Features
- Workload-driven: 3 sliders (req/mo, avg input tokens, avg output tokens) define the calculation
- 24 curated models across 8 providers + entire live OpenRouter catalog (370+ models)
- Provider sub-filter dropdown on OpenRouter tab + search box
- Sorted horizontal bar chart with cost-per-request and monthly totals
- Flat-plan break-even card: ChatGPT Plus, Pro, Claude Pro/Max, Cursor, GitHub Copilot
- Optional 50% prompt-cache discount toggle on input portion
- Preset workloads: Side project, Indie SaaS, Production, RAG/long-context
- Copy results as Markdown table or download as CSV
- No API keys required — pure arithmetic on baked-in pricing
- Dark mode and offline PWA shell
How it works
- Open freeaicostcalculator.app in any browser
- Set requests per month, average input tokens, average output tokens (or click a preset)
- Pick 1-12 models from the picker (curated tabs or full OpenRouter catalog)
- Read the sorted bar chart and table — cheapest model floats to the top
- Check the flat-plan break-even card to see if a $20-200/mo subscription beats your API spend
Common use cases
- Sizing API spend before committing to a model for a new product
- Comparing Claude vs GPT vs Gemini cost at your specific workload
- Deciding between paying API rates and a flat plan (ChatGPT Pro, Claude Max, etc.)
- Budgeting RAG / long-context workloads where input dominates cost
- Quarterly cost reviews — re-run with current usage to spot savings
How it compares
OpenAI's pricing page covers OpenAI only; Anthropic's, Google's, and others each cover one provider. freeaicostcalculator.app is the only free, browser-based calculator that compares 370+ models across 8 providers in one workload, with a flat-plan break-even check built in. Distinct from freetokencounter.app (which answers "how much does this specific text cost?") — this calculator answers the workload/budgeting question: "at N requests/month with M tokens average, what is my monthly bill across these models?"
Privacy
freeaicostcalculator.app does not call any AI provider. The only network request is a public, unauthenticated GET to OpenRouter's models endpoint (no key required) to populate the live catalog. No personal data is sent anywhere. Pure arithmetic in your browser.
Frequently asked questions
What is freeaicostcalculator.app?
freeaicostcalculator.app is a free, browser-based calculator that estimates your monthly LLM API spend across multiple AI models. You enter three numbers — requests per month, average input tokens per request, average output tokens per request — and pick which models to compare. The calculator shows per-model monthly cost, a horizontal bar chart, and a flat-plan break-even check against ChatGPT Plus, Claude Pro, Cursor and GitHub Copilot.
How does freeaicostcalculator.app calculate cost?
Per-request cost equals (input tokens × input rate + output tokens × output rate) divided by one million, using each model's published per-million pricing. Monthly cost equals per-request cost multiplied by your requests-per-month input. The calculator does not call any AI provider — it is pure arithmetic on baked-in pricing data plus the live OpenRouter catalog fetched at page load.
How is this different from freetokencounter.app?
freetokencounter.app answers the question "how much does this specific text cost when sent to model X?" — you paste a prompt and see its tokens and the cost of that single call. freeaicostcalculator.app answers a different question: "if I run a workload of N requests per month at average M tokens per request, what is my total monthly bill across these models?" One is for a specific prompt in your hand; the other is for planning and budgeting before you have a prompt.
Which models does freeaicostcalculator.app support?
The curated catalog covers Anthropic (Claude Opus 4.7, Sonnet 4.6, Haiku 4.5), Google (Gemini 2.5 Pro, 2.5 Flash, 2.0 Flash), xAI (Grok 4, Grok 4 Fast, Grok 3), Mistral (Large 2, Medium 3, Small 3.1), DeepSeek (V3.1, R1), Groq-hosted Llama (Llama 4 Scout 17B, 3.3 70B, 3.1 8B), Cohere (Command A, R+, R) and OpenAI via OpenRouter (GPT-5, GPT-5 mini, GPT-4.1, o4-mini). On top of that, the OpenRouter tab loads the entire live catalog — 370+ models with pricing pulled directly from OpenRouter at page load.
Should I use a flat plan like ChatGPT Plus instead of paying API rates?
It depends on usage. ChatGPT Plus is $20 per month, ChatGPT Pro is $200 per month, Claude Pro is $20 per month, Claude Max is $100 or $200 per month, Cursor Pro is $20 per month, GitHub Copilot is $10 to $19 per month. freeaicostcalculator.app shows your projected API spend alongside these flat plans so you can spot break-even points. The honest caveat: flat plans are rate-limited chat products, not raw API access — they are not directly comparable when you need full programmatic access for a product or pipeline.
Are the prices accurate?
freeaicostcalculator.app uses each provider's published per-million input and output rates baked into a static pricing object, plus the live OpenRouter catalog fetched on page load. Prices change occasionally; for production budgeting always verify against the provider's current pricing page. The pricing data is dated in the status bar so you can see how fresh it is.
Does freeaicostcalculator.app need an API key?
No. freeaicostcalculator.app does not call any AI provider — it is a pure calculator. The only network request is a public, unauthenticated GET to OpenRouter's models endpoint (no key required) to populate the live catalog. No personal data is sent anywhere.
Can I model prompt caching?
Yes. freeaicostcalculator.app has an optional toggle that applies a 50% effective discount on the input portion of cost, modeling a typical cached-prompt workload. It is a simplification — actual cache savings depend on hit rate and provider (OpenAI typically 50%, Anthropic prompt cache up to 90% on cached portion). For precise modeling, run the calculation twice with different multipliers and split your traffic accordingly.