Sber and Yandex cut LLM token prices — GigaChat down 67%, YandexGPT Pro down 33% (Nodul research)
Sber / Yandex
On Aug 25, 2026, Nodul platform research published via RBC showed both Sber and Yandex substantially cut LLM token prices over Oct 2025 - Aug 2026: GigaChat Lite 0.20 -> 0.065 RUB/1k (-67.5%), GigaChat Pro 1.50 -> 0.50 RUB/1k (-66.7%), YandexGPT Pro 5.1 0.80 RUB/1k (-33% vs YandexGPT 5 Pro), YandexGPT Lite unchanged at 0.20 RUB/1k. Yandex disputes Nodul's methodology (comparison was against prior-gen models) and points to the newer Alice AI LLM Flash as the relevant model — about 0.425 RUB for 5,000 tokens, a >14x drop YoY. Sber also disputes the headline figures. Foreign models of comparable class remain up to 10x cheaper: DeepSeek V4 Flash ~0.0375/0.112 RUB, GPT-5.4 mini ~0.064/0.383 RUB, Qwen 3.8 Max ~0.17/0.511 RUB per 1k in/out. Yandex separately reported that AI Studio commercial token consumption in 1H 2026 reached 597B — 18x YoY.
Why it matters
Sharpest disclosed price cuts from the two leading Russian LLM providers in the cycle. The race with Chinese models is structural: high Russian prices reflect the need to self-fund data centers under GPU-import and personal-data restrictions, so token-cost competitiveness is the real moat for any Russian-first enterprise deployment. Yandex's pivot to a cheaper flagship (Alice AI LLM Flash) over the YandexGPT line is a noteworthy naming/positioning move.
Importance: 4/5
major release, ≥4 confirmations