Embedding API · decision tool
Cheapest embedding API at your volume
Voyage and Google embedding models priced at YOUR monthly tokens from verified rates (uniform per-1M-token billing). OpenAI, Cohere and Mistral are excluded — their per-token embedding price isn't published on their accessible pages today; no price was invented.
Prices verified 2026-07-17 against official pricing pages · fit weights are our estimates (see methodology) · share the URL to share your configuration
As of Jul 2026, with 100M tokens embedded/month, a $8 budget for this slot, Voyage 3 Lite ranks first for these inputs at 71% fit and a StackSays-estimated $2.00/month (Voyage 3: 64% fit, $6.00/month). Fit weights are our estimates; prices trace to official pages. Change any input below and the verdict recomputes.
Your situation
The verdict updates as you move these.
Narrow pick — the runner-up is close
Cheapest verified high-quality embedding API — $0.02 per 1M tokens
vs Voyage 3: fit 71% against 64%, est $2.00 against $6.00 per month
The decision, in plain words
For a solo builder at 100M tokens embedded/month and a $8.00/mo budget for the embedding API slot, Voyage 3 Lite leads at 71% fit and $2.00/mo. The two rules doing the work: budget fit (~$2/mo is 25% of your $8/mo budget); exit cost (Proprietary model — vectors don't transfer to another model's space (re-embedding needed to switch)).
Voyage 3 runs close (64% fit, $6.00/mo). It takes the lead if ~$6/mo is 75% of your $8/mo budget matters more to you than the current weights assume.
Honest weak spot of the pick: no free tier — paying from day one.
Generated from the calculation above — every number traces to the sourced data; nothing here is written by an AI making things up.
Why Voyage 3 Lite scores 71%
How the $2.00/mo estimate is calculated
What could change this verdict
Cost risk
Official prices verified 2026-07-17; calculation is deterministic code over those prices.
At a glance
| Tool | Free tier | Paid entry | Verified |
|---|---|---|---|
| Voyage 3 Lite | No free tier | Pay-as-you-go — No free token allowance on the voyage-3 generation | 2026-07-17 |
| Voyage 3 | No free tier | Pay-as-you-go — No free token allowance | 2026-07-17 |
| Voyage 3 Large | No free tier | Pay-as-you-go — No free token allowance | 2026-07-17 |
| Google Gemini Embedding | No free tier | Pay-as-you-go — A free tier is available (rate-limited) before paid usage | 2026-07-17 |
| Google Gemini Embedding 2 (multimodal) | No free tier | Pay-as-you-go — Text-input rate; free tier available (rate-limited) | 2026-07-17 |
Data sources
| Tool | Source | Verified |
|---|---|---|
| Voyage 3 Lite | Voyage AI pricing (official) | 2026-07-17 |
| Voyage 3 | Voyage AI pricing (official) | 2026-07-17 |
| Voyage 3 Large | Voyage AI pricing (official) | 2026-07-17 |
| Google Gemini Embedding | Google Gemini API pricing (official) | 2026-07-17 |
| Google Gemini Embedding 2 (multimodal) | Google Gemini API pricing (official) | 2026-07-17 |
A monitor re-checks these pages for changes; when a vendor moves a price, the date updates and every verdict recomputes.