--- title: LLM Inference Cost Comparison 2026: DigitalOcean vs.... description: A detailed cost comparison of LLM inference pricing across DigitalOcean, Together AI, Fireworks AI, Modal, Nebius, Baseten, and OpenRouter as of July 30,... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/llm-inference-cost-comparison-2026-digitalocean-vs-together-ai-fireworks-ai-modal-nebius-baset-xuaolflf9 twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: LLM Inference Cost Comparison 2026: DigitalOcean vs. Together AI, Fireworks AI, Modal, Nebius, Baseten, and OpenRouter | daily.dev og:description: A detailed cost comparison of LLM inference pricing across DigitalOcean, Together AI, Fireworks AI, Modal, Nebius, Baseten, and OpenRouter as of July 30,... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/llm-inference-cost-comparison-2026-digitalocean-vs-together-ai-fireworks-ai-modal-nebius-baset-xuaolflf9 og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/xuAolflf9.png og:image:alt: LLM Inference Cost Comparison 2026: DigitalOcean vs. Together AI, Fireworks AI, Modal, Nebius, Baseten, and OpenRouter og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 630 og:locale: en --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # LLM Inference Cost Comparison 2026: DigitalOcean vs. Together AI, Fireworks AI, Modal, Nebius, Baseten, and OpenRouter **[DigitalOcean Community](https://daily.dev/sources/do_community)** · 17 min read · 0 upvotes · 0 comments ## Summary A detailed cost comparison of LLM inference pricing across DigitalOcean, Together AI, Fireworks AI, Modal, Nebius, Baseten, and OpenRouter as of July 30, prices verification. DigitalOcean has the lowest standard input price for gpt-oss-120b at $0.10/million tokens and the lowest cost for Llama 3.3 70B workloads, while Fireworks AI wins for batch and high-cache-hit scenarios due to its 50% batch discount. Together AI and Fireworks charge less for output-heavy workloads. The piece walks through worked examples (chatbot traffic, document classification, RAG embedding costs, dedicated GPU pricing) and argues that the real metric to optimize is cost per successful task rather than raw token price, since model quality, caching, batch eligibility, and deployment mode all shift the calculus. ## Full article daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: ## Questions this post answers ### How much does gpt-oss-120b inference cost on DigitalOcean versus Together AI and Fireworks AI? DigitalOcean charges $0.10 per million input tokens and $0.70 per million output tokens for gpt-oss-120b, the lowest standard input price among compared providers. Together AI and Fireworks AI both charge $0.15 per million input tokens but a lower $0.60 per million output tokens. The cheaper option depends on the input-to-output token ratio, with the break-even point occurring when input volume is twice the output volume. _Anyone sizing up inference providers for a production chatbot can track pricing shifts like these on daily.dev._ ### Does Fireworks AI offer a batch inference discount for gpt-oss-120b? Yes, Fireworks AI applies a 50% discount on both input and output tokens for eligible serverless models processed through its batch API. In a worked example, classifying 1 million support tickets with gpt-oss-120b dropped from $138 at standard rates to $69 with batch pricing, making it the cheapest option for asynchronous, non-latency-sensitive workloads like classification or synthetic data generation. _Teams weighing batch versus real-time inference costs can follow pricing comparisons like this on daily.dev._ ### How much can prompt caching reduce LLM chatbot inference costs? A 70% cache-hit rate on Fireworks' published $0.015 cached-input rate can cut a chatbot's estimated monthly inference cost from $108 to $73.98 for a workload using gpt-oss-120b with 360 million input and 90 million output tokens monthly. This applies specifically to stable prompt prefixes like system instructions, safety policies, and tool definitions that repeat across requests. _Developers optimizing inference spend can keep tabs on caching and pricing tactics via daily.dev._ ## Similar posts on daily.dev - [Cheapest Batch Inference for Low-Cost AI Inference: 6 Providers Compared \(2026\)](https://daily.dev/posts/cheapest-batch-inference-for-low-cost-ai-inference-6-providers-compared-2026--urh3juuuq) · DigitalOcean Community · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [Best