Is o3-mini or o4 cheaper?

Per-token pricing isn't published for at least one of these models, check each model's spec page for current rates.

Which has the larger context window?

Both o3-mini and o4 ship a 200K-token context window.

Is o3-mini or o4 better for coding?

Both o3-mini and o4 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 o3-mini and o4 released?

o3-mini was released by OpenAI on 2025-01-31. o4 was released by OpenAI on 2025-12-15.

Is o3-mini or o4 cheaper?

Per-token pricing isn't published for at least one of these models, check each model's spec page for current rates.

Which has the larger context window?

Both o3-mini and o4 ship a 200K-token context window.

Is o3-mini or o4 better for coding?

Both o3-mini and o4 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 o3-mini and o4 released?

o3-mini was released by OpenAI on 2025-01-31. o4 was released by OpenAI on 2025-12-15.

o3-mini vs o4

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

UpdatedApr 30, 2026

o3-mini specs · o4 specs

Verdict by category

Priceo3-mini
o3-mini publishes pricing ($4.40 / 1M output tokens) while o4 does not.
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.
Modalitieso4
o4 supports 2 modalities (text, vision) vs 1 for o3-mini.
OpennessTie
Both are closed-weight, API-only.

It's a genuine coin-flip between o3-mini and o4: 1 category wins each, with the rest tied. o3-mini publishes pricing ($4.40 / 1M output tokens) while o4 does not. 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, o3-mini handles text while o4 handles text, vision, which can be the deciding factor before you even look at benchmarks. Both are closed-weight, API-only.

o4 is the newer of the two, released 11 months after o3-mini, which usually means a more recent knowledge cutoff and updated safety post-training. o3-mini is usually picked for reasoning and math workloads, while o4 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	o3-mini	o4
Provider	OpenAI	OpenAI
Released	Jan 2025	Dec 2025
Modalities	text	text, vision
Context window	200K tokens	200K tokens
Max output	,	,
Input · 1M	$1.10 / 1M tokens	Pricing not published
Output · 1M	$4.40 / 1M tokens	Pricing not published
Knowledge cutoff	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$9.90 vs ,
Heavy usage, 1M in / 500k out per day$99.00 vs ,
RAG workload, 5M in / 200k out per day$191 vs ,

Light usage, 100k in / 50k out per day: pricing not directly comparable (one or both models are missing public per-token rates). Heavy usage, 1M in / 500k out per day: pricing not directly comparable (one or both models are missing public per-token rates). RAG workload, 5M in / 200k out per day: pricing not directly comparable (one or both models are missing public per-token rates).

Price calculator

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

Input tokens / dayOutput tokens / dayHorizon

o3-mini$0.330
o4Pricing unavailable

Benchmarks compared

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

o3-minio4

GPQA79.7

Pick o3-mini if

o3-mini fits when…

Reasoning at mid-tier cost
Fast for a thinking model

Pick o4 if

o4 fits when…

Exceptional performance on hard math and reasoning benchmarks
Good at multi-step planning and verification
Strong scientific reasoning
Multimodal needs covering vision.

Don't want either?

Consider GPT-5.5

OpenAI's mid-cycle GPT-5 refresh, improved reasoning, tool use, and multimodal grounding over the 2025 launch.

See GPT-5.5 specs o3-mini vs GPT-5.5 o4 vs GPT-5.5

Frequently asked

Is o3-mini or o4 cheaper?
Per-token pricing isn't published for at least one of these models, check each model's spec page for current rates.
Which has the larger context window?
Both o3-mini and o4 ship a 200K-token context window.
Is o3-mini or o4 better for coding?
Both o3-mini and o4 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 o3-mini and o4 released?
o3-mini was released by OpenAI on 2025-01-31. o4 was released by OpenAI on 2025-12-15.

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