AI model comparison
o4 Mini vs o3 Mini
Pricing, context window, benchmarks, and features compared side by side. Or skip the guesswork and send one prompt to both.
OpenAI
o4 Mini
OpenAI o4-mini is a compact reasoning model in the o-series, optimized for fast, cost-efficient performance while retaining strong multimodal and agentic capabilities.
- Input / 1M
- $1.10
- Output / 1M
- $4.40
- Context
- 200K
OpenAI
o3 Mini
OpenAI o3-mini is a cost-efficient language model optimized for STEM reasoning tasks, particularly excelling in science, mathematics, and coding.
- Input / 1M
- $1.10
- Output / 1M
- $4.40
- Context
- 200K
At a glance
Quick verdict
How the two models stack up on the things people ask about most.
Lower price
Tie
Same price for a typical chat
Higher intelligence score
o4 Mini
16.7 vs 12.5 on Artificial Analysis
Larger context window
Tie
200K vs 200K tokens
Newer release
o4 Mini
Released April 16, 2025
Benchmarks
Benchmark scores
Independent scores from Artificial Analysis. Higher is better.
Intelligence index
o4 Mini16.7o3 Mini12.5Coding index
o4 MiniNot availableo3 MiniNot availableAgentic index
o4 MiniNot availableo3 MiniNot availablePricing
o4 Mini vs o3 Mini API pricing
Per-token API rates. Cheaper option highlighted.
| Metric | o4 Mini | o3 Mini |
|---|---|---|
| Input tokensPer 1M tokens | $1.10 | $1.10 |
| Output tokensPer 1M tokens | $4.40 | $4.40 |
| Cached input (read)Per 1M tokens | $0.28 | $0.55 |
| Cache writePer 1M tokens | Not available | Not available |
| Web searchPer request | $0.01 | $0.01 |
What it costs in practice
Estimated cost per 1,000 requests at standard rates. Coding and long-document figures also show the cost when the input is already cached.
Chat message
2K in, 500 out
o4 Mini$4.40o3 Mini$4.40Coding task
30K in, 4K out
o4 Mini$50.60$25.85 cachedo3 Mini$50.60$34.10 cachedLong document summary
150K in, 2K out
o4 Mini$173.80$50.05 cachedo3 Mini$173.80$91.30 cachedSpecs
Context window and capabilities
How much each model can read, how much it can write, and what it accepts as input.
| Metric | o4 Mini | o3 Mini |
|---|---|---|
| Context window | 200K tokens | 200K tokens |
| Max output | 100K tokens | 100K tokens |
| Input types | File, Image, Text | File, Text |
| Output types | Text | Text |
| Reasoning effort levels | Not available | Not available |
| Default reasoning effort | Not available | Not available |
| Release date | April 16, 2025 | January 31, 2025 |
Features
Supported features
API features available for each model.
| Metric | o4 Mini | o3 Mini |
|---|---|---|
| Tool calling | Supported | Supported |
| Structured outputs | Supported | Supported |
| JSON mode | Supported | Supported |
| Reasoning | Supported | Supported |
| Temperature | Not supported | Not supported |
| Stop sequences | Not supported | Not supported |
| Deterministic seed | Supported | Supported |
| Verbosity control | Not supported | Not supported |
Keep exploring
More on these models
Other head-to-heads, the full model page, and the alternatives list for each model.
o4 MiniView full model details- o4 Mini vs GPT-5.4 Mini
- o4 Mini vs GPT-5 Mini
- o4 Mini vs o3
- o4 Mini vs Claude Sonnet 4
- o4 Mini vs Claude Haiku 4.5
- o4 Mini vs Gemini 2.5 Pro
- o4 Mini vs Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite
- o4 Mini vs Gemini 2.5 Flash
- o4 Mini vs Kimi K2 0905
- o4 Mini vs o1
- o4 Mini vs Mistral Medium 3.5
- o4 Mini vs GPT-4.1
- o4 Mini vs o3 Mini High
o3 MiniView full model details- o3 Mini vs Claude Haiku 4.5
- o3 Mini vs Gemini 2.5 Flash
- o3 Mini vs Mistral Medium 3.5
- o3 Mini vs R1 0528
- o3 Mini vs Command A
- o3 Mini vs GLM 4.5
- o3 Mini vs GPT-4.1
- o3 Mini vs Kimi K2 0711
- o3 Mini vs Qwen3 235B A22B Thinking 2507
- o3 Mini vs o1-pro
- o3 Mini vs Sonar Reasoning Pro
- o3 Mini vs o3 Mini High
- o3 Mini vs GPT-4.1 Mini
- o3 Mini vs GPT-4o (2024-11-20)
Our take
o4 Mini scores higher on the Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index (16.7 vs 12.5). The right pick depends on your workload, so the quickest way to settle it is to send the same prompt to both and compare.
FAQ
Frequently asked questions
Is o4 Mini or o3 Mini cheaper?
o4 Mini and o3 Mini cost the same for a typical chat (2K input tokens and 500 output tokens). o4 Mini costs $1.10 per 1M input tokens and $4.40 per 1M output tokens, and o3 Mini costs $1.10 per 1M input tokens and $4.40 per 1M output tokens.
Which has a bigger context window, o4 Mini or o3 Mini?
o4 Mini supports up to 200K tokens of context, compared with 200K for o3 Mini.
Is o4 Mini smarter than o3 Mini?
On the Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index, o4 Mini scores 16.7 and o3 Mini scores 12.5, putting o4 Mini ahead. Benchmarks don't capture everything, so the best test is running your own prompts through both.
Can I use o4 Mini and o3 Mini at the same time?
Yes. Shortcut Chat sends one prompt to multiple models at once, so you can see o4 Mini and o3 Mini answer side by side and keep the better response.
Why choose? Ask both.
Send one prompt to o4 Mini and o3 Mini at the same time. Compare the answers side by side and keep the best one.