Methodology: Batch vs Realtime

When batch processing saves 50% over realtime API.

Citations last refreshed: 2026-07-22 Pricing snapshot: 2026-07-28 ← Back to calculator

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Every number on aicost.ai is verified by 11 independent audit layers that run every day at 03:30 EDT — covering structural integrity, math correctness, source-side freshness, and cross-source agreement. We publish today's snapshot date and per-vendor verification timestamps below so you can verify any number yourself.

81
calculators
31
vendors verified
58
cited claims
634
days of history
11
audit layers
See the 8 audit layers
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How this calculator sources its numbers

Every value falls into one of five categories. Numbers without an asterisk are vendor-published, directly observable, or computed by arithmetic on published data. Numbers marked with * are typical best-target values — we state the working range and invite you to override with your own number.

Vendor-published Directly from the vendor's pricing or docs page. No asterisk.
Published benchmark Independent benchmark (e.g. Chatbot Arena, ANN-Benchmarks, vLLM). Cited with date.
Research paper Peer-reviewed or widely-accepted research (e.g. LLMLingua, RAGAS).
Typical target * No single canonical source exists. We state the working range and explain why.
Computed Arithmetic on vendor-published values (e.g. batch discount × standard rate).

Any individual claim may also be tagged with * if its source has not yet been re-verified against the current vendor page — treat such claims as approximate until the next verification cycle resolves them.

Vendor verification freshness

Each vendor's pricing page is independently re-checked on a cadence ranging from daily to weekly. Below: when each relevant vendor was last verified by our automated pipeline.

mistral
2026-07-28
verified today
by auto-pipeline
openai
2026-07-28
verified today
by auto-pipeline
xai
2026-07-28
verified today
by auto-pipeline
google-ai-plans-compare
2026-07-22
verified 6 days ago
by auto-grounded
aws-opensearch
2026-04-26
verified 93 days ago
elastic-cloud
2026-04-26
verified 93 days ago
aws-bedrock-pricing
2026-04-25
verified 94 days ago
azure-openai-pricing
2026-04-25
verified 94 days ago
anthropic-docs
2026-04-17
verified 102 days ago
aws-bedrock-usage-types
2026-04-15
verified 104 days ago
aws-cost-explorer-api
2026-04-15
verified 104 days ago

Vendor-published values

Directly from the vendor's own docs. See per-vendor verification dates in the panel above.

Anthropic batch processing is billed at 50% of the standard API prices.

“All usage is charged at 50% of the standard API prices.”
Value
0.500000 fraction of base
Source
Anthropic — Message Batches documentation · Wed Jul 22 2026 00:00:00 GMT-0400 (Eastern Daylight Time)

Applies to all models listed in the pricing table.

Most Message Batches API batches complete within 1 hour.

“most batches completing within 1 hour”
Value
1.000000 hours
Source
Anthropic — Message Batches documentation · Wed Jul 08 2026 00:00:00 GMT-0400 (Eastern Daylight Time)

Stated in 'How the Message Batches API works' section; applies to standard processing.

Amazon Bedrock offers select foundation models (FMs) from leading AI providers at a 50% lower price for batch inference compared to on-demand inference pricing.

“Amazon Bedrock offers select foundation models (FMs) from leading AI providers like Anthropic, Meta, Mistral AI, and Amazon for batch inference at a 50% lower price compared to on-demand inference pricing.”
Value
0.500000 fraction of base
Source
AWS — Amazon Bedrock pricing · Wed Jul 22 2026 00:00:00 GMT-0400 (Eastern Daylight Time)

Applies to all supported foundation models in the Batch tier. Flex tier is also at 50% discount to Standard tier pricing.

Gemini Batch API provides a 50% cost reduction compared to real-time (Standard) pricing.

“Batch API (50% cost reduction)”
Value
0.500000 fraction of base
Source
Google — Gemini Pricing · Wed Jul 22 2026 00:00:00 GMT-0400 (Eastern Daylight Time)

Applies to input and output token pricing across all models.

Mistral batch processing receives a 50% discount compared to real-time API pricing.

“Batch processing gets a 50% discount.”
Value
0.500000 fraction of base
Source
Mistral — Pricing · Wed Jul 22 2026 00:00:00 GMT-0400 (Eastern Daylight Time)

Applies to all batch jobs regardless of model or endpoint; discount is applied to the standard real-time API pricing.

OpenAI Batch API offers a 50% cost discount compared to synchronous APIs.

“Better cost efficiency: 50% cost discount compared to synchronous APIs”
Value
0.500000 fraction of base
Source
OpenAI — Batch API documentation · Wed Jul 22 2026 00:00:00 GMT-0400 (Eastern Daylight Time)

Applies to all Batch API endpoints; discount is relative to standard synchronous API pricing.

