Frontier
US$1.25
GPT-5
OpenAI
OpenAI · Mid-tier · US$2.00 input/1M · US$8.00 output/1M · 1000K context
Typical monthly cost
US$39.07
≈ per day
US$1.78
Blended cost/1M
US$2.26
Context window
1000K
GPT-4.1 from OpenAI is a mid-tier model priced at US$2.00 per 1M input tokens and US$8.00 per 1M output tokens. For a typical solo-developer workload (8 hours/day, 22 days/month — 1 medium feature, 5 small bug fixes, 4 PR reviews, 2 stack-trace debugs, ~1500 lines of TypeScript, 1 large-doc read, with prompt caching at the default mix) GPT-4.1 costs about US$39/month. The 1,000K-token context window covers most monorepo scans without truncation.
Move the slider or switch task mix — values update live.
Monthly budget
US$100 / month
≈ $23/wk · ≈ $4.55/day
on GPT-4.1
Input tokens
68.0M
Output tokens
1.9M
Total tokens
69.9M
Per month this budget delivers
At the default coding-agent mix with 50% cache hits.
The 22-day month is based on the median working-day count across DE/US.
| Activity | Count | Per task | Daily | Monthly |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Medium feature (10–15 files) | 1 | US$0.64 | US$0.64 | US$14.11 |
| Small bug fix | 5 | US$0.05 | US$0.24 | US$5.18 |
| PR review | 4 | US$0.05 | US$0.21 | US$4.71 |
| Debug from stack trace | 2 | US$0.10 | US$0.19 | US$4.26 |
| Read a large doc | 1 | US$0.07 | US$0.07 | US$1.64 |
| Micro-interaction (explain / lint fix) | 30 | US$0.00 | US$0.09 | US$1.88 |
| Lines of TypeScript | 1,500 | US$0.00 | US$0.33 | US$7.29 |
| Total | US$1.78 | US$39.07 | ||
The 1500-lines-of-TS row models ~1000 lines read (cache-hit) + ~500 lines written. Headline figures are precise to ~5% — see the FAQ.
What each monthly budget buys on this model (typical solo-developer day, 22 working days).
| Monthly budget | Medium features | PR reviews | Debug sessions | Lines of TS |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Typical (≈ $39) | 60 | 730 | 403 | 176,791 |
| $50/month | 77 | 934 | 516 | 226,244 |
| $200/month | 311 | 3,738 | 2,065 | 904,977 |
| $500/month | 779 | 9,345 | 5,162 | 2,262,443 |
| $2000/month | 3,118 | 37,383 | 20,650 | 9,049,773 |
Typical mix: coding-agent (85% input, 50% cache hits). Values show the maximum count of each task type at that budget.
Coding
Trained or post-trained for code generation tasks.
Reasoning
Not supported
Multimodal
Accepts images alongside text.
Prompt cache
Cache reads billed at ~10% of input price — cuts agent costs sharply.
Batch API
50% off when you accept up to 24-hour turnaround.
Tool use
Native function-calling / tool-use API support.
Long context
≥ 200K-token context window.
Extended thinking
Not supported
Total models
6
Median input/1M
US$1.63
Median output/1M
US$8.00
Input range
US$0.25–US$2.50
Verified: 2026-05-07
Running the realistic solo-developer day (1 medium feature + 5 small bug fixes + 4 PR reviews + 2 debug sessions + ~1500 lines of TypeScript + 1 large-doc read, 22 working days) on GPT-4.1 costs about US$39/month. Heavier workloads scale proportionally; lighter workloads cost less.
1,000K tokens total, with up to 32K of output. That fits whole repository snapshots, tests included in a single call.
Providers charge US$8.00 per 1M output tokens against US$2.00 per 1M input — output requires real compute, input comes mostly from cache. Coding agents read many files (input-heavy) and emit compact diffs (low output), so total spend is usually input-driven.
Cache reads typically cost only 10% of the regular input rate. On a coding-agent mix with 50% cache hits, that saves roughly 45% on input — which is about 38% off your total bill on input-heavy workloads. Anthropic models charge a one-time cache-write surcharge (25% over input) that pays for itself after 2–3 hits.
Yes, if you can tolerate up to 24-hour turnaround: batch input/output are 50% cheaper than real-time rates. Perfect for nightly code reviews, bulk refactors or pre-merge analysis — wrong for inner-loop editing where you need an answer in seconds.
Open the full calculator with your own budget, task mix and region (US or DE with 19% VAT).
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