What is the cheapest frontier llm right now?

OpenAI: o3 Mini is the current #1 on this list. Rankings move when daily ingest updates SWE-bench, Elo, price, or latency.

How is this list ranked?

Models that still clear a high Elo bar, sorted so price hurts. Weights: Elo 30%, LiveBench 30%, GPQA 25%, Out $ 15%.

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 frontier llm

Cheapest frontier LLM in 2026

Models that still clear a high preference-Elo bar, ranked so list price hurts.

Weights:Elo 30%LiveBench 30%GPQA 25%Out $ 15%

Current #1 Ranked PickScore 83.0 / 100

OpenAI: o3 Mini

OpenAI · Closed flagship

elo p88livebench p94gpqa p95output price per m p31

SWE-bench: 78.5%Elo: 1,560

View full model fact sheet

Complete Ranked Category List

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

#1OpenAI: o3 Mini(OpenAI)

Score 83.0

eloP88livebenchP94gpqaP95output price per mP31

🏆 #1 Overall Leader in Category

#2Grok 4.6(xAI)

Score 80.2

eloP94livebenchP89gpqaP86output price per mP25

Rank #2vs #1

#3Gemini 3.6 Pro(Google)

Score 80.0

eloP91livebenchP91gpqaP85output price per mP28

Rank #3vs #1

#4GLM-5.3(Zhipu)

Score 78.3

eloP86livebenchP86gpqaP77output price per mP50

Rank #4vs #1

#5DeepSeek V4 Pro(DeepSeek)

Score 78.0

eloP78livebenchP82gpqaP81output price per mP65

Rank #5vs #1

#6Gemini 3 Pro(Google)

Score 74.0

eloP82livebenchP85gpqaP79output price per mP28

Rank #6vs #1

#7MoonshotAI: Kimi K2.5(Moonshot)

Score 71.4

eloP71livebenchP67gpqaP97output price per mP38

Rank #7vs #1

#8Gemini 3.7 Flash(Google)

Score 71.1

eloP76livebenchP79gpqaP69output price per mP49

Rank #8vs #1

#9DeepSeek V4 Flash(DeepSeek)

Score 69.8

eloP61livebenchP71gpqaP71output price per mP83

Rank #9vs #1

#10Qwen QwQ 32B(Alibaba)

Score 69.2

eloP66livebenchP72gpqaP77output price per mP57

Rank #10vs #1

#11GPT-5.6 Terra(OpenAI)

Score 68.5

eloP81livebenchP75gpqaP72output price per mP25

Rank #11vs #1

#12Qwen 3 Max(Alibaba)

Score 68.3

eloP72livebenchP76gpqaP75output price per mP34

Rank #12vs #1

Frequently asked questions

Plain-English methodology and leaderboard answers

: OpenAI: o3 Mini 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 frontier llm

Cheapest frontier LLM in 2026

Models that still clear a high preference-Elo bar, ranked so list price hurts.

Weights:Elo 30%LiveBench 30%GPQA 25%Out $ 15%

Current #1 Ranked PickScore 83.0 / 100

OpenAI: o3 Mini

OpenAI · Closed flagship

elo p88livebench p94gpqa p95output price per m p31

SWE-bench: 78.5%Elo: 1,560

View full model fact sheet

Complete Ranked Category List

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

#1OpenAI: o3 Mini(OpenAI)

Score 83.0

eloP88livebenchP94gpqaP95output price per mP31

🏆 #1 Overall Leader in Category

#2Grok 4.6(xAI)

Score 80.2

eloP94livebenchP89gpqaP86output price per mP25

Rank #2vs #1

#3Gemini 3.6 Pro(Google)

Score 80.0

eloP91livebenchP91gpqaP85output price per mP28

Rank #3vs #1

#4GLM-5.3(Zhipu)

Score 78.3

eloP86livebenchP86gpqaP77output price per mP50

Rank #4vs #1

#5DeepSeek V4 Pro(DeepSeek)

Score 78.0

eloP78livebenchP82gpqaP81output price per mP65

Rank #5vs #1

#6Gemini 3 Pro(Google)

Score 74.0

eloP82livebenchP85gpqaP79output price per mP28

Rank #6vs #1

#7MoonshotAI: Kimi K2.5(Moonshot)

Score 71.4

eloP71livebenchP67gpqaP97output price per mP38

Rank #7vs #1

#8Gemini 3.7 Flash(Google)

Score 71.1

eloP76livebenchP79gpqaP69output price per mP49

Rank #8vs #1

#9DeepSeek V4 Flash(DeepSeek)

Score 69.8

eloP61livebenchP71gpqaP71output price per mP83

Rank #9vs #1

#10Qwen QwQ 32B(Alibaba)

Score 69.2

eloP66livebenchP72gpqaP77output price per mP57

Rank #10vs #1

#11GPT-5.6 Terra(OpenAI)

Score 68.5

eloP81livebenchP75gpqaP72output price per mP25

Rank #11vs #1

#12Qwen 3 Max(Alibaba)

Score 68.3

eloP72livebenchP76gpqaP75output price per mP34

Rank #12vs #1

Frequently asked questions

Plain-English methodology and leaderboard answers

: OpenAI: o3 Mini 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