Background
Market report · data through 2026-08-21

The state of AI pricing, measured.

Every list-price movement across 22 providers and 66 tracked tiers, counted from the nightly record. No estimates and no forecasts: this page recomputes from the same append-only history as the rest of the site, and refreshes with every nightly build.

87
list-price movements recorded across 66 tiers since May 2026
21
price cuts
27
price raises
39
model swaps: a slot changing model, not a repricing

The last 30 days

22 movements in the window 2026-07-23 to 2026-08-21, across 66 tracked tiers.

DateProviderTierWas (in / out)Now (in / out)What
2026-08-18DeepSeekV4 Flash · Lite$0.14 / $0.28$0.44 / $1.32raise
in +214%, out +371%
2026-08-18DeepSeekV4 Pro · Mid$0.435 / $0.87$1.32 / $3.96raise
in +203%, out +355%
2026-08-18DeepSeekV4 Pro · Pro$0.435 / $0.87$1.32 / $3.96raise
in +203%, out +355%
2026-08-18GroqGPT-OSS 20B · Lite$0.05 / $0.08$0.075 / $0.3model swap
2026-08-18GroqGPT-OSS 120B · Mid$0.59 / $0.79$0.15 / $0.6model swap
2026-08-12OpenRouterDeepSeek V3 · Mid$0.2574 / $1.03$0.24 / $0.9cut
in −7%, out −13%
2026-08-11AWS BedrockLlama 4 Maverick 17B (Bedrock) · Pro$2.40 / $2.40$0.24 / $0.97model swap
2026-08-10OpenRouterDeepSeek V3 · Mid$0.2002 / $0.8001$0.2574 / $1.03raise
in +29%, out +29%
2026-08-10xAI GrokGrok 4.5 · Pro$1.25 / $2.50$2.00 / $6.00model swap
2026-08-10MetaMuse Spark 1.2 · Lite$0.11 / $0.34$1.25 / $4.25model swap
2026-08-10MetaMuse Spark 1.2 · Mid$0.15 / $0.6$1.25 / $4.25model swap
2026-08-10MetaMuse Spark 1.2 · Pro$0.15 / $0.6$1.25 / $4.25model swap
2026-07-31DeepInfraLlama 3.1 8B · Lite$0.02 / $0.03$0.02 / $0.04raise
out +33%
2026-07-31OpenRouterDeepSeek V3 · Mid$0.2288 / $0.9144$0.2002 / $0.8001cut
in −13%, out −12%
2026-07-30
verified 2026-08-12
OpenAIGPT-5.6 Luna · Lite$1.00 / $6.00$0.2 / $1.20cut
in −80%, out −80%
2026-07-30
verified 2026-08-12
OpenAIGPT-5.6 Terra · Mid$2.50 / $15.00$2.00 / $12.00cut
in −20%, out −20%
2026-07-28Google GeminiFlash-Lite 3.5 · Lite$0.1 / $0.4$0.3 / $2.50model swap
2026-07-28Google GeminiFlash 3.6 · Mid$1.50 / $9.00$1.50 / $7.50model swap
2026-07-28OpenAIGPT-5.6 Luna · Lite$0.75 / $4.50$1.00 / $6.00model swap
2026-07-28GroqGPT-OSS 120B · Pro$1.00 / $3.00$0.15 / $0.6model swap
2026-07-28Alibaba QwenQwen3.6-Flash · Lite$0.165 / $0.99$0.25 / $1.50raise
in +52%, out +52%
2026-07-28Moonshot KimiKimi K3 · Pro$1.90 / $8.00$3.00 / $15.00model swap

Scroll the table sideways to see every column.

A movement that coincides with a recorded model change in that slot is classed as a model swap, not a repricing: the rate moved because the model behind the tier changed. The tier column shows the current occupant of the slot. The dated story behind each move is on Price Moves; retired models rest in the Model Graveyard. A date with a quieter verified line beneath it is dated by when the price actually changed at the provider; TokenScale's nightly check confirmed it later, on the verified date.

Where the market sits

The median tracked rate rose in every tier class over the last 30 days: Lite input +51% and output +70%; Mid input +32% and output +104%; Pro input +3% and output +13%.

Tier classMedian now (in / out)30 days ago (in / out)
Lite · 22 providers$0.275 / $1.15$0.1825 / $0.675
Mid · 22 providers$1.02 / $2.85$0.775 / $1.40
Pro · 22 providers$1.87 / $4.45$1.82 / $3.94

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Median of list prices across providers tracked on both dates. Medians move only when enough of the market moves: that is the point of quoting them.

The cheapest tracked rate is Llama 3.1 8B on DeepInfra at $0.02 per 1M input tokens. The priciest tracked flagship is Claude Fable 5 at $10.00: a spread of about 500× for a million tokens of input. Capability differs as widely as price; the full ranking lists every provider.

In content terms: the cheapest tracked way to generate The Hobbit (95,356 words ≈ 127,141 tokens) as output is $0.0051 on Llama 3.1 8B (DeepInfra).

The ledger, month by month

MonthMovementsCutsRaisesModel swaps
May 202622994
June 202615591
July 2026386527
August 202612147

Scroll the table sideways to see every column.

Nightly tracking began mid-May 2026, so May is a partial month. A movement dated in May can also be the first verified reading catching up with an earlier change. Historical rows are never rewritten.

About these numbers. Prices are checked nightly against each provider’s official pricing page and recorded in an append-only history (data through 2026-08-21). List prices only: promotions never enter the record. A cut lowers input and output (or one of them, with the other flat); a raise is the reverse; a movement that coincides with a recorded model change is a swap. Some movements are published corrections of the record’s own earlier reading; each is labelled as such on Price Moves. Corrections are published, not buried: see the methodology and the reliability record.

More pricing pages