AI model recommendations and cost estimates
The same task can cost very different amounts on a flagship model and on a small one. Describe your task and Budgethelm suggests models that fit, based on official prices.
Built-in official price list
Recommendations only pick from 20 models from Anthropic, OpenAI, Google and DeepSeek, each checked against the vendor pricing page, with a link and the date it was checked (2026-10-31). Other models are priced from the LiteLLM community list, labelled as such, and are never recommended. Tiers (small, balanced, flagship) are Budgethelm's grouping by price, not a vendor quality rating.
Recommendations by task
Enter a task description (up to 500 characters, not stored). Budgethelm estimates difficulty with keyword rules, picks the cheapest model per vendor at that tier, and returns 1 to 3 suggestions plus a budget fallback, with estimated monthly cost, reasons, assumptions and a disclaimer. No external AI is called. Use it on the savings page after logging in, or through the recommend_model MCP tool.
What switching would save
Budgethelm projects one month from the last 30 days of usage (at least 7 days are assumed) and, for each agent and model, lists same-tier, one-tier-down and two-tiers-down options that save 15% or more, with quality risks noted. Your own rates take priority over the official price list.
Free cost calculator
No usage data yet? The model price comparison ranks 2,961 models by monthly cost for your usage, and the AI model cost calculator takes tokens per call, calls per day and model prices, and shows daily, monthly and yearly cost for several models side by side. No signup, and your data stays in the browser. (The calculator is in Traditional Chinese.)
FAQ
- Do recommendations call an external AI?
- No. They are rule-based. Task descriptions are not sent to an external AI and are not stored.
- How current are the prices?
- The built-in price list was checked on 2026-10-31, and every row links to the official pricing page so you can confirm the latest price.
- Do tiers reflect model quality?
- No. Tiers are Budgethelm's grouping by price. Cheaper options come with quality risk notes; test before you switch.