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Cheapest model / job
Search and research: the cheapest models
Search the web and produce sourced research.
How this page ranks
- Ranked by blended price per million tokens: three parts input to one part output, at the OpenRouter list price for the model. Lowest first. Ties go to the lower input price.
- A model counts for this job when its taxonomy v2 classification names search and research, or its old category maps to it.
- Each model must list text output on OpenRouter or on its own record.
- Prices and scores come from the market tables only, each with the day it is for. The price on a model's own record is not used.
- Missing data never ranks. A model with no confirmed price in the last 30 days, a price in another unit, a $0 listing or unknown inputs and outputs is listed apart, with the reason.
Market data as of 10 Nov 2026. Prices: OpenRouter models API (official).
Ranked: 12 of 63 models
Best for search and research →| # | Model | Input / 1M | Output / 1M | Blended / 1M | Price date |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |  Qwen3.7 FlashQwen | $0.030 | $0.130 | $0.055 | 10 Nov 2026 |
| 2 |  Pro/deepseek-ai/DeepSeek-V3.2Pro | $0.260 | $0.380 | $0.290 | 10 Nov 2026 |
| 3 |  SonarPerplexity | $1.00 | $1.00 | $1.00 | 10 Nov 2026 |
| 4 |  Kimi K2.6Accounts | $0.650 | $3.41 | $1.34 | 10 Nov 2026 |
| 5 |  Grok 4.20xAI | $1.25 | $2.50 | $1.56 | 10 Nov 2026 |
| 6 | Grok 4.20 Multi-AgentxAI | $1.25 | $2.50 | $1.56 | 10 Nov 2026 |
| 7 | Grok 4.7xAI | $2.00 | $6.00 | $3.00 | 10 Nov 2026 |
| 8 | Sonar Deep ResearchPerplexity | $2.00 | $8.00 | $3.50 | 10 Nov 2026 |
| 9 | Sonar Reasoning ProPerplexity | $2.00 | $8.00 | $3.50 | 10 Nov 2026 |
| 10 |  Command R+ (08-2024)Cohere | $2.50 | $10.00 | $4.38 | 10 Nov 2026 |
| 11 | Sonar ProPerplexity | $3.00 | $15.00 | $6.00 | 10 Nov 2026 |
| 12 | Sonar Pro SearchPerplexity | $3.00 | $15.00 | $6.00 | 10 Nov 2026 |
Not ranked, and why (51)
No confirmed price in the market tables in the last 30 days 50
- AionLabs: Aion-1.0 Not matched to an OpenRouter model
- BGE Reranker Base Not matched to an OpenRouter model
- BGE Small EN v1.5 Not matched to an OpenRouter model
- Claude Sonnet 5 (Free) Not matched to an OpenRouter model
- Codestral Embed Not matched to an OpenRouter model
- Cohere Command R Not matched to an OpenRouter model
- Cohere Command R 08-2024 Not matched to an OpenRouter model
- Cohere Rerank 4 Fast Not matched to an OpenRouter model
- Cohere Rerank 4 Pro Not matched to an OpenRouter model
- Cohere: Command R Not matched to an OpenRouter model
- deepseek/deepseek-ocr-2 Not matched to an OpenRouter model
- E5 Mistral 7B Not matched to an OpenRouter model
- Embed v4.0 Not matched to an OpenRouter model
- Fusion Not matched to an OpenRouter model
- GPT-4o Search Preview Not matched to an OpenRouter model
- GPT-4o-mini Search Preview Not matched to an OpenRouter model
- GPT-5.3 Chat Not matched to an OpenRouter model
- Grok 4 Not matched to an OpenRouter model
- Grok 4 Fast Not matched to an OpenRouter model
- Grok 4.1 Fast Not matched to an OpenRouter model
- Grok 4.1 Fast Non-Reasoning Not matched to an OpenRouter model
- Grok 4.20 Beta Non-Reasoning Not matched to an OpenRouter model
- Grok 4.20 Beta Reasoning Not matched to an OpenRouter model
- Grok 4.20 Multi Agent Beta Not matched to an OpenRouter model
- Grok 4.20 Non-Reasoning Not matched to an OpenRouter model
- Grok 4.20 Reasoning Not matched to an OpenRouter model
- Grok-4-Fast-Non-Reasoning Not matched to an OpenRouter model
- Grok-4-Fast-Reasoning Not matched to an OpenRouter model
- Kimi K2 Thinking Original Not matched to an OpenRouter model
- Kimi K2 Thinking Turbo Not matched to an OpenRouter model
- Kimi K2 Thinking Turbo Original Not matched to an OpenRouter model
- Kimi K2.5 Thinking Not matched to an OpenRouter model
- Kimi K2.5 Thinking TEE Not matched to an OpenRouter model
- Kimi K2.6 Fast Not matched to an OpenRouter model
- Kimi K2.6 Thinking Not matched to an OpenRouter model
- Kimi K2.6 Turbo Not matched to an OpenRouter model
- kimi-k2-thinking Not matched to an OpenRouter model
- llama-3_2-nemoretriever-300m-embed-v1 Not matched to an OpenRouter model
- llama-nemotron-embed-vl-1b-v2 Not matched to an OpenRouter model
- llama-nemotron-rerank-vl-1b-v2 Not matched to an OpenRouter model
- Mistral Embed Not matched to an OpenRouter model
- MM Poly 8B Not matched to an OpenRouter model
- nv-embed-v1 Not matched to an OpenRouter model
- o3 Deep Research Not matched to an OpenRouter model
- o4 Mini Deep Research Not matched to an OpenRouter model
- Qwen3 Reranker 0.6B Not matched to an OpenRouter model
- Qwen3 Reranker 4B Not matched to an OpenRouter model
- rerank-qa-mistral-4b Not matched to an OpenRouter model
- Voyage Rerank 2.5 Not matched to an OpenRouter model
- Voyage Rerank 2.5 Lite Not matched to an OpenRouter model
Priced per image, song or other unit, not per token 1
- Cohere Rerank 3.5 Priced per unknown
Automated from dated market data, not Enterprise DNA tested picks. Check the price and terms with the provider before you commit. Methodology: how the model numbers work.