GPT vs Claude: what a chatbot costs per month (2026-10-15)

Monthly cost of running a 10k-user chatbot on every current OpenAI GPT and Anthropic Claude model, from live API prices.

Bottom line: cheapest is Anthropic: Claude Haiku 5.5 at about $53.87/month; the median model costs $1,077; the most expensive, Anthropic: Claude Fable 5, costs $5,386. That is a 100× spread for the same workload.

Scenario: 10,000 monthly users × 30 messages, 600 words in / 150 words out per message.

VendorModelIn $/1MOut $/1MEst. monthly costSource / check
AnthropicAnthropic: Claude Haiku 5.5$0.1$0.5$53.87source 2026-10-15 ✔ matches
OpenAIOpenAI: GPT-6 Luna Pro$0.1$0.5$53.87source 2026-10-15 ✔ matches
OpenAIOpenAI: GPT-6 Luna$0.1$0.5$53.87source 2026-10-15 ✔ matches
OpenAIOpenAI: GPT-6.1 Sol Pro$2.0$10.0$1,077source 2026-10-15 ✔ matches
OpenAIOpenAI: GPT-6.1 Sol$2.0$10.0$1,077source 2026-10-15 ✔ matches
AnthropicAnthropic: Claude Sonnet 5.5$2.0$10.0$1,077source 2026-10-15 ✔ matches
OpenAIOpenAI: GPT-6 Sol Pro$2.0$10.0$1,077source 2026-10-15 ✔ matches
OpenAIOpenAI: GPT-6 Sol$2.0$10.0$1,077source 2026-10-15 ✔ matches
AnthropicAnthropic: Claude Sonnet 5$2.0$10.0$1,077source 2026-10-15 ✔ matches
AnthropicAnthropic: Claude Opus 5.5$4.0$20.0$2,155source 2026-10-15 ✔ matches
AnthropicAnthropic: Claude Opus 5$5.0$25.0$2,693source 2026-10-15 ✔ matches
AnthropicAnthropic: Claude Opus 4.8$5.0$25.0$2,693source 2026-10-15 ✔ matches
OpenAIOpenAI: GPT-6 Astra$10.0$50.0$5,386source 2026-10-15 ✔ matches
OpenAIOpenAI: GPT-6 Astra Pro$10.0$50.0$5,386source 2026-10-15 ✔ matches
AnthropicAnthropic: Claude Fable 5.1$10.0$50.0$5,386source 2026-10-15 ✔ matches
AnthropicAnthropic: Claude Fable 5$10.0$50.0$5,386source 2026-10-15 ✔ matches

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