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Claude 3.5 Haiku vs GPT-5 mini

A complete head-to-head: pricing, context window, benchmarks, modality coverage, and openness, with a programmatic verdict synthesized from the underlying data.

Updated

Claude 3.5 Haiku specs · GPT-5 mini specs
Verdict by category
  • PriceGPT-5 mini

    GPT-5 mini is roughly 2.0× cheaper on output tokens ($2.00 vs $4.00 per 1M).

  • Context windowGPT-5 mini

    GPT-5 mini accepts 400K tokens vs 200K, 2.0× the room for long documents and codebases.

  • BenchmarksTie

    No directly comparable public benchmarks are available for both models, check the spec sheets for individual scores.

  • ModalitiesGPT-5 mini

    GPT-5 mini supports 3 modalities (text, vision, audio) vs 2 for Claude 3.5 Haiku.

  • OpennessTie

    Both are closed-weight, API-only.

On balance GPT-5 mini edges ahead, winning 3 of 5 categories against Claude 3.5 Haiku's 0. GPT-5 mini is roughly 2.0× cheaper on output tokens ($2.00 vs $4.00 per 1M). GPT-5 mini accepts 400K tokens vs 200K, 2.0× the room for long documents and codebases.

No directly comparable public benchmarks are available for both models, check the spec sheets for individual scores. They differ in modality coverage, Claude 3.5 Haiku handles text, vision while GPT-5 mini handles text, vision, audio, which can be the deciding factor before you even look at benchmarks. Both are closed-weight, API-only.

GPT-5 mini is the newer of the two, released 9 months after Claude 3.5 Haiku, which usually means a more recent knowledge cutoff and updated safety post-training. Claude 3.5 Haiku is usually picked for customer support and code completion workloads, while GPT-5 mini sees more deployments in code completion and customer support. If pricing matters more than every last benchmark point, run the numbers in the calculator below before committing.

Side-by-side specs

SpecClaude 3.5 HaikuGPT-5 mini
ProviderAnthropicOpenAI
ReleasedNov 2024Aug 2025
Modalitiestext, visiontext, vision, audio
Context window200K tokens400K tokens
Max output,128K tokens
Input · 1M$0.80 / 1M tokens$0.25 / 1M tokens
Output · 1M$4.00 / 1M tokens$2.00 / 1M tokens
Knowledge cutoff,2024-09
Open weightsNoNo
API availableYesYes

Pricing at scale

What you'd actually pay at typical workloads. Numbers come from each model's published per-million-token rates.

  • Light usage, 100k in / 50k out per day$8.40 vs $3.75
  • Heavy usage, 1M in / 500k out per day$84.00 vs $37.50
  • RAG workload, 5M in / 200k out per day$144 vs $49.50

Light usage, 100k in / 50k out per day: $8.40 vs $3.75 per month, model B comes out ahead. Heavy usage, 1M in / 500k out per day: $84.00 vs $37.50 per month, model B comes out ahead. RAG workload, 5M in / 200k out per day: $144 vs $49.50 per month, model B comes out ahead.

Price calculator

Estimated spend for the listed models at your usage. Numbers are derived from each model's published per-million-token rates.

  • Claude 3.5 Haiku$0.280
  • GPT-5 mini$0.125

Benchmarks compared

Only sourced numbers. Where a benchmark is missing for one model we show the available value rather than fabricating the other.

Benchmark scores not yet available. We only publish numbers we can source from official model cards or independent leaderboards, see methodology.
Pick Claude 3.5 Haiku if

Claude 3.5 Haiku fits when…

  • Fast
  • Cheap for Anthropic
  • Strong code at small size
Pick GPT-5 mini if

GPT-5 mini fits when…

  • Excellent price-quality ratio for production workloads
  • Fast first-token latency
  • Same tool-use API surface as flagship
  • Cost-sensitive workloads, 2.0× cheaper than Claude 3.5 Haiku on output tokens.
  • Long-context tasks, handles 400K tokens vs 200K for Claude 3.5 Haiku.
Don't want either?

Consider Claude Opus 4.7

Anthropic's mid-2026 flagship, ahead on SWE-bench, agent reliability, and writing quality.

See Claude Opus 4.7 specsClaude 3.5 Haiku vs Claude Opus 4.7GPT-5 mini vs Claude Opus 4.7

Frequently asked

  • Is Claude 3.5 Haiku or GPT-5 mini cheaper?
    GPT-5 mini is cheaper at $2.00 / 1M tokens per million output tokens, vs $4.00 / 1M tokens for Claude 3.5 Haiku.
  • Which has the larger context window?
    GPT-5 mini accepts 400K tokens vs 200K for Claude 3.5 Haiku.
  • Is Claude 3.5 Haiku or GPT-5 mini better for coding?
    Both Claude 3.5 Haiku and GPT-5 mini are competitive on coding benchmarks. See each model's individual spec page for HumanEval and SWE-bench scores where published. For an opinionated pick, consult our Best LLM for Coding ranking.
  • Are either of these models open source?
    Neither model ships open weights, both are accessible only via their respective providers' APIs.
  • When were Claude 3.5 Haiku and GPT-5 mini released?
    Claude 3.5 Haiku was released by Anthropic on 2024-11-04. GPT-5 mini was released by OpenAI on 2025-08-07.
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