS Bedrock	$5.00	$25.00	Frontier	Nov 1
70	GPT 5 Search Api	OpenAI	$1.25	$10.00	Frontier	Oct 14
150	GPT 5 Pro	OpenAI	$15.00	$120.00	Frontier	Oct 6
124	Claude Sonnet 4.5	Azure OpenAI	$3.00	$15.00	Frontier	Sep 29
32	GPT 5 Mini	OpenAI	$0.250	$2.00	Frontier	Aug 7
65	OpenAI: GPT-5 Image Mini	OpenRouter*	$3.00	$2.40	Frontier	Aug 7
72	GPT 5 Chat	Azure OpenAI	$1.25	$10.00	Frontier	Aug 7
75	GPT 5 Codex	OpenAI	$1.25	$10.00	Frontier	Aug 7
81	GPT 5 Chat Latest	Azure OpenAI	$1.25	$10.00	Frontier	Aug 7
83	GPT 5	OpenAI	$1.25	$10.00	Frontier	Aug 7
137	OpenAI: GPT-5 Image	OpenRouter*	$12.00	$12.00	Frontier	Aug 7
147	Claude Opus 4.1	Azure OpenAI	$15.00	$75.00	Frontier	Aug 5
88	O4 Mini Deep Research	OpenAI	$2.00	$8.00	Frontier	Jun 26
143	o3 Deep Research	OpenAI	$10.00	$40.00	Frontier	Jun 26
149	O3 Pro	Azure OpenAI	$20.00	$80.00	Frontier	Jun 10
16	Nex AGI: DeepSeek V3.1 Nex N1	OpenRouter*	$0.162	$0.600	Frontier	Jun 1
1	DeepSeek R1 0528 Qwen3 8B	Novita AI	$0.060	$0.090	Frontier	May 28
9	DeepSeek R1 0528 Distill Qwen3 8B	Fireworks AI	$0.200	$0.200	Frontier	May 28
23	DeepSeek: DeepSeek V3.1 Terminus Open	Deepinfra	$0.210	$0.790	Frontier	May 28
24	DeepSeek V3.1	Deepinfra	$0.210	$0.790	Frontier	May 28
25	DeepSeek: DeepSeek V3.1 Terminus (exacto) Open	OpenRouter*	$0.252	$0.948	Frontier	May 28
41	accounts/fireworks/models/deepseek-v3p1	Fireworks AI	$0.560	$1.68	Frontier	May 28
50	DeepSeek: R1 0528 Open	Deepinfra	$0.500	$2.15	Frontier	May 28
117	Claude 4 Sonnet	Replicate	$3.00	$15.00	Frontier	May 22
123	Claude Sonnet 4	Google Vertex AI	$3.00	$15.00	Frontier	May 22
146	Claude 4 Opus	Anthropic	$15.00	$75.00	Frontier	May 22

* Prices include ~20% OpenRouter platform fee (verified against actual billing).

All Models Open Weight Chat Embedding

Frequently Asked Questions

The cheapest frontier-grade LLM API is DeepSeek R1 0528 Qwen3 8B via Novita AI at $0.068 per million tokens (blended rate). There are 154 frontier models available.