AiGanakWhat AI costs in Indian languages
The same customer message takes 1.18× to 2.28× as many tokens in Hindi as in English, depending on the model, and up to 6.7× in Punjabi on Claude 5.x models. If you are building a chatbot, voice agent or support tool for Bharat, this is your real per-message cost. Measured by AiGanak in Pune.
The same customer message costs more on LLM APIs in Indian languages because it takes more tokens. Measured by AiGanak, Pune, with official token counters (4 November 2026), as a multiple of English on the same model. Hindi: 1.18 on Gemini 3.x, 1.28 on Gemini 4 Argon, 1.43 on OpenAI GPT-6, 2.28 on Claude 5.x. Marathi: 1.26, 1.47, 1.78, 2.60. Tamil: 1.36, 1.65, 1.91, 3.21. Kannada: 1.82, 2.05, 1.89, 6.38. Odia: 3.37, 2.29, 4.85, 5.33. Punjabi: 2.46, 2.23, 2.47, 6.67. Gemini 3.x uses the fewest tokens for Hindi, Marathi, Tamil and Bengali, Gemini 4 Argon for Odia; Claude uses the most for every Indian language. Hinglish costs about the same as Hindi on GPT-6, more on Gemini and 32% less on Claude.
How many more tokens the same message costs, by language
1.00× = English. Tokens are what you are billed for, so 2.00× means the same conversation costs twice as much. Same 12 business messages in every language.
| Language | OpenAI GPT-6 family | Claude 5.x family | Gemini 3.x family | Gemini 4 Argon | If English costs $1,000 (highest model) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Odia ଓଡ଼ିଆ | 4.85× | 5.33× | 3.37× | 2.29× | $5,331 |
| Punjabi ਪੰਜਾਬੀ | 2.47× | 6.67× | 2.46× | 2.23× | $6,672 |
| Telugu తెలుగు | 1.99× | 3.05× | 1.76× | 1.90× | $3,049 |
| Tamil தமிழ் | 1.91× | 3.21× | 1.36× | 1.65× | $3,215 |
| Kannada ಕನ್ನಡ | 1.89× | 6.38× | 1.82× | 2.05× | $6,375 |
| Malayalam മലയാളം | 1.85× | 4.50× | 1.73× | 2.00× | $4,499 |
| Marathi मराठी | 1.78× | 2.60× | 1.26× | 1.47× | $2,598 |
| Gujarati ગુજરાતી | 1.67× | 2.97× | 1.73× | 2.00× | $2,968 |
| Urdu اردو | 1.63× | 2.63× | 1.39× | 1.59× | $2,632 |
| Bengali বাংলা | 1.62× | 2.91× | 1.17× | 1.37× | $2,914 |
| Hindi हिन्दी | 1.43× | 2.28× | 1.18× | 1.28× | $2,281 |
| Hinglish (Latin script) Hinglish | 1.41× | 1.55× | 1.27× | 1.31× | $1,553 |
Counted with each provider's official token counter. Models with identical counts are grouped: OpenAI GPT-6 family: gpt-6-astra, gpt-6.1-sol, gpt-6.1-terra, gpt-6-luna; Claude 5.x family: claude-opus-5-5, claude-sonnet-5-5, claude-haiku-5-5, claude-fable-5-1; Gemini 3.x family: gemini-3.1-pro-preview, gemini-3.8-flash, gemini-3.5-flash-lite; Gemini 4 Argon: gemini-4-argon. Each column compares a language with English on the same model. The English baseline itself differs: OpenAI GPT-6 family 276, Claude 5.x family 405, Gemini 3.x family 292, Gemini 4 Argon 292 tokens for the same 12 messages.
Same 12 messages, total tokens by model
| Language | OpenAI GPT-6 family | Claude 5.x family | Gemini 3.x family | Gemini 4 Argon |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| English | 276 | 405 | 292 | 292 |
| Odia | 1,339 | 2,159 | 983 | 669 |
| Punjabi | 681 | 2,702 | 719 | 652 |
| Telugu | 549 | 1,235 | 513 | 555 |
| Tamil | 528 | 1,302 | 397 | 482 |
| Kannada | 522 | 2,582 | 532 | 599 |
| Malayalam | 511 | 1,822 | 504 | 584 |
| Marathi | 492 | 1,052 | 369 | 428 |
| Gujarati | 462 | 1,202 | 504 | 585 |
| Urdu | 449 | 1,066 | 407 | 464 |
| Bengali | 446 | 1,180 | 341 | 400 |
| Hindi | 394 | 924 | 345 | 373 |
| Hinglish (Latin script) | 389 | 629 | 370 | 383 |
Fewest tokens in each row highlighted. Multiply by each model's price per token to compare bills; the checker below does this for you.
Tokenizer generations matter: on OpenAI's previous tokenizer (cl100k), Odia cost 12.25× and Kannada 9.22× English. If you still run an older model in an Indian language, moving to a current one can cut the token count several times over.
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| Extra vs English (avg. in/out) | – |
Estimate from measured tokens per character for this language and model family. Exact counts vary with wording.
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What the numbers mean
Who pays the most
Odia and Punjabi (Gurmukhi) are the two most expensive Indian languages on OpenAI and Gemini models; on Claude, Punjabi and Kannada top the list, ahead of Odia. Hindi is among the cheapest Indian scripts on every model.
Hinglish: it depends on the model
On GPT-6, Hinglish in Latin script costs almost what Hindi in Devanagari does (1.41× vs 1.43×). On Gemini 3.x it costs more (1.27× vs 1.18×). On Claude it uses 32% fewer tokens (629 vs 924). Measure on the model you use.
The right model depends on the language
Gemini 3.x is the most token-efficient of the families we measured for Hindi, Marathi, Tamil and Bengali; Gemini 4 Argon for Odia. Claude's tokenizer uses the most tokens for every Indian language we measured, from 2.28× English in Hindi to 6.67× in Punjabi. On OpenAI's previous tokenizer, Kannada and Malayalam took around 9× English and Odia over 12×, so check which model your product still calls.
A model built for your language removes the tax
For high-volume products in one or two Indian languages, a small model with an Indic tokenizer can cost a fraction of an API. Our SLM-1B research and custom SLM service start here.
Questions people ask
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Does Hindi cost more than English on ChatGPT, Claude or Gemini APIs?
Yes. In AiGanak's measurement with official token counters (4 November 2026), the same business messages took more tokens in Hindi than in English on every model: 1.18 times on Gemini 3.x, 1.28 on Gemini 4 Argon, 1.43 on OpenAI's GPT-6 models and 2.28 on Claude.
Which Indian language is most expensive for AI?
Odia and Punjabi on OpenAI and Gemini models: Odia takes 4.85 times English on GPT-6 and 3.37 on Gemini 3.x. On Claude, Punjabi (6.67 times English) and Kannada (6.38) cost more than Odia (5.33).
Is Hinglish cheaper than Hindi for LLMs?
It depends on the model. On OpenAI's GPT-6 models Hinglish in Latin script took 1.41 times English against 1.43 for Hindi in Devanagari. On Gemini 3.x it took more, 1.27 against 1.18. On Claude it took 32% fewer tokens than Hindi script.
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