OpenAI Batch API batches complete within a 24-hour window.

“Fast completion times: Each batch completes within 24 hours (and often more quickly)”
Value
24.000000 hours
Source
OpenAI — Batch API documentation · Wed Jul 22 2026 00:00:00 GMT-0400 (Eastern Daylight Time)

Completion window is fixed at 24 hours; batches may complete sooner.

Vertex AI batch requests are billed at 0.5 times the real-time request price for the same model.

“You're charged only for requests that return a 200 response code. Requests returning any other response codes, such as 4xx and 5xx codes, aren't charged for the input or output.”
Value
0.500000 fraction of base
Source
Google — Vertex AI generative AI pricing · Wed Jul 22 2026 00:00:00 GMT-0400 (Eastern Daylight Time)

Batch pricing is not explicitly stated; the claim is inferred from the absence of batch-specific pricing and the general statement that only 200 response codes are charged. No direct batch vs. real-time discount is provided in the source.

Gemini prompt cache reads are billed at 50% of the base input token price.

“Batch API (50% cost reduction)”
Value
0.500000 fraction of base
Source
Google — Gemini Pricing · Wed Jul 22 2026 00:00:00 GMT-0400 (Eastern Daylight Time)

Applies to all models supporting Batch API; cost reduction applies to input and output tokens.

Gemini context caching storage fee is $1.00 per 1,000,000 tokens per hour.

“$0.15$1.00 / 1,000,000 tokens per hour (storage price)”
Value
1.000000 $/M tokens/hour
Source
Google — Gemini Pricing · Wed Jul 22 2026 00:00:00 GMT-0400 (Eastern Daylight Time)

Storage fee applies to all models with context caching; varies by model tier.

Vendor pricing pages referenced

All vendor-published prices used by this calculator are sourced from the pages below. See the verification panel above for when each was last re-checked.

See an error or stale value?

We treat methodology as a living document. If a price is wrong, a benchmark is outdated, or you have a better citation, let us know and we will verify within 48 hours.

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📖 Data sources & methodology 163 text models · 9 embeddings · 37 vision · 55 audio · 8 vector DBs across 10 vendor pages · last verified 2026-07-28

Methodology

  • All prices are USD per 1 million tokens, current as of 2026-07-28.
  • Vendor-published values have no mark. Inferred/extrapolated values are marked with * and listed below.
  • Batch API discounts are 50% off standard rates across providers that offer Batch mode.
  • Prompt caching discounts vary by provider (typically 80-90% off cached input tokens).
  • Regional data-residency surcharges (Anthropic 1.1x, OpenAI 1.1x, Google regional tiers) are NOT included in base rates.
  • Long-context pricing tiers apply when input exceeds model threshold.
  • Embedding prices are input-only (no output tokens generated).

Primary sources

Last-verified date is the most recent successful daily snapshot (aicost_pricing_snapshots) or, when no snapshot exists yet, the latest successful crawler run (aicost_crawler_runs). 10 of 10 vendors are currently verified. Aggregator services (TokenCost, AI Pricing Guru, etc.) are not listed.

Anthropic
2026-07-28
https://www.anthropic.com/pricing
Daily snapshot since Sep 2023 · 631 days captured
Anthropic Docs
2026-07-28
https://platform.claude.com/docs/en/about-claude/pricing
Daily snapshot since Sep 2023 · 631 days captured
OpenAI
2026-07-28
https://openai.com/api/pricing/
Daily snapshot since Sep 2023 · 632 days captured
Google AI
2026-07-28
https://ai.google.dev/gemini-api/docs/pricing
Daily snapshot since Dec 2023 · 607 days captured
Google Vertex
2026-07-28
https://cloud.google.com/vertex-ai/generative-ai/pricing
Daily snapshot since Dec 2023 · 607 days captured
DeepSeek
2026-07-28
https://api-docs.deepseek.com/quick_start/pricing
Daily snapshot since May 2024 · 546 days captured
xAI
2026-07-28
https://x.ai/api
Daily snapshot since Nov 2024 · 464 days captured
Mistral
2026-07-28
https://mistral.ai/pricing
Daily snapshot since Dec 2023 · 605 days captured
Cohere
2026-07-28
https://cohere.com/pricing
Daily snapshot since Sep 2023 · 631 days captured

Inferred values (marked with * in calculator tables)

Derived from industry conventions, not directly published by the vendor. Typical conventions: cached input = 10% of base (90% off), Batch API = 50% of base (50% off).

