The Price–Performance Frontier
Which measured providers are worth their price — and which are dominated on both axes at once.
- Measured output prices span $0.45–$15.60 per million tokens — a 35× range.
- 2 of 8 measured providers are on the frontier; the rest are dominated — some other provider is both better and cheaper.
- OpenAI carries the highest measured output price in the current window.
The frontier
A provider belongs on the frontier when nothing measured beats it on score and price simultaneously. Today that set is Cerebras, Groq — every other measured provider is paying for something the data does not show.
- Price is measurable and volatile; re-evaluate the frontier after every pricing event, not annually.
- A dominated provider is not necessarily a wrong choice — residency, contracts or capabilities may justify it — but the premium should be a decision, not an accident.
InferenceBench (2026). The Price–Performance Frontier. InferenceBench Research.