How much does an AI agent cost per month? (2026-10-16)

Monthly API cost of an AI agent running 1,000 multi-step tasks a day on each major model.

Bottom line: cheapest is Meta: Llama 3.2 1B Instruct at about $41.90/month; the median model costs $1,017/month; the most expensive, Anthropic: Claude Fable 5, costs $13,566/month. That is a 324× spread for the same workload.

Scenario: AI agent: 1,000 tasks/day × 30 days × 8 steps per task, 3,000 words of context in / 250 words out per step.

VendorModelIn $/1MOut $/1MEst. monthly costSource / check
Meta (Llama)Meta: Llama 3.2 1B Instruct$0.027$0.201$41.90source 2026-10-16 ✔ matches
Meta (Llama)Meta: Llama 3.1 8B Instruct$0.05$0.08$54.26source 2026-10-16 ✔ matches
DeepSeekDeepSeek: DeepSeek V4 Flash 0731$0.0111$0.64$61.70source 2026-10-16 ℹ vs market median ($0.14/$0.4785)
DeepSeekDeepSeek: DeepSeek V4.1 Flash$0.018$0.684$71.82source 2026-10-16 ⚠ differs from lab price ($0.15/$0.6)
Meta (Llama)Meta: Llama 3.2 3B Instruct$0.05$0.33$74.21source 2026-10-16 ✔ matches
DeepSeekDeepSeek: DeepSeek V4 Flash 0423$0.091$0.182$101.67source 2026-10-16 ℹ vs market median ($0.14/$0.28)
MistralMistral: Ministral 3 3B 2512$0.1$0.1$103.74source 2026-10-16 ✔ matches
AnthropicAnthropic: Claude Haiku 5.5$0.1$0.5$135.66source 2026-10-16 ✔ matches
OpenAIOpenAI: GPT-6 Luna Pro$0.1$0.5$135.66source 2026-10-16 ✔ matches
OpenAIOpenAI: GPT-6 Luna$0.1$0.5$135.66source 2026-10-16 ✔ matches
MistralMistral: Ministral 3 8B 2512$0.15$0.15$155.61source 2026-10-16 ✔ matches
Meta (Llama)Meta: Llama Guard 4 12B$0.18$0.18$186.73source 2026-10-16 ✔ matches
MistralMistral: Mistral Small 4$0.15$0.6$191.52source 2026-10-16 ✔ matches
MistralMistral: Ministral 3 14B 2512$0.2$0.2$207.48source 2026-10-16 ✔ matches
Meta (Llama)Meta: Llama 4 Scout$0.18$0.59$219.45source 2026-10-16 ℹ vs market median ($0.1/$0.3139)
Meta (Llama)Meta: Llama 4 Maverick$0.1875$0.6525$231.62source 2026-10-16 ℹ vs market median ($0.2546/$0.85)
DeepSeekDeepSeek: DeepSeek V4 Flash Vision Exp$0.2156$0.6468$258.07source 2026-10-16 ℹ vs market median ($0.3321/$0.9963)
DeepSeekDeepSeek: DeepSeek V3.2 Exp$0.27$0.41$291.27source 2026-10-16 ⚠ differs from lab price ($0.28/$0.42)
DeepSeekDeepSeek: DeepSeek V3.2$0.259$0.8$311.86source 2026-10-16 ⚠ differs from lab price ($0.28/$0.42)
GoogleGoogle: Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite$0.25$1.5$359.10source 2026-10-16 ✔ matches
Meta (Llama)Meta: Llama 3.1 70B Instruct$0.4$0.4$414.96source 2026-10-16 ℹ vs market median ($0.4/$0.56)
GoogleGoogle: Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite$0.3$2.5$486.78source 2026-10-16 ✔ matches
