AISelect Overpay Index
The same AI model typically costs 2.7× as much at the most expensive provider
For a typical LLM that 5 or more providers sell, the most expensive provider charges 2.7× what the cheapest one does, for the same model. That is the median across 55 models, recalculated every day from standard list prices.
- Overpay Index2.7×median price gap, Oct 31, 2026
- Gap of 2× or more58%of the 55 models
- Your billCheckwhat you pay vs the cheapest provider
Standard list prices from the providers we track, blended 3 input : 1 output tokens, without discounts. Definition · Methodology · data under the MIT License on open data.
How wide the gaps are
Number of models by the ratio of their most expensive to their cheapest provider.
The 10 widest gaps today
| Model | Gap | Cheapest | Most expensive |
|---|---|---|---|
| Llama 3.2 11B Vision Instruct5 providers | 20.0× | $0.0175Lambda | $0.35IBM watsonx.ai |
| Qwen2.5 Coder 32B Instruct5 providers | 15.6× | $0.0625Lambda | $0.972OVHcloud AI Endpoints |
| DeepSeek-R1-05286 providers | 14.2× | $0.30Lambda | $4.25Fireworks AI |
| DeepSeek-V3.28 providers | 11.6× | $0.29DeepInfra | $3.38SambaNova |
| Llama 4 Maverick 17B 128E Instruct FP86 providers | 11.5× | $0.0625Lambda | $0.72Oracle Cloud Generative AI |
| Llama 4 Scout 17B 16E Instruct7 providers | 11.5× | $0.0625Lambda | $0.72Oracle Cloud Generative AI |
| Deepseek R1 Distill Qwen 32B5 providers | 10.6× | $0.15Nscale | $1.59Cloudflare Workers AI |
| Gemma-3-27b-it5 providers | 9.0× | $0.10DeepInfra | $0.90Fireworks AI |
| Llama 3.2 3B Instruct7 providers | 8.6× | $0.0175Lambda | $0.15IBM watsonx.ai |
| Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct10 providers | 8.0× | $0.0275Novita AI | $0.22Amazon Bedrock |
Same model name, but providers can differ in quantization, context length and rate limits. Wide gaps are often worth a test, not a blind switch.
Index over time
Definition and how to cite it
For every LLM that at least 5 providers we track sell, we divide its highest blended list price (3 input : 1 output tokens per 1M) by its lowest. The index is the median of those ratios, so a few extreme models cannot move it; within each model, though, one provider sets the cheapest and one the most expensive price. Models with fewer providers, or with a free (zero) listing, are left out. List prices only: no cache, batch or volume discounts. The definition does not change; if it ever has to, the old series stays as it was.
Free to quote and chart with a link. Copy:
AISelect Overpay Index: 2.7× (Oct 31, 2026). Median ratio of the highest to the lowest list price for the same LLM across 55 models sold by 5+ providers. Source: https://aiselect.online/overpay-index