OpenAI-compatible inference APIs: drop-in alternatives for 2026](https://daily.dev/posts/best-openai-compatible-inference-apis-drop-in-alternatives-for-2026-vrtnzttyy) · DigitalOcean Community · 1 upvotes · 0 comments - [Local LLMs vs Cloud APIs: 2026 Total Cost of Ownership Analysis](https://daily.dev/posts/local-llms-vs-cloud-apis-2026-total-cost-of-ownership-analysis-1antqpssm) · SitePoint · 1 upvotes · 0 comments - [Comparing token economics across 42 AI models](https://daily.dev/posts/comparing-token-economics-across-42-ai-models-htlm2dnb1) · Neon · 2 upvotes · 0 comments - [LLM Inference Cost Optimization: Run AI Inference for Less](https://daily.dev/posts/llm-inference-cost-optimization-run-ai-inference-for-less-syqrz0vbv) · Cast AI · 0 upvotes · 0 comments --- Tags: [#rag](https://daily.dev/tags/rag), [#digitalocean](https://daily.dev/tags/digitalocean), [#ai-inference](https://daily.dev/tags/ai-inference), [#openrouter](https://daily.dev/tags/openrouter) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/llm-inference-cost-comparison-2026-digitalocean-vs-together-ai-fireworks-ai-modal-nebius-baset-xuaolflf9) ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180},"sameAs":["https://twitter.com/dailydotdev","https://github.com/dailydotdev","https://www.linkedin.com/company/daily-dev-ltd"]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://daily.dev/#website","url":"https://daily.dev","name":"daily.dev","publisher":{"@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization"},"potentialAction":{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https://daily.dev/search?q={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"TechArticle","headline":"LLM Inference Cost Comparison 2026: DigitalOcean vs. Together AI, Fireworks AI, Modal, Nebius, Baseten, and OpenRouter","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/llm-inference-cost-comparison-2026-digitalocean-vs-together-ai-fireworks-ai-modal-nebius-baset-xuaolflf9","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/llm-inference-cost-comparison-2026-digitalocean-vs-together-ai-fireworks-ai-modal-nebius-baset-xuaolflf9"},"datePublished":"2026-08-14T15:48:13.790Z","dateModified":"2026-08-14T15:48:44.791Z","description":"A detailed cost comparison of LLM inference pricing across DigitalOcean, Together AI, Fireworks AI, Modal, Nebius, Baseten, and OpenRouter as of July 30,...","image":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/f_auto,q_auto/v1/posts/cd7366968a1e10126ec62f5a80a5ece8?_a=AQAEuop","thumbnailUrl":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/f_auto,q_auto/v1/posts/cd7366968a1e10126ec62f5a80a5ece8?_a=AQAEuop","isAccessibleForFree":true,"articleSection":"DigitalOcean Community","inLanguage":"en","publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180}},"author":{"@type":"Organization","name":"DigitalOcean Community","logo":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/t_logo,f_auto/v1/logos/c1b9d07730e34ea388c39a498a753d6c","url":"https://daily.dev/sources/do_community"},"commentCount":0,"discussionUrl":"https://daily.dev/posts/llm-inference-cost-comparison-2026-digitalocean-vs-together-ai-fireworks-ai-modal-nebius-baset-xuaolflf9","interactionStatistic":[{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":0},{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"CommentAction"},"userInteractionCount":0}],"keywords":"rag,digitalocean,ai-inference,openrouter","timeRequired":"PT17M"} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https://daily.dev"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"DigitalOcean Community","item":"https://daily.dev/sources/do_community"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"LLM Inference Cost Comparison 2026: DigitalOcean vs. Together AI, Fireworks AI, Modal, Nebius, Baseten, and OpenRouter"}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"FAQPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/llm-inference-cost-comparison-2026-digitalocean-vs-together-ai-fireworks-ai-modal-nebius-baset-xuaolflf9#faq","mainEntity":[{"@type":"Question","name":"How much does gpt-oss-120b inference cost on DigitalOcean versus Together AI and Fireworks AI?","acceptedAnswer":{"@type":"Answer","text":"DigitalOcean charges $0.10 per million input tokens and $0.70 per million output tokens for gpt-oss-120b, the lowest standard input price among compared providers. 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