Cheapest open-weight LLMs
Mistral: Mistral Nemo is the cheapest option at $0.019 per million input tokens. Models whose weights you can download and run yourself. The API price here is what you pay to avoid operating the hardware.
157 models qualify
Ranked by blended cost - input weighted 75%, output 25%.
| # | Model | Blended / 1M | Input / 1M | Output / 1M | Context | Capabilities |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Nex-N2.5-Mini (free) Nex AGI | Free | Free | Free | 262K | Free tierReasoningToolsVisionOpen weights |
| 2 | Nex-N2.5-Pro (free) Nex AGI | Free | Free | Free | 262K | Free tierReasoningToolsVisionOpen weights |
| 3 | LFM2.5-2.6B (free) Liquid AI | Free | Free | Free | 66K | Free tierReasoningToolsOpen weights |
| 4 | North Mini Code (free) Cohere | Free | Free | Free | 256K | Free tierReasoningToolsOpen weights |
| 5 | Free | Free | Free | 256K | Free tierReasoningToolsVisionOpen weights | |
| 6 | Mistral Nemo Mistral AI | $0.022 | $0.019 | $0.030 | 131K | ToolsOpen weights |
| 7 | Ling 3.0 Flash inclusionAI | $0.032 | $0.021 | $0.063 | 262K | ReasoningToolsOpen weights |
| 8 | Granite 4.0 Micro IBM Granite | $0.041 | $0.017 | $0.112 | 131K | Open weights |
| 9 | Llama 3 8B Lunaris Sao10K | $0.042 | $0.040 | $0.050 | 8K | Open weights |
| 10 | gpt-oss-20b OpenAI | $0.055 | $0.030 | $0.130 | 131K | ReasoningToolsOpen weights |
| 11 | Mistral Small 3 Mistral AI | $0.057 | $0.050 | $0.080 | 33K | Open weights |
| 12 | Llama 3.1 8B Instruct Meta Llama | $0.057 | $0.050 | $0.080 | 131K | ToolsOpen weights |
| 13 | Schematron V2 Turbo Inference.net | $0.060 | $0.030 | $0.150 | 128K | Open weights |
| 14 | MythoMax 13B MythoMax 13B | $0.060 | $0.060 | $0.060 | 8K | Open weights |
| 15 | Gemma 3 4B | $0.063 | $0.050 | $0.100 | 131K | VisionOpen weights |
| 16 | gpt-oss-120b OpenAI | $0.070 | $0.037 | $0.170 | 131K | ReasoningToolsOpen weights |
| 17 | Llama 3.2 1B Instruct Meta Llama | $0.071 | $0.027 | $0.201 | 60K | Open weights |
| 18 | DeepSeek V4 Flash 0731 DeepSeek | $0.075 | $0.060 | $0.120 | 1.3M | ReasoningToolsOpen weights |
| 19 | Laguna XS 2.1 Poolside | $0.075 | $0.060 | $0.120 | 262K | Free tierReasoningToolsOpen weights |
| 20 | Gemma 3 12B | $0.075 | $0.050 | $0.150 | 131K | ToolsVisionOpen weights |
| 21 | Hy-MT2-1.8B Tencent | $0.077 | $0.044 | $0.177 | 8K | Open weights |
| 22 | $0.084 | $0.048 | $0.193 | 262K | ToolsOpen weights | |
| 23 | Nemotron 3 Nano 30B A3B NVIDIA | $0.087 | $0.050 | $0.200 | 262K | ReasoningToolsOpen weights |
| 24 | Phi 4 Microsoft | $0.088 | $0.070 | $0.140 | 16K | Open weights |
| 25 | Ling 3.0 Flash VL inclusionAI | $0.090 | $0.060 | $0.180 | 131K | Free tierReasoningToolsVisionOpen weights |
Frequently asked
What is the cheapest LLM for self-hostable models?
Mistral: Mistral Nemo at $0.019 per million input tokens and $0.030 per million output tokens, with a 131K token context window.
How many models qualify for self-hostable models?
157 of the 340 models tracked here meet the criteria for this list.
How much do prices vary within this category?
By roughly 240×, from Mistral Nemo at the bottom to Kimi K3 at the top.