// alternatives · October 2026
GPT-4 alternatives
Cheaper models that come close, budget substitutes, and the cheapest step up — chosen on published LiveBench scores and live list price, never on our opinion. Every model here supports tool calling, as GPT-4 does.
LiveBench hasn't published a run for GPT-4. The strongest benchmarked model at a similar or lower price is Claude Fable 5.1, scoring 85.7 overall.
GPT-4: no published LiveBench run, $37.50 per 1M blended tokens, about $27,600/mo for a RAG assistant.
Benchmarked models at or below its price
GPT-4 has no published LiveBench run, so these are the highest-scoring benchmarked models priced no more than 25% above it — a known quantity to test against.
| Model | Overall | vs GPT-4 | Blended / 1M | RAG assistant | Context |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Claude Fable 5.1anthropic 47% cheaper. Head to head → | 85.7 | — | $20.00−47% | $7,100/mo | 1M |
| GPT-6 Astraopenai 47% cheaper. Head to head → | 85.6 | — | $20.00−47% | $7,400/mo | 1.1M |
| Claude Opus 5.5anthropic 79% cheaper. Head to head → | 85.1 | — | $8.00−79% | $2,880/mo | 1M |
| GPT-6.1 Solopenai 89% cheaper. Head to head → | 84.1 | — | $4.00−89% | $1,440/mo | 1.1M |
| Claude Sonnet 5.5anthropic 89% cheaper. Head to head → | 80.0 | — | $4.00−89% | $1,440/mo | 1M |
| Gemini 4 Argongoogle 89% cheaper. Head to head → | 79.3 | — | $4.00−89% | $1,440/mo | 1.0M |
GPT-4 alternatives FAQ
What is the best alternative to GPT-4?
Claude Fable 5.1. 47% cheaper. Every suggestion supports tool calling, like GPT-4.
How alternatives are chosen
- Scores — LiveBench release 2026-10-25. Only models with a published run are suggested on quality; a missing model means “not evaluated”, not “worse”.
- Prices — live list prices from OpenRouter, blended 3:1 input:output. Monthly figures price a RAG assistant with the published cached-input rate where there is one.
- Same job — suggestions must support every capability GPT-4 has among tool calling and image input. Other listings of the same model (free or batch tiers) are variants, not alternatives, and are left out.
A few points on a public benchmark can hide large differences on your own tasks. Shortlist here, then decide with an eval — how to build one.