US AI models are often cheaper per task than Chinese rivals, analysis finds

According to a Seeking Alpha report published October 6, 2026, which draws on data from Artificial Analysis, US models from OpenAI, Anthropic and Google often cost less per completed task than Chinese competitors. A cheaper sticker price, it turns out, doesn’t guarantee a cheaper result. Price per token versus price per job In AI, the unit of billing is a token — a small chunk of text a model reads or writes. Chinese models from DeepSeek, Alibaba’s Qwen and Moonshot’s Kimi do charge less per token. Claims about that advantage put Chinese per-token pricing at 60-90% lower than US systems, though the report contests that framing. The analysis finds US models tend to be more efficient on that measure. They reach the answer using fewer tokens, which can bring the total bill for a completed task below what a Chinese model would cost. The report features insights from Martin Chorzempa of the Peterson Institute. Its overall argument is that the gap between US and Chinese AI costs is narrower, and sometimes reversed, compared with what headline pricing suggests. The hidden toll on “free” models Many Chinese models are released as open-weight systems, meaning anyone can download them for fr...