Cost Comparison (1000 input + 500 output tokens, 100 requests/day)
o3
o4-mini
Cost Differences
o4-mini costs less than o3
Feature Comparison
| Feature | o3 | o4-mini |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | OpenAI | OpenAI |
| Input Price | $2.00/1M tokens | $1.10/1M tokens |
| Output Price | $8.00/1M tokens | $4.40/1M tokens |
| Context Window | 1,000,000 tokens | 2,000,000 tokens |
| Max Output | 131,072 tokens | 131,072 tokens |
| Category | reasoning | reasoning |
| Capabilities | textreasoningvisioncode | textreasoningcode |
| Release Date | 4/16/2025 | 4/16/2025 |
o3 vs o4-mini: Which Should You Choose?
Choosing between o3 and o4-mini depends on your priorities: cost efficiency, context length, or raw capability. o4-mini is the more affordable option at $1.10/1M input tokens — 45% cheaper than o3. Meanwhile, o4-mini offers a significantly larger context window at 2,000,000 tokens vs 1,000,000 for o3.
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: o4-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. o3 charges $8.00/1M output tokens vs $4.40 for o4-mini. For generation-heavy workloads (content creation, code generation, summarization), output pricing often dominates your bill. o4-mini has the edge here at $4.40/1M output tokens.
Multimodal capabilities: o3 supports vision (image inputs) while o4-mini is text-only. If your application needs image understanding, this narrows your choice.
Best Use Cases
Choose o3 when:
- • You need more capabilities (vision)
- • You're already using OpenAI's API ecosystem
Choose o4-mini when:
- • Budget is a primary concern
- • You need a larger context window (2,000,000 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
o3 (OpenAI)
o4-mini (OpenAI)
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