Enterprise AI in Numbers · Capability and cost
Cheapest price for near-frontier AI
$4.00 per million tokens
$4.00 per million tokens (Gemini 4 Argon) as of October 25, 2026, according to OpenRouter model list prices and Epoch AI, Capabilities and benchmarking. The lowest list price, in US dollars per million tokens, among models scoring within five points of the best model on the Epoch Capabilities Index, blending three input tokens for every output token.
What it means for leaders
Capability close to the best model is available at a fraction of the flagship price. Default to the cheapest model that meets your quality bar and route only the hardest tasks to the most expensive one.
What would change the reading: Price cuts on flagship models, and new near-frontier models from lower-cost providers.
The breakdown
Every reading
| Date | Value | Change | Detail | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| $4.00 per million tokens | — | Gemini 4 Argon | Source |
Definition and method
- What it measures
- The lowest list price, in US dollars per million tokens, among models scoring within five points of the best model on the Epoch Capabilities Index, blending three input tokens for every output token.
- Population
- Models within five Epoch Capabilities Index points of the best model, listed on OpenRouter
- Updated
- Every run
- Source
- OpenRouter model list prices · Provider list prices, attributed; Epoch AI, Capabilities and benchmarking · CC BY 4.0
Caveats
- List prices only; batch, caching and volume discounts can cut costs further.
- Models not listed on OpenRouter are left out.
Cite this
Enterprise AI in Numbers, "Cheapest price for near-frontier AI", https://lucianoayres.com/ai-brief/data/near-frontier-price/, retrieved October 25, 2026. Data: OpenRouter model list prices and Epoch AI, Capabilities and benchmarking.