Cheapest Coding APIs
Ranked by input price per 1M tokens, refreshed hourly. Free models first.
The cheapest Coding API right now is Qwen: Qwen3 Coder 480B A35B (free) (qwen): Free/1M input tokens.
Price Ranking
| # | Model | Vendor | Input /1M | Output /1M | Intelligence | Context | CPS | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Qwen: Qwen3 Coder 480B A35B (free) | qwen | Free | Free | — | 1.0M | — | Details → |
| 2 | Cohere: North Mini Code (free) | cohere | Free | Free | — | 256K | — | Details → |
| 3 | Anthropic: Claude Haiku 5.5 (batch) | anthropic | $0.05 | $0.25 | — | 1.0M | — | Details → |
| 4 | Qwen: Qwen3 Coder 30B A3B Instruct | qwen | $0.07 | $0.28 | 10 | 262K | B | Details → |
| 5 | Anthropic: Claude Haiku 5.5 | anthropic | $0.10 | $0.50 | 43 | 1.0M | A | Details → |
| 6 | Mistral: Devstral Small 1.1 | mistralai | $0.10 | $0.30 | 8 | 131K | B | Details → |
| 7 | Qwen: Qwen3 Coder Next | qwen | $0.12 | $0.80 | 9 | 262K | B | Details → |
| 8 | Kwaipilot: KAT-Coder-Air V2.5 | kwaipilot | $0.15 | $0.60 | — | 256K | — | Details → |
| 9 | Mistral: Codestral 2508 (batch) | mistralai | $0.15 | $0.45 | — | 256K | — | Details → |
| 10 | Qwen: Qwen3 Coder Flash | qwen | $0.20 | $0.97 | — | 1.0M | — | Details → |
| 11 | xAI: Grok Code Fast 1 | x-ai | $0.20 | $1.50 | 14 | 256K | B | Details → |
| 12 | OpenAI: GPT-5.1-Codex-Mini | openai | $0.25 | $2.00 | 20 | 400K | A | Details → |
FAQ
What is the cheapest Coding model?
By input price, it is Qwen: Qwen3 Coder 480B A35B (free) (Free/1M tokens, qwen). Full ranking above, refreshed hourly.
Are there free models?
Yes. Models marked "Free" have $0 input pricing, usually rate-limited — good for dev/test. For production, pick S/A CPS-grade paid models.
How do I choose a Coding model?
Shortlist by price here, then check intelligence/coding index and context fit, and use head-to-head comparisons for the final call.