The price of the frontier
Take every model that set a new intelligence record when it shipped —15 of them among 57 scored models — and ask what each costs today. The answer swings wildly: the record has been held at $0.15/1M (DeepSeek V4 Flash 0731 (Baidu)) and at$60/1M. Being the best and being expensive are not the same thing.
Each dot: a model the day it set a new Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index record among scored models in this index. Horizontal line: its reign. Y axis:today's cheapest blended price (log) — not the launch price. Hover for details, click for the model's page.
Every record-holder
| Record set | Model | Lab | Score | Today /1M |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2024-05-13 | GPT-4o | OpenAI | 11.1 | $12.5 |
| 2024-12-26 | DeepSeek V3 (DeepInfra) | DeepSeek | 14.2 | $1.21 |
| 2025-04-05 | Llama 4 Maverick (DigitalOcean) | Meta | 14.5 | $0.896 |
| 2025-04-14 | GPT-4.1 mini | OpenAI | 14.8 | $2 |
| 2025-05-28 | DeepSeek R1 (DeepInfra) | DeepSeek | 20.4 | $2.65 |
| 2025-08-05 | gpt-oss-120b (AkashML) | OpenAI | 24.1 | $0.2 |
| 2025-12-01 | DeepSeek V3.2 (GMICloud) | DeepSeek | 25.1 | $0.518 |
| 2025-12-22 | GLM 4.7 (DeepInfra) | Z.ai | 34.5 | $2.15 |
| 2026-01-27 | Kimi K2.5 (SiliconFlow) | Moonshot | 36 | $2.7 |
| 2026-02-12 | GLM 5 (GMICloud) | Z.ai | 40.5 | $2.52 |
| 2026-04-07 | GLM 5.1 (Baidu) | Z.ai | 41 | $3.764 |
| 2026-04-21 | Kimi K2.6 (Baidu) | Moonshot | 45.1 | $2.856 |
| 2026-04-24 | DeepSeek V4 Flash 0731 (Baidu) | DeepSeek | 51.8 | $0.15 |
| 2026-06-09 | Claude Fable 5 (Anthropic) | Anthropic | 62.1 | $60 |
| 2026-07-24 | Claude Opus 5 (Anthropic) | Anthropic | 63 | $30 |
Intelligence = Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index (0–100), current scores — the frontier is computed among the 57 scored models of this index, so early records predating it are missing. Verified 2026-09-05. See alsothe falling price of intelligence andthe age discount ·methodology.
FAQ
What does the best available LLM cost?
Right now the intelligence record among scored models in this index is held by Claude Opus 5 (Anthropic) (score 63), at $30/1M blended. But the frontier hasn't always been expensive: DeepSeek V4 Flash 0731 (Baidu) held the record at just $0.15/1M.
Is the price of the frontier going up or down?
Both, in waves. 15 models have successively held the intelligence record since 2024, and the record-holder's price has swung between $0.15 and $60/1M. Open-weight labs periodically crash the frontier's price; premium flagships reset it upward.
Are these launch prices?
No — each dot shows the model's cheapest price today, since historical launch prices aren't tracked for most of these models. Read it as: what each era's record-holder costs now. Prices mostly fall after launch, so early frontier models were dearer at the time than shown here.