PRICE BOARD · VERIFIED OCT 10, 2026
AI inference cost, decoded
Inference cost is what you pay each time a model reads or writes tokens. In October 2026, Claude Sonnet 5.5 lists at $2 per million input tokens and $10 per million output tokens. Chinese models like Qwen3.8-Flash and DeepSeek V4.1-Flash charge $0.47 to $1.20 per million output tokens, so the same output can cost up to 95% less.
By Lucas Page, The ShanghAI Guy · Updated October 10, 2026
Free. Every Monday: one cost teardown and the price moves that matter.
PER 1M OUTPUT TOKENS
$0.47
Qwen3.8-Flash, Alibaba's open-weight workhorse. Claude Sonnet 5.5 charges $10.00 for the same million tokens.
Sources: Alibaba Cloud, Anthropic list prices, October 2026.
THE OCTOBER 2026 PRICE BOARD
Price per million tokens, cheapest output first
MODEL
WEIGHTS
$ IN / OUT
VS SONNET 5.5
Seed 2.0 Mini (ByteDance)
API
$0.10 / $0.40
-96%
Qwen3.8-Flash (Alibaba)
Open
$0.16 / $0.47
-95%
DeepSeek V4.1-Flash
Open
$0.30 / $1.20
-88%
MiniMax M3
Open
$0.33 / $1.32
-87%
Seed 2.0 Pro (ByteDance)
API
$0.50 / $3.00
-70%
DeepSeek V4-Pro
Open
$1.32 / $3.96
-60%
GLM-5.3 (Zhipu)
Open
$1.40 / $4.40
-56%
Qwen3.8-Max (Alibaba)
Open
$2.00 / $6.00
-40%
Claude Sonnet 5.5 (Anthropic)
Closed
$2.00 / $10.00
Reference
Kimi K3 (Moonshot)
Open
$3.00 / $15.00
+50%
Official list prices, standard tier, checked October 10, 2026. DeepSeek peak rates shown (off-peak is half). Batch processing and prompt caching cut these further. Always confirm with the provider before you sign.
REAL WORKLOADS, REAL BILLS
What our teardowns found
-84%
8-tool outbound stack
$550+ a month rebuilt for about $90 with n8n and open-weight models.
-97%
Localized video ads
$1,500 a month on HeyGen vs $34 with two Chinese models.
16x
Coding agent, same PR
$5.12 on Claude Code vs $0.31 on OpenCode + Qwen. September test, older model versions.
WHERE THE MONEY LEAKS
Three leaks in almost every AI budget
- Context re-reads: agents send every diff, file tree and test output back into the prompt, so volume compounds.
- Wrapper markups: many $50 to $100 a month tools are simple logic you can run on a $10 server.
- Premium models on easy tasks: drafting, extraction and classification rarely need a frontier model.
Cost teardowns from the newsletter
Start here: the essential cost reads
The $600 SaaS Tax: replacing an 8-tool outbound stack for $90/mo
HeyGen wants $1,500/mo for localized video ads. Two Chinese models do it for $34.
ByteDance just liquidated your $150/mo SaaS stack with Doubao Work
Related guides: Chinese AI models for business · Open-source LLMs for business · For CFOs · For CTOs
FAQ
What decision makers ask us
What is AI inference cost?
The price of running a trained model on your inputs, usually billed per million input tokens and per million output tokens. Output tokens cost more: 3x to 5x the input price on most models.
Why are AI agents so expensive to run?
Agents keep re-sending context: every diff, directory scan and test result goes back into the prompt. A heavy coding-agent session can burn hundreds of thousands of tokens, so the per-token price decides the bill.
How can I cut LLM costs without losing quality?
Route routine work (extraction, classification, drafts, boilerplate code) to open-weight models and keep a premium model for hard reasoning. Use prompt caching and batch processing, and run DeepSeek jobs off-peak at half price.
When does switching become worth it?
Once you have more than 5 engineers on coding agents, token bills above $1,500 a month, or agent loops running around the clock. Below that, start with routing and caching.
Are Chinese models always cheaper?
No. Kimi K3 charges $15 per million output tokens, 50% more than Claude Sonnet 5.5. Pick per workload, not per country.
Stop overpaying for tokens.
Free every Monday: one cost teardown and the price moves that matter.
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