AI for Social Media: Which API Fits Your Needs and Wallet?

Choosing the right AI API for scalable, cost-effective social-media content

Have you ever wondered which AI backend is best for pumping out social-media posts without breaking the bank?

If you’re anything like me, you want solid quality, predictable costs, and a bit of fun along the way.

In today’s issue, I analyze for you the major AI API options, see exactly how much a “medium-length post” costs, and decide which model fits your use case. By the end, you’ll know where to invest your tokens… and your energy.

To make the understanding of the numbers more affordable, we will use “a medium-length post” as the metric unit, so we can encapsulate there the number of tokens that it costs and forget about tokens.

☝🏼 What a “Medium-Length” means?

• A typical social-media asset (e.g., a detailed LinkedIn update or a Twitter thread summary) runs around 2000 tokens, including prompt + response.

• That translates roughly to 300–350 words, which is perfect for conveying meaningful ideas without verbosity.

By standardizing on 2000 tokens, we can compare apples to apples. Ready?

💸 Cost per 2K-Tokens Post (June 2025)

Below is a bar chart showing how much each model charges (USD) for a single 2000-token request:

Cost per Medium-Length Post (2000 tokens), sorted by model.Notice how budgets range from fractions of a cent to nearly ten cents per post

🔍 Breakdown of Each API

1. Claude 3 Opus (SOTA): $0.09 per post

   • When to pick it?

     • You’re summarizing multi-page blog posts, whitepapers, or research.

     • It excels at coherent, multi-paragraph structures.

   • Trade-offs:

     • The highest per-post cost here; reserve Opus for high-impact products.

2. GPT-4 Turbo (Advanced): $0.04 per post

   • When to pick it?

     • You want GPT-4-level performance with slightly faster response times.

     • Great for agile teams that iterate dozens of times.

   • Trade-offs:

     • Twice the per-post cost of GPT-4o, so plan accordingly.

3. GPT-4o (SOTA): $0.02 per post

   • When to pick it?

     • You need top-tier creativity and nuance.

     • Ideal for brand-building or in-depth storytelling.

   • Trade-offs:

     • You still get stellar quality, but you’ll hit higher monthly bills if you post frequently.

4. Claude 3 Sonnet (Advanced): $0.018 per post

   • When to pick it?

     • You want a balance between Opus’s fluency and Haiku’s thrift.

     • Good for detailed LinkedIn articles with moderate complexity.

   • Trade-offs:

     • Slightly pricier than GPT-4o, but still much cheaper than Opus.

5. Gemini 1.5 Pro (SOTA): $0.014 per post

   • When to pick it?

     • You’re deep in Google Cloud already and want a high-quality alternative.

     • Useful for multi-modal pipelines (e.g., combining images + text).

   • Trade-offs:

     • A bit less community-tested than GPT, but solid for general marketing.

6. GPT-3.5 Turbo (Budget): $0.002 per post

   • When to pick it?

     • You need massive volume—bulk captions, auto-tagging, or simple tweets.

     • Suitable for proof-of-concept or when editing downstream is acceptable.

   • Trade-offs:

     • Less nuanced output; you may need a round of manual tweaks.

7. Claude 3 Haiku (Budget): $0.0015 per post

   • When to pick it?

     • Brainstorming tweet threads, generating headlines, or quick captions.

     • You want rock-bottom cost to scale content volume.

   • Trade-offs:

     • May struggle with very long prompts; best for short/concise output.

8. Gemini 2.0 Flash (SOTA mini): $0.00075 per post

   • When to pick it?

     • You need occasional deep dives (longer context) but still want ultra-low cost.

     • Good choice if you mix short and long content in one workflow.

   • Trade-offs:

     • Slightly costlier than Flash Lite, but supports up to 1 M tokens context.

9. Gemini 2.0 Flash Lite (Budget): $0.000375 per post

   • When to pick it?

     • Your workflow is almost entirely batch: short captions, hashtag generation, quick summaries.

     • You want almost zero marginal cost for volumes.

   • Trade-offs:

     • Lowest tier—meets most basic needs, but not suited for extended dialogues.

10. Gemini 1.5 Flash (Budget): $0.000375 per post

    • When to pick it?

      • Prototyping “infinite scroll” content—tweet storms, short reels scripts.

      • You don’t mind splitting longer contexts into smaller chunks.

    • Trade-offs:

      • Best for short bursts; longer inputs require manual chunking.

Some prices could look like (ridicusly) small; Don’t get fooled and be careful in your apps avoiding many calls in few seconds in these APIs, because your wallet will feel it.

🎯 Use-Case Matchmaking

Some recommendations based on use cases. I did not validate them, just the research I made.

• Bulk Social-Media Automation:

  • Claude 3 Haiku or Gemini Flash Lite.

  • Drive hundreds of posts per month at pennies apiece.

• Mid-Tier Brand Content:

  • Claude 3 Sonnet, Gemini 1.5 Pro, or GPT-4o.

  • Great balance: polished tone without bleeding the budget.

• High-Impact Storytelling:

  • GPT-4o, Claude 3 Opus, or Gemini 2.0 Flash.

  • Reserve for cornerstone articles, deep-dives, or flagship campaigns.

• Proof-of-Concept / Prototyping:

  • GPT-3.5 Turbo.

  • Almost free approach to get something live quickly, then upgrade as needed.

✨ Takeaways

All right, let’s wrap up for today.

1. Measure first, then choose. Run a quick A/B test: feed each model the same blog snippet and compare accuracy, tone, and readability.

2. Track tokens and costs. Use simple logging to monitor how many tokens you burn per post. Over 500 posts/month (at 2000 tokens each), costs range from $0.75 (Gemini Flash Lite) to $45 (Claude 3 Opus).

3. Match the API to your value tier. If you’re selling premium content services, invest in GPT-4o or Claude 3 Opus. If you’re building a lean MVP, Gemini 2.0 Flash Lite or Claude 3 Haiku will work wonders.

4. Keep iterating prompts. Whatever model you pick, refine your instructions. Small prompt tweaks can slash token usage without sacrificing quality.

I did this research for a SaaS product I’m designing as we speak (yeah, I know, fancy name for just another side project 😅), so I hope this helps you decide which AI engine to power your social-media workflows.

Feel free to reply with your experiences or questions. Let’s keep learning together.

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Thank you for your support and feedback. I really appreciate it!

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