What is the cheapest claude alternative right now?

Gemini 3.7 Flash is the current #1 on this list. Rankings move when daily ingest updates SWE-bench, Elo, price, or latency.

How is this list ranked?

Output price first among models we still consider usable for chat. Weights: Elo 35%, TTFT 25%, Speed 20%, Out $ 20%.

Is preference Elo the only score?

Preference Elo is a crowd vote from LMArena / Arena. People see two hidden answers and pick the one they like more. The model that wins more often gets a higher Elo. That means people preferred it — not that it passed a school test. It is not SWE-bench, not accuracy, and not a number we invent. This list uses a named Stack Engine mix — Elo is only one input when the job is “best chatbot,” not when the job is “cheapest coding agent.”

Why should I trust this over a tweet?

Every cell has a source and an as-of date. We noindex thin pages and we do not fill missing scores. Open the model or pair page and read the snapshot.

Search Intent · cheapest claude alternative

Cheapest Claude alternative in 2026

Low list-price hosted models if Opus/Sonnet is too expensive. Then open the vs page against Sonnet 5.

Weights:Elo 35%TTFT 25%Speed 20%Out $ 20%

Current #1 Ranked PickScore 80.9 / 100

Gemini 3.7 Flash

Google · Closed flagship

elo p76ttft ms p99tokens per sec p99output price per m p49

SWE-bench: 72.4%Elo: 1,530

View full model fact sheet

Complete Ranked Category List

Models ranked by verified benchmark weights across SWE-bench and coding preference evaluations.

#1Gemini 3.7 Flash(Google)

Score 80.9

eloP76ttft msP99tokens per secP99output price per mP49

🏆 #1 Overall Leader in Category

#2GPT-5.6 Luna(OpenAI)

Score 75.3

eloP49ttft msP98tokens per secP95output price per mP73

Rank #2vs #1

#3DeepSeek V4 Flash(DeepSeek)

Score 72.9

eloP61ttft msP75tokens per secP81output price per mP83

Rank #3vs #1

#4Yi-Lightning(01.AI)

Score 72.3

eloP55ttft msP80tokens per secP76output price per mP89

Rank #4vs #1

#5Doubao Lite 1.5(ByteDance)

Score 67.3

eloP22ttft msP91tokens per secP92output price per mP92

Rank #5vs #1

#6Llama 4 Scout(Meta)

Score 66.3

eloP32ttft msP86tokens per secP86output price per mP82

Rank #6vs #1

#7Llama 4 Maverick(Meta)

Score 64.5

eloP51ttft msP73tokens per secP76output price per mP66

Rank #7vs #1

#8Gemini 2.0 Flash Thinking(Google)

Score 62.7

eloP61ttft msP51tokens per secP66output price per mP77

Rank #8vs #1

#9Doubao Pro 1.5(ByteDance)

Score 62.4

eloP52ttft msP63tokens per secP59output price per mP83

Rank #9vs #1

#10GLM-5.3(Zhipu)

Score 58.6

eloP86ttft msP38tokens per secP45output price per mP50

Rank #10vs #1

#11GPT-5 mini(OpenAI)

Score 58.2

eloP31ttft msP83tokens per secP86output price per mP47

Rank #11vs #1

#12GPT-4o mini(OpenAI)

Score 56.7

eloP8ttft msP86tokens per secP89output price per mP73

Rank #12vs #1

Frequently asked questions

Plain-English methodology and leaderboard answers

: Gemini 3.7 Flash is the current #1 on this list. Rankings move when daily ingest updates SWE-bench, Elo, price, or latency.

What is preference Elo? · How rankings update

Search Intent · cheapest claude alternative

Cheapest Claude alternative in 2026

Low list-price hosted models if Opus/Sonnet is too expensive. Then open the vs page against Sonnet 5.

Weights:Elo 35%TTFT 25%Speed 20%Out $ 20%

Current #1 Ranked PickScore 80.9 / 100

Gemini 3.7 Flash

Google · Closed flagship

elo p76ttft ms p99tokens per sec p99output price per m p49

SWE-bench: 72.4%Elo: 1,530

View full model fact sheet

Complete Ranked Category List

Models ranked by verified benchmark weights across SWE-bench and coding preference evaluations.

#1Gemini 3.7 Flash(Google)

Score 80.9

eloP76ttft msP99tokens per secP99output price per mP49

🏆 #1 Overall Leader in Category

#2GPT-5.6 Luna(OpenAI)

Score 75.3

eloP49ttft msP98tokens per secP95output price per mP73

Rank #2vs #1

#3DeepSeek V4 Flash(DeepSeek)

Score 72.9

eloP61ttft msP75tokens per secP81output price per mP83

Rank #3vs #1

#4Yi-Lightning(01.AI)

Score 72.3

eloP55ttft msP80tokens per secP76output price per mP89

Rank #4vs #1

#5Doubao Lite 1.5(ByteDance)

Score 67.3

eloP22ttft msP91tokens per secP92output price per mP92

Rank #5vs #1

#6Llama 4 Scout(Meta)

Score 66.3

eloP32ttft msP86tokens per secP86output price per mP82

Rank #6vs #1

#7Llama 4 Maverick(Meta)

Score 64.5

eloP51ttft msP73tokens per secP76output price per mP66

Rank #7vs #1

#8Gemini 2.0 Flash Thinking(Google)

Score 62.7

eloP61ttft msP51tokens per secP66output price per mP77

Rank #8vs #1

#9Doubao Pro 1.5(ByteDance)

Score 62.4

eloP52ttft msP63tokens per secP59output price per mP83

Rank #9vs #1

#10GLM-5.3(Zhipu)

Score 58.6

eloP86ttft msP38tokens per secP45output price per mP50

Rank #10vs #1

#11GPT-5 mini(OpenAI)

Score 58.2

eloP31ttft msP83tokens per secP86output price per mP47

Rank #11vs #1

#12GPT-4o mini(OpenAI)

Score 56.7

eloP8ttft msP86tokens per secP89output price per mP73

Rank #12vs #1

Frequently asked questions

Plain-English methodology and leaderboard answers

: Gemini 3.7 Flash is the current #1 on this list. Rankings move when daily ingest updates SWE-bench, Elo, price, or latency.

What is preference Elo? · How rankings update