o4-mini is OpenAI's most cost-effective reasoning model, offering o-series chain-of-thought capability at roughly half the price of o3. It is the default reasoning choice when budget is a constraint.
Input Price
$1.10/1M
per 1M tokens
Output Price
$4.40/1M
per 1M tokens
Context Window
200K tokens
max tokens
ELO Score
1350
LMSYS Arena
Pricing Breakdown
| Volume | Input Cost | Output Cost | Combined (50/50) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1,000 tokens | $0.0011 | $0.0044 | $0.0027 |
| 10,000 tokens | $0.0110 | $0.0440 | $0.0275 |
| 100,000 tokens | $0.1100 | $0.4400 | $0.2750 |
| 1,000,000 tokens | $1.1000 | $4.4000 | $2.7500 |
Strengths
- ✓Cheapest reasoning model in the OpenAI lineup
- ✓Strong performance on code and math for the price
- ✓200K context window
- ✓Good latency vs. full o3
Weaknesses
- ✗Noticeably behind o3 on the hardest reasoning benchmarks
- ✗Still slower than non-reasoning GPT-5.4 variants
Compare o4-mini With
Frequently Asked Questions
How much does o4-mini cost?
o4-mini costs $1.10/1M per 1M input tokens and $4.40/1M per 1M output tokens.
What is o4-mini's context window?
o4-mini has a context window of 200K tokens, which means it can process up to 200,000 tokens in a single request.
Is o4-mini open source?
No, o4-mini is a proprietary model by OpenAI and is not open source.
What is o4-mini best used for?
o4-mini is best suited for: reasoning, coding, math, low-cost. Cheapest reasoning model in the OpenAI lineup.
What is o4-mini's ELO score?
o4-mini has an ELO score of 1350 on the LMSYS Chatbot Arena leaderboard, placing it among top-tier models.