The Four That Matter
Most LLM decisions in 2026 come down to four names: Anthropic's Claude, OpenAI's GPT, Google's Gemini, and DeepSeek. They occupy different points on the quality/price curve, and the right answer is usually "different ones for different jobs." Here's the honest breakdown. All four are on LinkModel under one key.
Price (per 1M tokens, flagship tier)
| Flagship | Input | Output | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Claude | Opus 4.8 | $5 | $25 |
| GPT | GPT-5.5 | $5 | $30 |
| Gemini | 3.1 Pro | ~$2 | ~$12 |
| DeepSeek | V4 Flash | $0.14 | $0.28 |
DeepSeek is in a different universe on price; Gemini undercuts the two Western flagships; Claude and GPT anchor the premium tier.
Where Each One Wins
- Claude — the best judgment: nuanced instruction-following, honesty, agentic coding (SWE-bench leader), and a reputation for catching its own errors. Premium price, 1M context. The pick when correctness and tone matter most.
- GPT — the broadest ecosystem: natively omnimodal, native computer use, mature tooling and structured output, and a Codex line for agents. Strong all-rounder; slightly pricier output.
- Gemini — the best value at quality, plus native image generation in the family and huge context. Flash tiers are exceptional for cost; Search grounding is a real edge. Watch the 200K context price cliff.
- DeepSeek — the cost destroyer: frontier-ish quality at 20–100x lower output cost, 1M context, 98% cache discount, open weights. Trade-offs: China data residency on the official API and English nuance slightly behind Claude.
Quirks Worth Knowing
- Claude pricing holds $5/$25 across the Opus 4.x line; caching (~90%) and Batch (50%) cut it hard.
- GPT output runs pricier ($30 on 5.5); a Nano tier ($0.20 input) has no Claude equivalent.
- Gemini bills thinking tokens in output on the 2.5 family; the >200K cliff doubles input.
- DeepSeek legacy aliases retire July 24, 2026 — use
deepseek-v4-flash/deepseek-v4-pro.
Which Should You Use?
| Job | Winner |
|---|---|
| Hardest reasoning / correctness | Claude |
| Broad ecosystem / computer use | GPT |
| Best value at quality / multimodal | Gemini |
| Cheapest high-volume | DeepSeek |
The mature answer is all four, routed: DeepSeek for bulk, Gemini Flash for the mid-tier, Claude/GPT for the hard 5%. See best coding LLM API, cheapest LLM API, and the per-vendor guides (Claude, GPT, Gemini, DeepSeek).
Because all four share one chat request shape on LinkModel, routing between them is a config change, not four integrations — the pattern in build an AI app with multiple models.
Start free with a $1 credit and test all four on your own prompts.