How to Choose a Model

Choose the best AI model based on your use case, budget, and performance requirements

Decision Framework

When selecting a model, evaluate along three dimensions:

Task complexity: Simple Q&A or deep reasoning?
Cost budget: Cost-sensitive due to high-frequency usage, or prioritizing maximum performance?
Special requirements: Do you need vision capabilities, ultra-long context, or Chinese language optimization?

Recommend GPT-5.4-mini or Gemini 3.5 Flash. Fast, affordable, and meets the needs of most conversational use cases.

Recommend Claude Sonnet 4.6 or DeepSeek-V4 Pro. Strong code comprehension with stable and reliable output.

Recommend GPT-5.5 or Claude Opus 4.7. Designed for deep thinking with more complete reasoning chains.

Recommend Gemini 3.1 Pro (1M token context) or Claude Opus 4.7 (1M context).

Recommend DeepSeek-V4 Pro or Qwen3-235B. Optimized for Chinese text corpora — better comprehension and generation.

Recommend DALL·E 3 (diverse styles) or Flux (high quality). Choose based on the style and resolution you need.

Start with a smaller model: Validate your business logic with GPT-5.4-mini first, then upgrade to a more powerful model as needed
Use group discounts: High-frequency users can apply to upgrade their group for lower price multipliers
Cache repeated requests: Enable application-level caching for identical inputs to reduce redundant calls
Control context length: Pass only the necessary context to avoid inflating token consumption with redundant content

For billing rules for each model, see the Billing Rules page.