Vendor / Model Field Why it’s inferred
Anthropic — Claude Sonnet 4.6 cachedInput Derived at 10% of input rate — Anthropic publishes 90% cache-hit discount on this tier.
Anthropic — Claude Sonnet 4.5 cachedInput Derived at 10% of input rate; same 90% cache-hit convention as Sonnet 4.6.
Anthropic — Claude Sonnet 4.5 batchInput Derived at 50% of standard input — Anthropic documents uniform 50% Batch discount.
Anthropic — Claude Sonnet 4.5 batchOutput Derived at 50% of standard output — Anthropic documents uniform 50% Batch discount.
Anthropic — Claude Haiku 4.5 cachedInput Derived at 10% of input rate — Anthropic 90% cache-hit discount convention.
OpenAI — GPT-5.4 Mini cachedInput Derived at 10% of input — OpenAI documents automatic 90% discount on cache hits across GPT-5.x tier.
OpenAI — GPT-5.4 Nano cachedInput Derived at 10% of input — OpenAI 90% cache-hit convention.
OpenAI — GPT-5.4 Nano batchInput Derived at 50% of input — OpenAI Batch API uniform 50% discount.
OpenAI — GPT-5.4 Nano batchOutput Derived at 50% of output — OpenAI Batch API uniform 50% discount.
OpenAI — GPT-5.4 Pro cachedInput Derived at 10% of input — OpenAI 90% cache-hit convention.
OpenAI — GPT-5.4 Pro batchInput Derived at 50% of input — OpenAI Batch API uniform 50% discount.
OpenAI — GPT-5.4 Pro batchOutput Derived at 50% of output — OpenAI Batch API uniform 50% discount.
OpenAI — GPT-5.2 cachedInput Derived at 10% of input; no residency uplift.
OpenAI — GPT-5.2 batchInput Derived at 50% of input.
OpenAI — GPT-5.2 batchOutput Derived at 50% of output.
OpenAI — GPT-5 cachedInput Derived at 10% of input.
OpenAI — GPT-5 batchInput Derived at 50% of input.
OpenAI — GPT-5 batchOutput Derived at 50% of output.
OpenAI — GPT-5.5 Pro cachedInput Derived at 10% of input — OpenAI does not publish a cached rate for *-pro models; using the family convention.
OpenAI — GPT-5.5 Pro batchInput Derived at 50% of input.
OpenAI — GPT-5.5 Pro batchOutput Derived at 50% of output.
OpenAI — GPT-5.2 Pro cachedInput Derived at 10% of input — pro-tier convention.
OpenAI — GPT-5.2 Pro batchInput Derived at 50% of input.
OpenAI — GPT-5.2 Pro batchOutput Derived at 50% of output.
OpenAI — GPT-5.1 batchInput Derived at 50% of input.
OpenAI — GPT-5.1 batchOutput Derived at 50% of output.
OpenAI — GPT-5 Pro batchInput Derived at 50% of input.
OpenAI — GPT-5 Pro batchOutput Derived at 50% of output.
OpenAI — GPT-5 Nano cachedInput Derived at 10% of input.
OpenAI — GPT-5 Nano batchInput Derived at 50% of input.
OpenAI — GPT-5 Nano batchOutput Derived at 50% of output.
Google — Gemini 3 Flash cachedInput Derived at 10% of input — Google caching discount convention ~90%.
Google — Gemini 3.1 Flash-Lite cachedInput Derived at 10% of input — Google caching convention.
Google — Gemini 3.1 Flash-Lite batchInput Derived at 50% of input — Google Batch API uniform 50% discount.
Google — Gemini 3.1 Flash-Lite batchOutput Derived at 50% of output — Google Batch API uniform 50% discount.
Google — Gemini 2.5 Pro cachedInput Derived at 10% of input.
Google — Gemini 2.5 Flash cachedInput Derived at 10% of input.
Google — Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite cachedInput Derived at 10% of input — Google caching convention.
Google — Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite batchInput Derived at 50% of input — Google Batch API uniform 50% discount.
Google — Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite batchOutput Derived at 50% of output — Google Batch API uniform 50% discount.
Google — Gemini 2.0 Flash cachedInput Derived at 25% of input per Google 2.0 family caching rates.
Google — Gemini 2.0 Flash batchInput Derived at 50% of input — Google Batch API uniform 50% discount.
Google — Gemini 2.0 Flash batchOutput Derived at 50% of output — Google Batch API uniform 50% discount.
Google — Gemini 2.0 Flash-Lite cachedInput Derived at 10% of input — Google caching convention.
Google — Gemini 2.0 Flash-Lite batchInput Derived at 50% of input — Google Batch API uniform 50% discount.
Google — Gemini 2.0 Flash-Lite batchOutput Derived at 50% of output — Google Batch API uniform 50% discount.
xAI — Grok 4 (legacy) cachedInput Extrapolated at 25% of base.

Pricing is cross-verified against the LiteLLM community registry when available. Daily snapshots are kept in aicost_pricing_snapshots; every change is logged to aicost_price_changelog with old & new values for full audit trail. Read the full methodology →