Cost Comparison (1000 input + 500 output tokens, 100 requests/day)
o1-mini
o3
Cost Differences
o3 costs more than o1-mini
Feature Comparison
| Feature | o1-mini | o3 |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | OpenAI | OpenAI |
| Input Price | $1.10/1M tokens | $2.00/1M tokens |
| Output Price | $4.40/1M tokens | $8.00/1M tokens |
| Context Window | 128,000 tokens | 1,000,000 tokens |
| Max Output | 65,536 tokens | 131,072 tokens |
| Category | reasoning | reasoning |
| Capabilities | textreasoning | textreasoningvisioncode |
| Release Date | 9/12/2024 | 4/16/2025 |
o1-mini vs o3: Which Should You Choose?
Choosing between o1-mini and o3 depends on your priorities: cost efficiency, context length, or raw capability. o1-mini is the more affordable option at $1.10/1M input tokens — 45% cheaper than o3. Meanwhile, o3 offers a significantly larger context window at 1,000,000 tokens vs 128,000 for o1-mini.
Both models are in the reasoning category, making this a direct head-to-head comparison. At scale — say 10,000 requests per day — the cost difference adds up: o1-mini would save you roughly $810.00/month compared to o3. For startups and indie developers, that difference can be significant.
Output costs matter too. o1-mini charges $4.40/1M output tokens vs $8.00 for o3. For generation-heavy workloads (content creation, code generation, summarization), output pricing often dominates your bill. o1-mini has the edge here at $4.40/1M output tokens.
Multimodal capabilities: o3 supports vision (image inputs) while o1-mini is text-only. If your application needs image understanding, this narrows your choice.
Best Use Cases
Choose o1-mini when:
- • Budget is a primary concern
- • You're already using OpenAI's API ecosystem
Choose o3 when:
- • You need a larger context window (1,000,000 tokens)
- • You need more capabilities (vision, code)
- • You need longer outputs (up to 131,072 tokens)
- • You're already using OpenAI's API ecosystem
Try Different Scenarios
Use the calculator below to see how costs change with different usage patterns
o1-mini (OpenAI)
o3 (OpenAI)
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