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List of the Best Large Language Models (LLMs) Software in 2026

Rajat Gupta
Researched and Edited by Rajat Gupta
Rajat Gupta

Researched and Edited by Rajat Gupta

Last updated: November 1, 2026 · How we review

Large Language Models (LLMs) overview

Spotsaas tracks 14 products in Large Language Models (LLMs), ranked by SpotScore — a blend of feature coverage, verified review ratings, and value. 1 let you start on a free trial, and 5 keep a free plan you can stay on. Most buyers here are Backend and platform engineers choosing the model API a new product will be built against.

14
products listed
1
offer a free trial
5
have a free plan
12
priced per subscription
2
quote on request

Who gets the most from Large Language Models (LLMs)

  • 1Backend and platform engineers choosing the model API a new product will be built against
  • 2Engineering managers costing a feature at production volume, where the input and output rates matter more than any benchmark
  • 3Machine learning engineers deciding between calling a hosted API and running open weights on their own hardware
How to choose Large Language Models (LLMs)

Start by writing down the shape of your traffic, not the model you want. Count the tokens a typical request reads and the tokens it writes, multiply by your real daily volume, and price that against two or three candidates. Output dominates the arithmetic for anything that generates prose or code, so a provider with a low input rate and a high output rate can be the more expensive choice. Next, check whether the work actually needs a flagship. Every lab here sells a small model beside its largest one, and the gap is large: on published rates the cheapest small models sit near two to ten cents per million input tokens while the flagships sit between two and ten dollars. Routing the easy requests to the small model is usually the biggest single saving available. Then decide whether you need to be able to leave. Mistral AI, DeepSeek, Z.ai, Alibaba Qwen, IBM Granite and Liquid AI all publish open weights alongside a priced API, so the same family can be moved into your own infrastructure. A closed API gives you no such option, and that matters more than a small rate difference if the work is long-lived. Finally, read the rate card for the model you would actually call. Several vendors here publish rates for older models and quote for the current flagship, and a comparison built on the published figure will be wrong the day you sign.

Showing 1-14 out of 14

9.4

SpotScore

Anthropic logo

Anthropic

AI safety company behind the Claude LLM family — frontier models for coding, analysis & reasoning

Best for: SMB teams

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4.7

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What is Anthropic?

Anthropic is an AI safety company that builds the Claude family of large language models, including Claude 3.5 Sonnet, Claude 3 Opus, and Claude Haiku. Claude is available via the Anthropic API with pay-per-token pricing, supports a 200K token context window, and is used for coding, analysis, ...

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Starts from Freefree, also offers free forever plan

9.0

SpotScore

Mistral AI logo

Mistral AI

European frontier AI model company with open-weight models and commercial API

Best for: SMB teams

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4.5

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Watch Demo

What is Mistral AI?

Mistral AI is a French AI company building frontier open-weight language models and a commercial API platform. Its models — Mistral 7B, Mixtral 8x7B, Mistral Large, and Mistral Small — offer state-of-the-art performance at competitive sizes, making them efficient to run and deploy. The Mistral ...

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Starts from Freefree, also offers free forever plan

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OpenAI logo

OpenAI

Frontier GPT models sold by the token through the OpenAI API

Best for: SMB teams · Mid-market · Enterprise

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What is OpenAI?

OpenAI develops the GPT family and sells access to it through its own API, with a rate printed per million tokens for every model. The published card separates the tokens a request reads from the tokens the model writes, and steps the rate up once a prompt passes 272,000 tokens. On the rate ...

Read more about OpenAI

Starts from $0.05/million input tokens

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Google Gemini API logo

Google Gemini API

Google Gemini models with a free tier and published per-million-token rates

Best for: SMB teams · Mid-market · Enterprise

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What is Google Gemini API?

The Gemini API gives developers access to the Gemini family Google trains, with a rate printed per million tokens for each model and a free tier on several of them. On the card read on 2026-11-08, Gemini 4 Argon is 2.00 dollars per million input tokens and 10.00 per million output tokens ...

