Choose a budget-friendly AI model in 5 minutes - compare Claude Opus 5 with alternatives by price and performance
Step-by-step calculation of actual request costs across three popular models using a free calculator - no registration required
- 1.Open the free API cost calculator on Digiqt (https://digiqt.com/tools/llm-cost-calculator/). You'll see a form to enter your request.
No registration needed. The tool runs in your browser.
Digiqt LLM Cost Calculator ↗ - 2.Copy and paste a real request you use often into the 'Prompt' text field. If you don't have an example, use this standard test request.
Use a request length typical for your case. The calculator counts tokens automatically (roughly 4 characters = 1 token).
Digiqt LLM Cost Calculator ↗PromptAnalyze the company's quarterly report and identify three main risks for investors. The document contains 30,000 words of text, tables, and charts.
What this prompt doesPaste this request into the calculator or replace it with your own. The calculator will show token count and cost for each model. - 3.In the 'Expected Output Length' field, specify how many tokens the response will use. For most scenarios, select 'Standard work' (roughly 1.2K output tokens). Press Enter or wait for automatic calculation.
The calculator counts input and output tokens separately because output is more expensive - an output token costs 3-10 times more than an input token on any model.
Digiqt LLM Cost Calculator ↗ - 4.In the results table, find three models: Claude Opus 5 (new, launched July 24, 2026), Claude Sonnet 5, and DeepSeek V4. Compare the 'Total Cost' column - it shows the price of one request in USD.
Opus 5 costs $5/$25 per million tokens (input/output), same as Opus 4.8. Sonnet 5 is noticeably cheaper at intro pricing $2/$10 (until August 31, 2026, then $3/$15). DeepSeek is even cheaper but less capable on complex reasoning tasks.
Digiqt LLM Cost Calculator ↗ - 5.Apply the 'Sorted cheapest first' filter. The calculator will reorder models from cheapest to most expensive. Read the note next to each model about what tasks it suits.
Budget models (DeepSeek, Gemini Flash) work great for classification and routing. Premium models (Opus 5, GPT-5.6) are needed for deep reasoning and complex code. Three-tier task routing typically cuts bills by 70-80% without losing quality.
Digiqt LLM Cost Calculator ↗ - 6.For quality comparison, open the second tab - the benchmarks table on the same Digiqt page. Opus 5 ranks in the top-3 for coding and analytics. Use the 'Value Score' filter (quality per dollar spent) to choose your model.
Opus 5 is the new smart model at Opus 4.8 pricing, so it's worth trying on important tasks. For everyday work, Sonnet 5 at intro pricing usually offers the best price-to-quality ratio.
Digiqt LLM Cost Calculator ↗
- freeDigiqt LLM Cost CalculatorFree online calculator with unlimited comparisons, no registration required.
- APIClaude Opus 5 APIPay-as-you-go: $5 per 1M input tokens and $25 per 1M output tokens (no minimum).
- APIClaude Sonnet 5 APIIntro pricing $2/$10 until August 31, 2026, then $3/$15 ongoing (pay-as-you-go).
- APIDeepSeek V4 Flash APIMost economical option: $0.14/$0.28 per 1M input/output tokens (pay-as-you-go).
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