# Best LLM APIs for Building AI Apps

**Published:** 2026-06-25

## Overview

OpenAI vs Anthropic vs Cohere vs Mistral — pricing, speed, and quality compared for production AI applications.

## Key Metrics

| API | Input Cost | Output Cost | Speed | Best For |
|-----|:----------:|:-----------:|:----:|:---------|
| OpenAI GPT-4o | $2.50/M | $10/M | Fast | General purpose |
| Anthropic Claude 4 | $3/M | $15/M | Medium | Complex reasoning |
| Cohere Command | $1/M | $5/M | Fast | RAG/embedding |
| Mistral Large | $2/M | $6/M | Fastest | European compliance |

## Recommendation

For most production apps, start with **OpenRouter** (bash.50/M token overhead) to access all models through one API and switch based on task complexity.

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