The cheapest coding run is rarely just the cheapest model.
A model can have beautiful per-token pricing and still waste money if it drifts, over-explains, misses tool calls, or needs three correction loops. Lucena Coder is built to keep the working context tight, so small differences in model behavior show up quickly: which models act cleanly on current state, which ones burn output, and which ones are pleasant enough to use all day.
These are our current favorite models for token-efficient coding work in Lucena Coder.
$0.98 input / $3.08 output per 1M tokens.
$0.09 input / $0.18 output per 1M tokens.
$0.12 input / $0.35 output per 1M tokens.
Our Favorite Models to Use with LucenaCoder
Prices are listed per 1 million tokens and were checked against OpenRouter's public model catalog on June 19, 2026. Speed tier here is a vibe check based on our own internal testing only.
| Model | Input / 1M | Output / 1M | Speed |
|---|---|---|---|
| Claude Haiku 4.5 | $1 | $5 | Fast |
| Claude Sonnet 4.6 | $3 | $15 | Medium |
| Claude Fable 5 | $10 | $50 | Slow |
| Claude Opus 4.8 | $5 | $25 | Slow |
| Claude Opus 4.7 | $5 | $25 | Slow |
| DeepSeek V4 Flash | $0.09 | $0.18 | Fast |
| DeepSeek V4 Pro | $0.435 | $0.87 | Medium |
| Google: Gemma 4 31B | $0.12 | $0.35 | Medium |
| Gemini 3.5 Flash | $1.50 | $9 | Fast |
| Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview | $2 | $12 | Medium |
| Mistral Large 3 2512 | $0.50 | $1.50 | Medium |
| Devstral 2 2512 | $0.40 | $2 | Medium |
| GPT-5.4 Mini | $0.75 | $4.50 | Fast |
| GPT-5.4 | $2.50 | $15 | Medium |
| GPT-5.5 | $5 | $30 | Slow |
| MiniMax: MiniMax M2.7 | $0.25 | $1 | Medium |
| Qwen: Qwen3.7 Max | $1.25 | $3.75 | Medium |
| Qwen3.7 Plus | $0.32 | $1.28 | Fast |
| GLM 5 | $0.60 | $1.92 | Fast |
| GLM 5.1 | $0.98 | $3.08 | Fast |
| GLM 5.2 | $1.20 | $4.10 | Medium |
| xAI: Grok Build 0.1 | $1 | $2 | Fast |
| Grok 4.20 | $1.25 | $2.50 | Fast |
| Grok 4.3 | $1.25 | $2.50 | Fast |
This list frequently changes as we test performance on different models through Lucena's token-efficient architecture. Have a model we should test? Reach out: hello@lucena.one
Pricing Source
View OpenRouter Model Catalog ↗