MistralMistral: Devstral 2 2512$0.4$2.0$542.64source 2026-10-16 ✔ matches
MistralMistral: Mistral Large 3 2512$0.5$1.5$598.50source 2026-10-16 ✔ matches
Meta (Llama)Meta: Llama 3.3 70B Instruct$0.59$0.79$628.03source 2026-10-16 ℹ vs market median ($0.5683/$0.72)
DeepSeekDeepSeek: DeepSeek V4 Pro 0813$0.66$1.98$790.02source 2026-10-16 ✔ matches
MistralMistral: Mistral Large 4$0.68$2.09$817.95source 2026-10-16 ✔ matches
GoogleGoogle: Gemini 3.7 Flash$0.75$3.75$1,017source 2026-10-16 ✔ matches
GoogleGoogle: Gemini 3.6 Flash$0.75$3.75$1,017source 2026-10-16 ✔ matches
DeepSeekDeepSeek: DeepSeek V4 Pro 0423$0.9553$1.9105$1,067source 2026-10-16 ⚠ differs from lab price ($0.66/$1.98)
xAISpaceXAI: Grok Build 0.1$1.0$2.0$1,117source 2026-10-16 ✔ matches
GoogleGoogle: Gemini 3.8 Flash$0.825$4.125$1,119source 2026-10-16 ⚠ differs from lab price ($0.75/$3.75)
xAISpaceXAI: Grok 4.3$1.25$2.5$1,396source 2026-10-16 ✔ matches
xAISpaceXAI: Grok 4.20 Multi-Agent$1.25$2.5$1,396source 2026-10-16 ✔ matches
xAISpaceXAI: Grok 4.20$1.25$2.5$1,396source 2026-10-16 ✔ matches
GoogleGoogle: Nano Banana 2.1$1.5$7.5$2,035source 2026-10-16 no 2nd source
MistralMistral: Mistral Medium 3.5$1.5$7.5$2,035source 2026-10-16 ✔ matches
GoogleGoogle: Gemini 3.5 Flash$1.5$9.0$2,155source 2026-10-16 ✔ matches
xAISpaceXAI: Grok 4.7$2.0$6.0$2,394source 2026-10-16 ✔ matches
xAISpaceXAI: Grok 4.6$2.0$6.0$2,394source 2026-10-16 ✔ matches
xAISpaceXAI: Grok 4.5$2.0$6.0$2,394source 2026-10-16 ✔ matches
GoogleGoogle: Gemini 4 Argon$2.0$10.0$2,713source 2026-10-16 no 2nd source
OpenAIOpenAI: GPT-6.1 Sol Pro$2.0$10.0$2,713source 2026-10-16 ✔ matches
OpenAIOpenAI: GPT-6.1 Sol$2.0$10.0$2,713source 2026-10-16 ✔ matches
AnthropicAnthropic: Claude Sonnet 5.5$2.0$10.0$2,713source 2026-10-16 ✔ matches
OpenAIOpenAI: GPT-6 Sol Pro$2.0$10.0$2,713source 2026-10-16 ✔ matches
OpenAIOpenAI: GPT-6 Sol$2.0$10.0$2,713source 2026-10-16 ✔ matches
AnthropicAnthropic: Claude Sonnet 5$2.0$10.0$2,713source 2026-10-16 ✔ matches
AnthropicAnthropic: Claude Opus 5.5$4.0$20.0$5,426source 2026-10-16 ✔ matches
AnthropicAnthropic: Claude Opus 5$5.0$25.0$6,783source 2026-10-16 ✔ matches
AnthropicAnthropic: Claude Opus 4.8$5.0$25.0$6,783source 2026-10-16 ✔ matches
OpenAIOpenAI: GPT-6 Astra$10.0$50.0$13,566source 2026-10-16 ✔ matches
OpenAIOpenAI: GPT-6 Astra Pro$10.0$50.0$13,566source 2026-10-16 ✔ matches
AnthropicAnthropic: Claude Fable 5.1$10.0$50.0$13,566source 2026-10-16 ✔ matches
AnthropicAnthropic: Claude Fable 5$10.0$50.0$13,566source 2026-10-16 ✔ matches

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