Batch API AI models: about half price if the answer can wait

Prices from official vendor price lists · October 2026
140 models offering asynchronous processing at roughly half the standard rate — the biggest single lever on cost. Output prices run from $0.1 to $180 per 1M tokens across the 132 models with a paid per-token price; 79 have a free tier and 68 ship open weights.
Batch API
Services found: 140
#AI modelCapabilitiesAPI $/1M (in / out)Context windowPrice / moOutput $/1MOverviewVisit site
121

GPT-5.2-Codex

OpenAI
Text & chatVisionCoding
$1.75 / $14400K tokensAPI only14View
122

Qwen3.5 Plus 2026-02-15

Qwen
Text & chatVisionVideo
$0.26 / $1.561M tokensAPI only1.56View
123

Qwen3.5 Plus 2026-04-20

Qwen
Text & chatVisionVideo
$0.3 / $1.81M tokensAPI only1.8View
124

Qwen3 Coder Plus

Qwen
Text & chatCodingReasoning
$0.65 / $3.251M tokensAPI only3.25View
125

GPT-5.1-Codex-Mini

OpenAI
Text & chatVisionCoding
$0.25 / $2400K tokensAPI only2View
126

GPT-5.4 Image 2

OpenAI
VisionImage generationStructured JSON output
$8 / $15272K tokensAPI only15View
127

Nano Banana (Gemini 2.5 Flash Image)

Google
VisionImage generationWeb search grounding
$0.3 / $2.532.8K tokensAPI only2.5View
128

GLM 4.6V

Z.ai
Text & chatVisionVideo
$0.3 / $0.9131.1K tokensAPI only0.9View
129

GPT-5.1-Codex

OpenAI
Text & chatVisionCoding
$1.25 / $10400K tokensAPI only10View
130

MiniMax M2.1

MiniMax
Text & chatReasoningTool calling
$0.3 / $1.2204.8K tokensAPI only1.2View
131

Nano Banana Pro (Gemini 3 Pro Image)

Google
VisionAdjustable thinkingImage generation
$2 / $12131.1K tokensAPI only12View
132

MiniMax M2-her

MiniMax
Text & chatReasoningTool calling
$0.3 / $1.265.5K tokensAPI only1.2View
133

MiniMax M2

MiniMax
Text & chatReasoningTool calling
$0.255 / $1.02204.8K tokensAPI only1.02View
134

GPT-5.5 Pro

OpenAI
Text & chatVisionReasoning
$30 / $1801.05M tokensAPI only180View
135

GPT-5.1-Codex-Max

OpenAI
Text & chatVisionCoding
$1.25 / $10400K tokensAPI only10View
136

Qwen3 Max Thinking

Qwen
Text & chatReasoningAdjustable thinking
$0.78 / $3.9262.1K tokensAPI only3.9View
137

GPT Audio Mini

OpenAI
Text & chatAudioStructured JSON output
$0.6 / $2.4128K tokensAPI only2.4View
138

GPT-5 Image Mini

OpenAI
VisionImage generationStructured JSON output
$2.5 / $2400K tokensAPI only2View
139

GPT-5.4 Pro

OpenAI
Text & chatVisionReasoning
$30 / $1801.05M tokensAPI only180View
140

Mistral Large 3

Mistral AI
Text & chatVisionReasoning
$0.5 / $1.5256K tokensAPI only1.5View

Browse by need

Reasoning models169 modelsCoding assistants17 modelsVision and images156 modelsLong context 1M+82 modelsFree tier available80 modelsOpen weights88 models

Batch processing queues your requests for asynchronous execution and charges roughly half the standard rate. There is no latency guarantee - results arrive within hours rather than seconds - which makes it the single largest lever on cost for any workload that does not need an immediate answer.

140 models offer it. Typical candidates: overnight document pipelines, bulk classification, dataset labelling, embedding backfills, scheduled reports. Anything driving a live chat window is not a candidate. Combined with prompt caching, a batch pipeline on a mid-tier model lands close to budget-tier pricing while keeping mid-tier quality.

Half price, no promisesRoughly 50% off in exchange for hours of latency instead of seconds.
Stacks with cachingBatch halves everything; caching cuts the repeated input on top of that.
Not for anything liveA user waiting on screen rules batch out entirely.

Models with this capability

The 140 models below all support this capability. Prices are input and output per 1M tokens from the vendor official price list; for dirhams multiply by 3.6725. Tap a card to open the model page.

Claude Fable 5.1
#1
Anthropic
in $10out $501M tokens
GPT-6 Astra
#2
OpenAI
in $10out $501.05M tokens
GPT-6.1 Sol
#3
OpenAI
in $2out $101.05M tokens
GPT-6 Sol
#4
OpenAI
in $2out $101.05M tokens
GPT-6 Luna
#5
OpenAI
in $0.1out $0.51.05M tokens
Claude Opus 5.5
#6
Anthropic
in $4out $201M tokens
Claude Sonnet 5.5
#7
Anthropic
in $2out $101M tokens
Claude Opus 5
#8
Anthropic
in $5out $251M tokens

How to choose

  • Identify which workloads genuinely tolerate delay — most back-office work does.
  • Size batches to the vendor limits rather than sending one giant job.
  • Build retry handling: partial failures inside a batch are normal.
  • Recheck economics after enabling caching; the combination often changes the model choice.

Common mistakes

Batching interactive featuresHalving the cost of something users wait for is a false economy.
Ignoring batch entirelyTeams routinely pay double for pipelines that could run overnight.

Who this suits

Data teamsLabelling, enrichment and backfills over large corpora.
ReportingScheduled summaries and digests that run on a clock.
Migration projectsOne-off passes over an archive where hours are irrelevant.

Related filters

Prompt caching147 models with cheap repeated context
Priority tier65 models with a paid fast lane
Low latency73 small, fast models for volume
Structured JSON151 models with schema-guaranteed output
All 239 modelsThe full rating with filters and prices

Frequently asked questions

How long does a batch take?

Hours rather than seconds. There is no latency guarantee, which is exactly why it costs half.

What workloads suit batch?

Overnight document pipelines, bulk classification, dataset labelling, embedding backfills, scheduled reports. Never a live chat window.

Can I combine batch with caching?

Yes, and it compounds: batch halves the whole bill, caching cuts the repeated input portion by up to 90%.

Is quality identical to standard mode?

Yes — same model, same weights. Only scheduling differs.

Can I cancel a running batch?

Most vendors allow it, though tokens already processed are billed.

Frequently searched

By capabilityReasoningCodingVisionLong context 1M+Free tierOpen weightsLow latencyRealtime voiceImage generation
By vendorAnthropic (13)OpenAI (30)Google DeepMind (17)xAI (8)Meta (6)DeepSeek (9)Mistral AI (11)Alibaba (Qwen) (34)Z.ai (12)Moonshot AI (5)
Popular modelsClaude Fable 5.1GPT-6 AstraClaude Opus 5Claude Fable 5GPT-5.6 SolGLM 5.3Grok 4.6Kimi K3GPT-5.6 Terra
By deliveryBatch APIPrompt cachingPriority tierFrontier tierProprietary APITool callingStructured JSONWeb searchMultilingual

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