Cheapest Vision API Models
As of October 21, 2026, among LiteLLM's active models with a 32K-token context window or more, offered by at least two providers or by their own lab, the cheapest of the vision models is Llama3.2 11B Vision Instruct, at $0.0175 per 1M tokens (blended), from Lambda.
Top 20
Sorted by blended price: 3 input tokens for every output token, at each model's headline price (its own lab's API where it sells it, otherwise its cheapest provider). Only models that list image input. Only active models with a 32K-token context window or more, offered by at least two providers or by their own lab. Free models are left out.
| # | Model | Lab | Blended price per 1M tokens | Price per 1M (in / out) | Context | Providers | Price from |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Llama3.2 11B Vision Instruct | Meta | $0.0175 | $0.015 / $0.025 | 128K | 5 | Lambda |
| 2 | Qwen2 VL 7B Instruct | Alibaba | $0.03 | $0.02 / $0.06 | 128K | 2 | Nebius AI Studio |
| 3 | Gemma 3 12B IT | $0.0625 | $0.05 / $0.10 | 128K | 4 | Novita AI | |
| 4 | Ministral 3 3B | Mistral AI | $0.10 | $0.10 / $0.10 | 128K | 1 | Mistral AI |
| 5 | Ministral 3 3B Instruct | Mistral AI | $0.10 | $0.10 / $0.10 | 128K | 2 | Amazon Bedrock |
| 6 | Ministral 3B | Mistral AI | $0.10 | $0.10 / $0.10 | 128K | 3 | Mistral AI |
| 7 | Nova Lite | Amazon | $0.105 | $0.06 / $0.24 | 300K | 2 | Amazon Bedrock |
| 8 | Nova Lite V1 | Amazon | $0.105 | $0.06 / $0.24 | 300K | 1 | Amazon Nova |
| 9 | Mistral Small 3.2 24B Instruct | Mistral AI | $0.1062 | $0.075 / $0.20 | 128K | 3 | DeepInfra |
| 10 | Qwen3.5 9B | Alibaba | $0.1125 | $0.10 / $0.15 | 256K | 3 | DeepInfra |
| 11 | GPT-5 Nano | OpenAI | $0.1375 | $0.05 / $0.40 | 272K | 7 | OpenAI |
| 12 | Qwen3.6 35B A3B | Alibaba | $0.1375 | $0.05 / $0.40 | 256K | 8 | Sail |
| 13 | DeepSeek V4.1 Flash | DeepSeek | $0.1425 | $0.09 / $0.30 | 1M | 14 | Sail |
| 14 | Ministral 3 8B | Mistral AI | $0.15 | $0.15 / $0.15 | 256K | 1 | Mistral AI |
| 15 | Ministral 3 8B Instruct | Mistral AI | $0.15 | $0.15 / $0.15 | 128K | 2 | Amazon Bedrock |
| 16 | Ministral 8B | Mistral AI | $0.15 | $0.15 / $0.15 | 256K | 2 | Mistral AI |
| 17 | Mistral Small | Mistral AI | $0.15 | $0.10 / $0.30 | 32K | 6 | Mistral AI |
| 18 | Pixtral 12B | Mistral AI | $0.15 | $0.15 / $0.15 | 128K | 3 | Vercel AI Gateway |
| 19 | Gemini 2.5 Flash Lite | $0.175 | $0.10 / $0.40 | 1M | 3 | Google AI Studio | |
| 20 | Gemini 2.5 Flash Lite Preview | $0.175 | $0.10 / $0.40 | 1M | 1 | Google Vertex AI |