Read more about Google Gemini API

Starts from $0.30/million input tokens, also offers free forever plan

Cohere logo

Cohere

Enterprise Command models with open weights and private deployment

Best for: SMB teams · Mid-market · Enterprise

Try for Free

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What is Cohere?

Cohere trains the Command, Embed and Rerank families and sells them for enterprise retrieval and agent work, with a strong emphasis on running inside a customer environment rather than only through a hosted API. Free trial keys let a developer evaluate every model at no cost, capped at 1,000 ...

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Starts from $0.50/million input tokens, also offers free forever plan

xAI Grok logo

xAI Grok

Grok models from xAI with a published rate per million tokens

Best for: SMB teams · Mid-market · Enterprise

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What is xAI Grok?

xAI trains the Grok family and sells it through its own API, printing a rate per million tokens for every model in the public docs. The card uses two bands: one rate below 200,000 prompt tokens and a higher one at or above it, and a request that reaches the threshold is billed at the higher ...

Read more about xAI Grok

Starts from $1.00/million input tokens

What buyers evaluate in Large Language Models (LLMs)
The published rate per million tokens, input and output priced separately, because output is routinely three to five times the input rate and most applications generate far more than they read
Whether a cheaper small model in the same family can carry the bulk of the traffic, since the gap between a flagship and the small model beside it is often a factor of one hundred
The context window, and whether the vendor charges a higher rate once a request passes a stated size. OpenAI, xAI and Google all step the rate up on long prompts
Whether prompt caching is offered and what a cache read costs, because a repeated system prompt is the single largest avoidable line on most bills
Whether the weights are published, which decides if you can move the same family into your own infrastructure when data residency or a price change forces it
Where requests are processed and what the vendor commits to in writing, which rules some providers in or out before any rate is compared
Whether the vendor publishes a rate at all for its current flagship, because several publish rates only for superseded models and quote for the newest one
DeepSeek logo

DeepSeek

Open-weight DeepSeek models with off-peak token rates and cache pricing

Best for: SMB teams · Mid-market · Enterprise

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What is DeepSeek?

DeepSeek trains open-weight reasoning and general models and runs a priced API alongside the weight releases, so the same family can be called over HTTP or hosted on your own hardware. The rate card is unusual in two ways. It prices context cache hits separately from cache misses, and it ...

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Starts from $0.15/million input tokens

Z.ai logo

Z.ai

GLM models with open weights, a free Flash tier and USD token rates

Best for: SMB teams · Mid-market · Enterprise

Try for Free

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What is Z.ai?

Z.ai, the company behind the GLM family, publishes open weights for its models and runs a priced API beside them with every rate stated in US dollars per million tokens. The card read on 2026-11-08 puts GLM-5.3 at 1.40 dollars per million input tokens and 4.40 per million output tokens, ...

Read more about Z.ai

Starts from $0.15/million input tokens, also offers free forever plan

Alibaba Qwen logo

Alibaba Qwen

Qwen models from Alibaba with open weights and regional token rates

Best for: SMB teams · Mid-market · Enterprise

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What is Alibaba Qwen?

Qwen is the model family Alibaba trains, released with open weights for many sizes and served commercially through Alibaba Cloud Model Studio, which prints a rate per million tokens for every model. Rates differ by region, and the same model is cheaper in Beijing than in Singapore. On the ...

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Starts from $0.05/million input tokens

Upstage Solar logo

Upstage Solar

Solar models from Upstage with low published rates and cached input pricing

Best for: SMB teams · Mid-market · Enterprise

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What is Upstage Solar?

Upstage trains the Solar family and sells it through its own console with a rate per million tokens printed for each model, separately for fresh input, cached input and output. On the card read on 2026-11-08, Solar Pro 4 is 0.30 per million input tokens, 0.06 for cached input and 1.20 for ...

