Cheapest AI models for coding

For autocomplete, small edits and high-volume code tasks, smaller models give most of the value at a fraction of the price.

Ordered from lowest price

Live TokenRex prices. Per 1M tokens for chat and embeddings; per unit for media.

#	Model	Input	Output / unit	Web search / 1K
1	GPT-5 Nano gpt-5-nano	$0.05	$0.40	$10.00
2	Gemini 2.5 Flash Lite gemini-2.5-flash-lite	$0.10	$0.40	$14.00
3	GPT-6 Luna gpt-6-luna	$0.10	$0.50	$10.00
4	GPT-5.6 Luna gpt-5.6-luna	$0.20	$1.20	$10.00
5	GPT-5.4 Nano gpt-5.4-nano	$0.20	$1.25	$10.00
6	Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite gemini-3.1-flash-lite	$0.25	$1.50	$14.00
7	GPT-5 Mini gpt-5-mini	$0.25	$2.00	$10.00
8	Gemini 2.5 Flash gemini-2.5-flash	$0.30	$2.50	$14.00
9	Gemini 3 Flash gemini-3-flash-preview	$0.50	$3.00	$14.00
10	Gemini 3.6 Flash gemini-3.6-flash	$0.75	$3.75	$14.00
11	Gemini 3.7 Flash gemini-3.7-flash	$0.75	$3.75	$14.00
12	Gemini 3.8 Flash gemini-3.8-flash	$0.75	$3.75	$14.00

How to choose

Route simple edits to a small model and escalate only hard tasks.
Keep prompts short and cache your system prompt.

Try it with one API key

curl https://tokenrex.ai/api/public/v1/chat/completions \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $TOKENREX_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"model":"gpt-5-nano","messages":[{"role":"user","content":"Hello"}]}'

Get API key Estimate cost

Head-to-head comparisons

Questions

How are these budget coding models ranked?: Models are listed from the live TokenRex catalog and ordered by current price. We do not publish invented quality scores; open a model page for source-linked benchmarks where they exist.
Can I switch models later?: Yes. Every model uses the same TokenRex API key and endpoint, so switching is a one-line change to the model ID.
Do prices include a markup?: Prices shown are the live TokenRex rates billed from your wallet. They update automatically when provider prices change.