Best all-around pick for image-heavy and multimodal workflows.
58
Coding
76
Writing
65
Research
97
Images
40
Value
52
Long Context
Use this when
Multimodal tasks and image-adjacent workflows
Skip this if
Strengths
Strong multimodal understanding across images, audio, and text
Good balance between speed and overall quality
Reliable for teams that mix content types regularly
Weaknesses
Outclassed by newer models on pure coding and reasoning
Gemini 3.1 Pro now handles multimodal at a lower price
Monthly cost estimate
See what GPT-4o actually costs at your usage level
Input tokens / month1M
10k50M
Output tokens / month500k
10k25M
Input cost
$0.150
Output cost
$0.300
Total / month
$0.450
Based on GPT-4o API pricing: $0.15/1M input · $0.6/1M output. Real costs vary by provider discounts and caching. Check the provider for exact current rates.
Price History
GPT-4o pricing over time
↓97% since Mar 24
41 data points · tracked daily since Mar 24, 2026
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Recommendations are made independently based on real-world use and public benchmarks. See our disclosures for details.
Compare alternatives
Similar models worth checking before you commit.
OpenAIBalanced
OpenAI: GPT-5 Image Mini
GPT-5 Image Mini is OpenAI's mid-tier multimodal model optimized for image understanding and generation tasks at a balanced price point. It supersedes GPT-4o with improved visual reasoning capabilities while maintaining a large 400K context window.
Verdict
A capable multimodal workhorse for image-heavy workflows that don't justify full GPT-5 flagship pricing.
GPT-4o is best for multimodal tasks and image-adjacent workflows. It is a strong fit when that workflow matters more than the tradeoffs around balanced pricing and fast speed.
When should I avoid GPT-4o?
You need the latest reasoning or coding performance — GPT-5.4 replaces it for serious work.
What is a cheaper alternative to GPT-4o?
Google: Nano Banana (Gemini 2.5 Flash Image) is the lower-cost option to compare first when you want a similar workflow fit with less token spend.
What is a faster alternative to GPT-4o?
OpenAI: GPT-5 Image Mini is the better pick when response time matters more than maximum depth or premium quality.
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You need the latest reasoning or coding performance — GPT-5.4 replaces it for serious work.
Best for teams needing strong image analysis and generation integrated with text workflows at a reasonable cost.
Context
400k tokens
Output cost of $2/1M tokens is unusual — lower than input cost, which favors use cases with long inputs but short outputs like image captioning or document summarization. Verify image generation token pricing separately, as image outputs are often billed differently by OpenAI.
MultimodalImage GenerationLong ContextBalanced PriceGPT-5 Family
Best for
Teams needing strong image analysis and generation integrated with text workflows at a reasonable cost.
Google: Nano Banana Pro (Gemini 3 Pro Image Preview)
Gemini 3 Pro Image Preview is Google's image-focused multimodal model designed for advanced visual understanding and generation tasks. It sits in the balanced price tier, targeting professional workflows that require strong image comprehension alongside text reasoning.
Verdict
A capable image-first multimodal model held back by a small context window and preview-stage instability.
Quality score
64%
Pricing
$2.00/1M in
$12.00/1M out
Speed
Balanced
Best for teams needing robust image analysis, visual question answering, and multimodal workflows at a mid-range price point.
Context
66k tokens
This is a preview model — API behavior, pricing, and availability may change before general release. The 65K context window is unusually constrained for a Gemini Pro-tier model; double-check if your use case requires longer contexts before committing.
VisionMultimodalGooglePreviewImage Analysis
Best for
Teams needing robust image analysis, visual question answering, and multimodal workflows at a mid-range price point.
GPT Audio is OpenAI's speech-capable model variant optimized for real-time audio input and output, enabling natural voice conversations and audio processing. It extends GPT-4o's multimodal capabilities with native audio understanding and generation without requiring separate transcription pipelines.
Verdict
The go-to choice for native voice AI applications, but overkill and potentially costly for anything without real audio requirements.
Quality score
43%
Pricing
$2.50/1M in
$10.00/1M out
Speed
Balanced
Best for building voice assistants, real-time spoken dialogue systems, and applications that need to process or generate natural speech end-to-end.
Context
128k tokens
Audio tokens are counted differently from text tokens — a few seconds of audio can consume hundreds of tokens, so monitor usage carefully. Real-time audio streaming requires WebSocket or Realtime API endpoints, not the standard Chat Completions API. Availability may be limited by tier or region.
Voice AIAudioMultimodalReal-timeSpeech
Best for
Building voice assistants, real-time spoken dialogue systems, and applications that need to process or generate natural speech end-to-end.