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Starts from $0.10/million input tokens

Perplexity Sonar logo

Perplexity Sonar

Perplexity's own Sonar model, priced per million tokens with live web grounding

Best for: SMB teams · Mid-market · Enterprise

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What is Perplexity Sonar?

Sonar is the model Perplexity trains and runs itself, built to answer with citations drawn from a live web index rather than from training data alone. It is sold through the Perplexity API platform at a rate printed per million tokens. On the card read on 2026-11-08, Sonar is 0.25 dollars per ...

Read more about Perplexity Sonar

Starts from $0.25/million input tokens

IBM Granite logo

IBM Granite

IBM's open Granite models, priced per million tokens on watsonx.ai

Best for: SMB teams · Mid-market · Enterprise

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What is IBM Granite?

Granite is the model family IBM trains and releases under an open licence, aimed at regulated enterprises that want a model they can inspect, host and govern. IBM serves Granite commercially on watsonx.ai and publishes a pay-as-you-go rate per million tokens for part of the line. On the card ...

Read more about IBM Granite

Starts from $0.0636/million input tokens

Liquid AI logo

Liquid AI

Small Liquid Foundation Models priced per million tokens for on-device work

Best for: SMB teams · Mid-market · Enterprise

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What is Liquid AI?

Liquid AI builds the Liquid Foundation Model family, small models designed to run on phones, laptops and embedded hardware as well as in the cloud, and publishes a rate per million tokens that it states is the same on every platform it serves from. On the card read on 2026-11-08, LFM2.5-24B-A2B ...

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Starts from $0.02/million input tokens

AI21 Studio

AI21 Studio

Transforming language processing through AI mastery.

Best for: SMB teams · Mid-market · Enterprise

Start Free Trial

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What is AI21 Studio?

Introducing AI21 Studio, a cutting-edge Generative Text AI software solution that revolutionizes natural language processing. As a distinguished leader in the field, AI21 Studio offers unparalleled artificial intelligence capabilities through its advanced Jurassic-2 and Task-Specific language ...

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AI21 Studio offers custom pricing plan

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Frequently Asked Questions About Large Language Models (LLMs)

Stuck on something? We're here to help with all the questions and answers in one place.

The features most commonly offered by Large Language Models (LLMs) on Spotsaas are Function Calling, Streaming API, Published Token Pricing, Context Window, Prompt Caching, Code Generation. Most buyers prioritize ease of use, reporting, and integration capabilities. Start with what covers your core workflow before comparing advanced features.

Large Language Models (LLMs) pricing typically ranges from $10 to $200+ per user per month depending on features and team size. Most vendors offer tiered plans: starter, professional, and enterprise. Request a demo or check individual product pages on Spotsaas for current pricing details.

The top rated Large Language Models (LLMs) based on verified user reviews and SpotScore are OpenAI, Google Gemini API, Cohere. These consistently score highest on ease of use, feature depth, and customer support quality. Ratings are updated monthly based on real buyer feedback.

To choose the right Large Language Models (LLMs), start by listing your must-have features, commonly Function Calling, Streaming API, Published Token Pricing, Context Window, Prompt Caching, Code Generation. Then filter by team size, budget, and integrations you already use. Compare at least 3 options and use free trials to test before committing. Spotsaas lets you compare side-by-side in minutes.

Currently no Large Language Models (LLMs) listed on Spotsaas offer a permanent free plan, though many provide free trials (typically 14–30 days). Use the pricing filter on this page to find trial-eligible options and test before committing to a paid plan.

The best Large Language Models (LLMs) for small businesses are affordable, quick to set up, and scale without complexity. Top picks for small teams are OpenAI, Google Gemini API, Cohere. Look for per-user pricing, no long-term contracts, and strong onboarding support to minimize ramp-up time.

Disclaimer: This research has been collated from a variety of authoritative sources. We welcome your feedback at [email protected].