| # | Model | In / Out per 1M | Context | Strength |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | DeepSeek V4 Flash | $0.08 / $0.17 | 1M | Unbeatable cost per useful token |
| 2 | DeepSeek V4 Pro | $0.57 / $1.15 | 2M | Best frontier-class value |
| 3 | GLM-5.3 | $1.25 / $4.00 | 200K | Bilingual + agent quality |
| 4 | Qwen3.8-Max | $1.84 / $5.52 | 256K | Top open-lineage reasoning |
| 5 | Doubao Seed 2.0 Pro | $0.40 / $2.00 | 256K | HumanEval+ 89.5, fast |
| 6 | Kimi K3 | $2.90 / $14.50 | 256K | Long-horizon agents |
| 7 | MiniMax M3 | $0.30 / $1.20 | 1M | Cheap long-context |
| 8 | Qwen3.5-Flash | $0.048 / $0.26 | 1M | Micro-budget bulk tasks |
Aggressive domestic competition pushed DeepSeek, Zhipu, Alibaba and Moonshot to price near marginal cost, while capability converged toward frontier level on everything except the very hardest reasoning. For API buyers outside China, the catch has always been access — Chinese phone numbers, local payment, Mandarin docs. Gateways like NovAI exist precisely to remove that friction: one OpenAI-compatible key, card/PayPal/USDT billing, English docs.
A support product routing 80% Flash / 15% V4 Pro / 5% frontier pays roughly $0.35 per 1M blended output tokens versus $15+ on an all-frontier stack — a 40x difference for a few points of quality on 5% of traffic.
NovAI gives you OpenAI-compatible access to DeepSeek, Qwen, GLM, Kimi, Doubao and more — prepaid balance, no subscription, zero platform fee. Free trial credit on signup.
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