The cheapest way to reach each level of LLM capability, and how fast that cost is falling.
Built on Artificial Analysis's measured cost per task, refreshed four times a day; the methodology has the details, and the original post has the argument. Data as of …, covering … models.
The Pareto Frontier Over Time
The cheapest model at each level of the metric, and how that frontier has moved. The tabs switch between the aggregate Intelligence Index and single evaluations that map onto specific applications.
How to read this chart
Each line is the Pareto frontier on the given date: the cheapest way to reach a given level of the selected metric among models released by then, at the prices then in effect. The darkest line is the current frontier; the Play button builds the history up one frontier at a time, and hovering any point names the model behind it. Small points are all measured models at their latest values, tinted by the two month window of their release; hollow points are open weights, filled are proprietary. The cost axis is the same measured cost per task on every tab, so switching tabs only moves models vertically. Capability scores are the latest measured values; only prices are tracked over time. Views never mix index eras: each era is drawn on its own scale with the scores and prices in effect at the time.
| Cheapest model at or above | Cost per task | Score |
|---|
Cost Records by Capability Tier
The cheapest measured cost per task achieved by any released model at or above each Intelligence Index tier, by release date. Each step is a model that set a new low for its tier.
How to read this chart
Hollow markers are open weights models. Each model is placed at the price in effect on each date: observed prices from August 2026 onward, and recorded price events before that (see the methodology). A dashed vertical line marks a recomposition of the underlying benchmark; the running minimum resets there, since neither scores nor measured costs are comparable across it.
| Tier | First crossed | Current record | Collapse | Halving time |
|---|
Recent Frontier Advances
Each entry is a date on which a model became the cheapest way to reach some level of the Intelligence Index, through a release or a price change. Subscribe to the Atom feed to be notified of new ones.
The method behind every number on this page, its limitations, and the handling of index recompositions are described on the methodology page. The updater, the observation history, and this page's data live in the llm-cost-frontier repository.