AI Model Price Index (QPI)
Latest reading
On 2026-10-03, the Qubax Price Index was 15.78 across 18 flagship models: the median model cost 84% less on Qubax than OpenRouter's list price, and the average discount was 69%. 100 = parity. Raw data: JSON · methodology.
What the Qubax Price Index measures
The Qubax AI Model Price Index (QPI) tracks how much the same AI models cost on Qubax compared with OpenRouter, every day, across a fixed basket of flagship models from OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, xAI, DeepSeek, Moonshot, Zhipu, Meta and Alibaba. For each model we compute a blended price per 1 million tokens (75% input, 25% output, a typical chat mix), divide the Qubax price by the OpenRouter price, and take the median across the basket.
A reading of 100 means parity. A reading of 20 means the median model costs 20% of the OpenRouter price, an 80% discount. The median is used instead of the average so one model with an unusual price cannot move the whole index. Individual ratios are capped to the range 0.01 to 5.0 for the same reason.
The data is free to use and cite (CC BY 4.0). The latest reading and up to 90 days of history are available as JSON from api.qubax.ai/price-index, and an embeddable widget is available for blogs and comparison sites. A weekly report on the blog lists the biggest price moves.
Frequently asked questions
- How much cheaper is Qubax than OpenRouter?
- The live answer is the QPI reading above: 100 minus the QPI is the median discount. Discounts vary by model and day, from small for some newly released models to over 90% for others; per-model numbers are in the table above and on each model page.
- Why is Qubax cheaper for the same models?
- Qubax buys inference on an open market where many compute providers compete on price, including capacity that would otherwise go unused, and routes each request to the cheapest healthy provider. It adds a fixed margin on top of that cost.
- How often is the index updated?
- Daily at 08:00 UTC from live marketplace prices. A weekly report is published every Monday.
- Can I use this data in my article or research?
- Yes. The index is published under CC BY 4.0: cite "Qubax AI Model Price Index" with a link to qubax.ai/price-index. Raw JSON is at api.qubax.ai/price-index.