GPT-4o vs o3
A complete head-to-head: pricing, context window, benchmarks, modality coverage, and openness, with a programmatic verdict synthesized from the underlying data.
Updated
GPT-4o specs · o3 specs- Priceo3
o3 is roughly 1.3× cheaper on output tokens ($8.00 vs $10.00 per 1M).
- Context windowo3
o3 accepts 200K tokens vs 128K, 1.6× the room for long documents and codebases.
- Benchmarkso3
o3 leads in 1 of 1 shared benchmarks; the biggest gap is on HumanEval (Python coding), where it scores 95.0 vs 90.2.
- ModalitiesGPT-4o
GPT-4o supports 3 modalities (text, vision, audio) vs 2 for o3.
- OpennessTie
Both are closed-weight, API-only.
On balance o3 edges ahead, winning 3 of 5 categories against GPT-4o's 1. o3 is roughly 1.3× cheaper on output tokens ($8.00 vs $10.00 per 1M). o3 accepts 200K tokens vs 128K, 1.6× the room for long documents and codebases.
o3 leads in 1 of 1 shared benchmarks; the biggest gap is on HumanEval (Python coding), where it scores 95.0 vs 90.2. They differ in modality coverage, GPT-4o handles text, vision, audio while o3 handles text, vision, which can be the deciding factor before you even look at benchmarks. Both are closed-weight, API-only.
o3 is the newer of the two, released 11 months after GPT-4o, which usually means a more recent knowledge cutoff and updated safety post-training. GPT-4o is usually picked for chatbots and vision workloads, while o3 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
| Spec | GPT-4o | o3 |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | OpenAI | OpenAI |
| Released | May 2024 | Apr 2025 |
| Modalities | text, vision, audio | text, vision |
| Context window | 128K tokens | 200K tokens |
| Max output | , | , |
| Input · 1M | $2.50 / 1M tokens | $2.00 / 1M tokens |
| Output · 1M | $10.00 / 1M tokens | $8.00 / 1M tokens |
| Knowledge cutoff | 2023-10 | 2024-06 |
| Open weights | No | No |
| API available | Yes | Yes |
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$22.50 vs $18.00
- Heavy usage, 1M in / 500k out per day$225 vs $180
- RAG workload, 5M in / 200k out per day$435 vs $348
Light usage, 100k in / 50k out per day: $22.50 vs $18.00 per month, model B comes out ahead. Heavy usage, 1M in / 500k out per day: $225 vs $180 per month, model B comes out ahead. RAG workload, 5M in / 200k out per day: $435 vs $348 per month, model B comes out ahead.
Estimated spend for the listed models at your usage. Numbers are derived from each model's published per-million-token rates.
- GPT-4o$0.750
- o3$0.600
Benchmarks compared
Only sourced numbers. Where a benchmark is missing for one model we show the available value rather than fabricating the other.
- MMLU88.7
- HumanEval90.295.0
- GPQA,87.7
GPT-4o fits when…
- Native multimodal
- Mature SDK and tooling
- Multimodal needs covering audio.
o3 fits when…
- Industry-leading reasoning depth at launch
- Strong on math, science, and abstract puzzles
- Tool-use during reasoning loops
- Cost-sensitive workloads, 1.3× cheaper than GPT-4o on output tokens.
- Long-context tasks, handles 200K tokens vs 128K for GPT-4o.
Consider GPT-5.5
OpenAI's mid-cycle GPT-5 refresh, improved reasoning, tool use, and multimodal grounding over the 2025 launch.
Frequently asked
Is GPT-4o or o3 cheaper?
o3 is cheaper at $8.00 / 1M tokens per million output tokens, vs $10.00 / 1M tokens for GPT-4o.Which has the larger context window?
o3 accepts 200K tokens vs 128K for GPT-4o.Is GPT-4o or o3 better for coding?
Both GPT-4o and o3 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 GPT-4o and o3 released?
GPT-4o was released by OpenAI on 2024-05-13. o3 was released by OpenAI on 2025-04-16.
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