Supports three reasoning effort settings via the API (low, medium, high), which significantly affect latency and token usage. No vision/image input support. Available via OpenAI API and ChatGPT Plus.
Strong mathematical and algorithmic reasoning that outperforms GPT-4o on many STEM benchmarks
200K context window allows processing of large codebases or lengthy technical documents
Significantly cheaper than o3 and Claude Sonnet 4.6 for reasoning-class tasks at $1.1/$4.4 per 1M tokens
Adjustable reasoning effort levels (low/medium/high) let users trade speed for depth
Weaknesses
Weaker on open-ended creative writing and nuanced prose compared to GPT-4o or Claude Sonnet 4.6
No native image input or multimodal capabilities
Reasoning overhead makes it slower than non-reasoning models like GPT-4o Mini for simple tasks
Real-world use cases
What people actually use o3 Mini for.
Debugging a complex recursive algorithm with detailed step-by-step error tracing
Solving multi-step calculus or combinatorics problems with verifiable intermediate steps
Analyzing and summarizing a 150-page technical specification document for key requirements
How o3 Mini compares
The nearest models people weigh against it, and what actually separates them.
vs o3 Mini High — Against o3 Mini High (OpenAI), o3 Mini lands within a few percent on price and answers faster. Which one wins depends on whether context depth or latency is your constraint.
vs o4 Mini — Against o4 Mini (OpenAI), o3 Mini lands within a few percent on price. Which one wins depends on whether context depth or latency is your constraint.
vs GPT-3.5 Turbo (older v0613) — Against GPT-3.5 Turbo (older v0613) (OpenAI), o3 Mini costs about 45% more per token, takes 48.8x the context and answers slower. GPT-3.5 Turbo (older v0613) is the one to check first if the price difference matters more than the ceiling.
Price History
o3 Mini pricing over time
→0% since May 31
90 data points · tracked daily since May 31, 2026
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Start using o3 Mini
Cost-effective deep reasoning on math, code, and structured logic problems where o3's full price isn't justified.. Start free — no card required.
o3 Mini High is OpenAI's compact reasoning model running at maximum reasoning effort, delivering deep chain-of-thought problem-solving in a cost-efficient package. It specializes in STEM tasks — math, coding, and logic — where extended deliberation yields significantly better results than standard chat models.
Verdict
The best bang-for-buck reasoning model for STEM and coding tasks that can tolerate slow response times.
Quality score
66%
Pricing
$1.10/1M in
$4.40/1M out
Speed
Deliberate
1/5 speed
Context
200k tokens
The 'High' suffix refers to the reasoning_effort parameter set to 'high', which increases token usage and latency significantly versus o3 Mini at medium or low effort. Priced at $1.1/$4.4 per million tokens, it is far cheaper than o1 ($15/$60) and full o3, making it attractive for batch workloads.
o4 Mini is OpenAI's compact reasoning model that applies chain-of-thought thinking to complex problems at a fraction of the cost of o4. It delivers strong mathematical, coding, and logical reasoning capabilities while remaining accessible to developers on tighter budgets.
Verdict
The most cost-efficient reasoning model for serious STEM and coding workloads.
Quality score
70%
Pricing
$1.10/1M in
$4.40/1M out
Speed
Deliberate
2/5 speed
Context
200k tokens
Priced at $1.1/$4.4 per 1M tokens (input/output), o4 Mini is significantly cheaper than o3 ($10/$40) and o4. Output tokens are 4x the input price, so verbose reasoning traces can add up — use max_completion_tokens limits in production pipelines.
ReasoningSTEMBudget-FriendlyLong ContextCoding
Best for
Developers and analysts who need serious reasoning power for STEM tasks without paying full o4 or o3 prices.
An older versioned snapshot of GPT-3.5 Turbo (v0613), OpenAI's once-dominant mid-tier language model optimized for fast chat completions and instruction following. This specific checkpoint is frozen in time, predating later capability improvements introduced in subsequent GPT-3.5 Turbo updates.
Verdict
A once-useful workhorse now completely overshadowed by cheaper, more capable successors.
Quality score
31%
Pricing
$1.00/1M in
$2.00/1M out
Speed
Very fast
5/5 speed
Context
4k tokens
This is a pinned legacy snapshot (v0613) and may eventually be deprecated by OpenAI. The 4,095-token context window is its most significant practical limitation. OpenAI's own GPT-4o mini offers drastically more context and better quality at a comparable price — strongly consider migrating.
LegacyBudgetFastShort ContextOpenAI
Best for
High-volume, cost-sensitive text tasks like classification, summarization, and simple Q&A where bleeding-edge quality is not required.
o3 Mini costs $1.1 per million input tokens and $4.4 per million output tokens on the API, with cached input at $0.55 per million. A month of 10M input and 2M output tokens runs about $19.80 at list price, before any batch or caching discounts.
What is the context window of o3 Mini?
o3 Mini has a 200k tokens context window, with up to 100k tokens of output per response. That is the total of prompt plus response the model can hold in one request.
What is the knowledge cutoff of o3 Mini?
o3 Mini's training data runs through May 2024, and the model was released on January 31, 2025. For anything after that date it needs web search or documents in the prompt.
What is o3 Mini best for?
o3 Mini is best for cost-effective deep reasoning on math, code, and structured logic problems where o3's full price isn't justified.. It is a strong fit when that workflow matters more than the tradeoffs around balanced pricing and deliberate speed.
When should I avoid o3 Mini?
You need fast, conversational responses, creative writing, or image understanding — use GPT-4o Mini or Claude Haiku instead.
What is a cheaper alternative to o3 Mini?
GPT-3.5 Turbo (older v0613) (OpenAI) at $1.00/1M/1M input against o3 Mini's $1.10/1M/1M — roughly 45% less per token all in. A once-useful workhorse now completely overshadowed by cheaper, more capable successors. Compare it first if o3 Mini's pricing is the thing stopping you.
What is a faster alternative to o3 Mini?
o3 Mini High — deliberate against o3 Mini's deliberate, with 200k tokens of context. Worth the swap when response time is what your users notice rather than the last few points of reasoning depth.
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