- Joined
- Aug 31, 2019
- Messages
- 1,806
People keep flexing token prices like this means anything:
“DeepSeek V4 Flash only costs cents.”
“Kimi K2.6 is almost free.”
“Qwen dirt cheap.”
“Claude too expensive.”
But after running real agent workflows on Hermes/OpenClaw/Cline/OpenHands for weeks… the reality is completely different.
The cheapest API model often becomes the MOST expensive model once you measure actual task completion.
Not token price.
Actual finished work.
“DeepSeek V4 Flash only costs cents.”
“Kimi K2.6 is almost free.”
“Qwen dirt cheap.”
“Claude too expensive.”
But after running real agent workflows on Hermes/OpenClaw/Cline/OpenHands for weeks… the reality is completely different.
The cheapest API model often becomes the MOST expensive model once you measure actual task completion.
Not token price.
Actual finished work.
Real 2026 Numbers (Coding/Agent Workflows)
| Model | Input $/1M | Output $/1M | SWE/Agentic Level | Real Hermes/OpenClaw Behavior | Typical Real Task Cost |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Claude Sonnet 4.6 | $3 | $15 | ~80% SWE-bench class | Best price/performance orchestrator, very low retry loops | ~$0.40–$1.50 |
| Claude Opus 4.7 | $5 | $25 | ~87–88% SWE-bench | Extremely stable, clean long-horizon planning | ~$0.80–$3 |
| GPT-5.5 | $5 | $30 | ~88–89% SWE-bench | Strongest reasoning but sometimes overthinks | ~$1–$4 |
| DeepSeek V4 Flash | $0.10 | $0.20 | Mid-tier agentic | Very cheap worker, weak long planning | ~$0.80–$5 |
| DeepSeek V4 Pro | ~$0.90 | ~$3.50 | Strong coding benchmarks | High retry/token burn during loops | ~$2–$8 |
| GLM-5.1 | $0.90 | $3 | Strong coding/math | Good worker model, loses structure in long runs | ~$1–$6 |
| Kimi K2.6 | $0.70–0.95 | $3.4–4 | Very strong web/code | Great |
