GPT-4o 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
GPT-4o specs · o3-mini specs- Priceo3-mini
o3-mini is roughly 2.3× cheaper on output tokens ($4.40 vs $10.00 per 1M).
- Context windowo3-mini
o3-mini accepts 200K tokens vs 128K, 1.6× 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-4o
GPT-4o supports 3 modalities (text, vision, audio) vs 1 for o3-mini.
- OpennessTie
Both are closed-weight, API-only.
On balance o3-mini edges ahead, winning 2 of 5 categories against GPT-4o's 1. o3-mini is roughly 2.3× cheaper on output tokens ($4.40 vs $10.00 per 1M). o3-mini accepts 200K tokens vs 128K, 1.6× 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, GPT-4o handles text, vision, audio 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 9 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-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
| Spec | GPT-4o | o3-mini |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | OpenAI | OpenAI |
| Released | May 2024 | Jan 2025 |
| Modalities | text, vision, audio | text |
| Context window | 128K tokens | 200K tokens |
| Max output | , | , |
| Input · 1M | $2.50 / 1M tokens | $1.10 / 1M tokens |
| Output · 1M | $10.00 / 1M tokens | $4.40 / 1M tokens |
| Knowledge cutoff | 2023-10 | 2023-10 |
| 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 $9.90
- Heavy usage, 1M in / 500k out per day$225 vs $99.00
- RAG workload, 5M in / 200k out per day$435 vs $191
Light usage, 100k in / 50k out per day: $22.50 vs $9.90 per month, model B comes out ahead. Heavy usage, 1M in / 500k out per day: $225 vs $99.00 per month, model B comes out ahead. RAG workload, 5M in / 200k out per day: $435 vs $191 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-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.
- MMLU88.7
- HumanEval90.2
- GPQA,79.7
GPT-4o fits when…
- Native multimodal
- Mature SDK and tooling
- Multimodal needs covering vision, audio.
o3-mini fits when…
- Reasoning at mid-tier cost
- Fast for a thinking model
- Cost-sensitive workloads, 2.3× 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-mini cheaper?
o3-mini is cheaper at $4.40 / 1M tokens per million output tokens, vs $10.00 / 1M tokens for GPT-4o.Which has the larger context window?
o3-mini accepts 200K tokens vs 128K for GPT-4o.Is GPT-4o or o3-mini better for coding?
Both GPT-4o 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 GPT-4o and o3-mini released?
GPT-4o was released by OpenAI on 2024-05-13. o3-mini was released by OpenAI on 2025-01-31.
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