What AI used to cost — and what it costs now.
One consistent place to see how AI prices have moved, across text and creative work. The numbers live here; the why lives on our two sister sites.
Lean toward price, brains, speed or eco — watch the models climb and fall, and see your #1 pop up.
Text & token pricing
Per 1M tokens (input / output). Current published API rates, June 2026.
Snapshot — current rates
| Model | Input | Output |
|---|
The trend — input $ / 1M tokens over time
Log scale. Flagship input fell from $30 (GPT‑4, Mar 2023) toward ~$1, then ticked back up as frontier models grew more capable. The budget tier kept falling — and held near $0.10.
Why did a token ever cost that — and why is "cheap" so confusing? TokenScale explains it in real reading.
TokenScale →Image, video & audio pricing
Representative cost per usable unit — one image, one second of video, one minute of voice.
Snapshot — current rates
| Model | Unit | Price |
|---|
The trend — video $ / second (Veo, illustrative)
Illustrative, Google Veo 3.1 tiers (public pricing + creator reports, June 2026). Some API rates fell even as subscription plans felt tighter — the unit changed, not just the number.
One final image is rarely one generation. PixelScale shows the real project cost after retries, upscales and edits.
PixelScale →cheaper to reach GPT‑4‑class text in three years
GPT‑4 launched at $30 / $60 per 1M tokens in March 2023. By 2026 a capable budget model runs near $0.10 per 1M input — roughly a 300× drop for the cheapest tier, and about 12× lower at the frontier.
The twist worth remembering: the very newest flagships have started ticking up again. Cheaper isn't a straight line — it depends entirely on which tier you pick.
How to read this
Sources: OpenAI API pricing · Anthropic / Claude pricing · Google Gemini API pricing · Black Forest Labs · Runway · ElevenLabs · public provider docs and creator reports, checked June 2026.