LLM·Dex
Newsletter

Claude 3.5 Haiku vs o3-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 · o3-mini specs
Verdict by category
  • PriceClaude 3.5 Haiku

    Claude 3.5 Haiku is roughly 1.1× cheaper on output tokens ($4.00 vs $4.40 per 1M).

  • Context windowTie

    Both ship a 200K-token context window.

  • BenchmarksTie

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

  • ModalitiesClaude 3.5 Haiku

    Claude 3.5 Haiku supports 2 modalities (text, vision) vs 1 for o3-mini.

  • OpennessTie

    Both are closed-weight, API-only.

On balance Claude 3.5 Haiku edges ahead, winning 2 of 5 categories against o3-mini's 0. Claude 3.5 Haiku is roughly 1.1× cheaper on output tokens ($4.00 vs $4.40 per 1M). Both ship a 200K-token context window.

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 o3-mini handles text, which can be the deciding factor before you even look at benchmarks. Both are closed-weight, API-only.

o3-mini is the newer of the two, released 3 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 o3-mini sees more deployments in reasoning and math. 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 Haikuo3-mini
ProviderAnthropicOpenAI
ReleasedNov 2024Jan 2025
Modalitiestext, visiontext
Context window200K tokens200K tokens
Max output,,
Input · 1M$0.80 / 1M tokens$1.10 / 1M tokens
Output · 1M$4.00 / 1M tokens$4.40 / 1M tokens
Knowledge cutoff,2023-10
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 $9.90
  • Heavy usage, 1M in / 500k out per day$84.00 vs $99.00
  • RAG workload, 5M in / 200k out per day$144 vs $191

Light usage, 100k in / 50k out per day: $8.40 vs $9.90 per month, model A comes out ahead. Heavy usage, 1M in / 500k out per day: $84.00 vs $99.00 per month, model A comes out ahead. RAG workload, 5M in / 200k out per day: $144 vs $191 per month, model A 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
  • o3-mini$0.330

Benchmarks compared

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

Claude 3.5 Haikuo3-mini
  • GPQA,79.7
Pick Claude 3.5 Haiku if

Claude 3.5 Haiku fits when…

  • Fast
  • Cheap for Anthropic
  • Strong code at small size
  • Multimodal needs covering vision.
Pick o3-mini if

o3-mini fits when…

  • Reasoning at mid-tier cost
  • Fast for a thinking model
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 4.7o3-mini vs Claude Opus 4.7

Frequently asked

  • Is Claude 3.5 Haiku or o3-mini cheaper?
    Claude 3.5 Haiku is cheaper at $4.00 / 1M tokens per million output tokens, vs $4.40 / 1M tokens for o3-mini.
  • Which has the larger context window?
    Both Claude 3.5 Haiku and o3-mini ship a 200K-token context window.
  • Is Claude 3.5 Haiku or o3-mini better for coding?
    Both Claude 3.5 Haiku and o3-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 o3-mini released?
    Claude 3.5 Haiku was released by Anthropic on 2024-11-04. o3-mini was released by OpenAI on 2025-01-31.
Friday digest

The week's AI launches, in your inbox.

One short email every Friday, new models, leaks, and quietly-shipped APIs you missed.