Fugu Max is $0.5 cheaper per 1M input tokens (20% lower; 1.25x difference).
API cost decision in 10 seconds
NewPareto vs NewFugu Max
Pick Fugu Max when budget and context both matter.
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Data confirmed:
Prices normalized to USD per 1M tokens
Sample workload: 1M input + 500K output
Budget verdict
Pick Fugu Max when budget and context both matter.
On the standard 1M input plus 500K output workload, Fugu Max is estimated at $5 vs $6.25 for Pareto, saving $1.25 (20% lower).
Cost-first pickFugu Max
Context-first pickFugu Max
Sample savings$1.2520%
10x traffic gap$12.5
Fugu Max is cheaper on the standard workload and also has the larger context window. At 10x that traffic, the same price gap is about $12.5. Use the calculator below to replace the sample workload with your own token volume.
Cost sensitivity
Workload Sensitivity
Fugu Max stays cheaper across input-heavy, balanced, and output-heavy sample workloads.
| Workload shape | Token mix | Better pick | Pareto | Fugu Max |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Input-heavy / RAG | 5M input + 500K output | Fugu Max | $16.25 | $13 |
| Balanced workload | 1M input + 1M output | Fugu Max | $10 | $8 |
| Output-heavy chatbot | 1M input + 5M output | Fugu Max | $40 | $32 |
Fugu Max is $1.5 cheaper per 1M output tokens (20% lower; 1.25x difference).
Fugu Max has 737.86K more context (3.81x larger).
Fugu Max is $1.25 cheaper on the standard workload (20% lower).
Estimate your workload cost
Your Workload Cost
This estimate uses normalized public API pricing per 1M tokens. It is a planning aid, not a billing quote. Verify provider pricing, limits, and terms before production use.
Quick Decision
Fugu Max has the lower input price; Fugu Max has the lower output price; Fugu Max offers the larger context window. For the 1M input plus 500K output sample, Fugu Max is cheaper for the standard workload.
For a 1M input token plus 500K output token workload, the estimated API cost is $6.25 for Pareto and $5 for Fugu Max.
Choose Pareto when its provider, model quality, latency, or availability is more important than the numeric price/context winner.
Choose Fugu Max when you care most about lower input-token price, lower output-token price, and larger context window.
- On the standard 1M input plus 500K output workload, Fugu Max is estimated at $5 vs $6.25 for Pareto, saving $1.25 (20% lower).
- Fugu Max is $1.25 cheaper on the standard workload (20% lower).
- Fugu Max is $0.5 cheaper per 1M input tokens (20% lower; 1.25x difference).
- Fugu Max is $1.5 cheaper per 1M output tokens (20% lower; 1.25x difference).
- Fugu Max has 737.86K more context (3.81x larger).
Use-Case Decision Matrix
| Use case | Better pick | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Budget-constrained production | Fugu Max | On the standard 1M input plus 500K output workload, Fugu Max is estimated at $5 vs $6.25 for Pareto, saving $1.25 (20% lower). |
| High-volume input processing | Fugu Max | Lower prompt-token price matters most when prompts, retrieved passages, or documents dominate the bill. |
| Long responses and chatbots | Fugu Max | Lower output-token price matters most when assistants generate many completion tokens. |
| RAG or long-document work | Fugu Max | A larger context window leaves more room for retrieved passages, conversation history, or source files. |
Related Alternatives
- Sakana Namazu can replace Fugu Max when lower sample workload cost matters most: $2.95.
- Grok 4.20 Multi-Agent offers 2M context with $2.5 sample workload cost.
- Grok 4.20 offers 2M context with $2.5 sample workload cost.
- GLM 5.3 Flash offers 1.31M context with $0.24 sample workload cost.
- DeepSeek V4 Flash 0731 offers 1.31M context with $0.12 sample workload cost.
- Qwen3.8 Max (0902) · Qwen · #1
- GPT-5.6 Luna · OpenAI · #2
- Hy4 preview · Tencent · #3
- GLM 5.3 Flash · Z.ai · #4
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Open Sakana modelsPareto is a multimodal composite model built for research, coding, and agentic workflows, while delivering frontier-level performance across a broad range of general-purpose tasks.
Fugu Max is the cost-performance model in Sakana AI's Fugu family. Rather than a single monolithic model, Fugu is a learned multi-agent orchestration system: a language model trained to route...