o4-mini
Retired Oct 2026OpenAI's small, fast reasoning model, released April 2025 alongside o3, notably strong at math.
- Context
- 200K tokens
- Max output
- 100K
- Cutoff
- Released
Hosted API price
Cheapest via Replicate · per 1M tokens
- Input
- $1.00 /1M
- Output
- $4.00 /1M
- Hosted by
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2 providers
Hosted API pricing
How we price
Order
Providers are listed cheapest input rate first, then by output rate, a tie going to the creator's own listing. A provider that lists the model without a published rate sits at the end.
Prices
Base-tier, on-demand rates in USD per 1M tokens, converted at ECB reference rates where a provider publishes in another currency. Cached-input and batch rates show only where a provider publishes them. "Cheapest" marks the one provider with the lowest input and output pair; a tie wears no badge.
Cost
Input rate times the input tokens plus output rate times the output tokens, at the monthly volume set above the table. Cached-input, batch, long-context and reasoning-token billing are not modelled.
Transparency and funding
- Affiliates: Affiliate links are marked. We may earn a commission if you click them, but commissions never affect the order.
Every provider serving o4-mini, cheapest input first. Set your monthly volume to see what each would bill.
| Provider | Input /1M | Output /1M | Cached input /1M | Cost at 10M in + 2M out | Link |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
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$1.00 | $4.00 | $18.00 | Visit website | |
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$1.10 | $4.40 | $0.275 | $19.80 | Visit website |
Heads up: Base-tier, on-demand rates per 1M tokens; cached, batch and long-context tiers excluded. A provider may serve a shorter context or a quantized build than the creator's release. Verify before provisioning. More on how we price.
Similarly priced models
The models nearest o4-mini by blended rate, each at its own cheapest provider.
| Model | Blended /1M | Input /1M | Output /1M | Context | Cutoff | vs o4-mini |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
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$1.375 | $0.75 | $4.50 | 400K | Aug 2025 | −8% |
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$1.375 | $0.90 | $3.75 | 262K | −8% | |
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$1.4583 | $1.25 | $2.50 | 1M | −3% | |
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$1.4583 | $1.25 | $2.50 | 1M | −3% | |
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$1.4583 | $1.25 | $2.50 | 1M | −3% | |
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$1.50 | $1.00 | $4.00 | 200K | Jun 2024 | |
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$1.6667 | $1.00 | $5.00 | 200K | Feb 2025 | +11% |
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$1.6667 | $1.20 | $4.00 | 205K | +11% | |
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$1.6667 | $1.20 | $4.00 | 205K | +11% | |
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$1.6667 | $1.00 | $5.00 | 1M | Jun 2026 | +11% |
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$1.6667 | $1.25 | $3.75 | 1M | +11% |
USD per 1M tokens at each model's cheapest listed provider. Blended is the cost of 10M input plus 2M output tokens, spread over the 12M.
Capabilities
What o4-mini accepts and can do, as published by OpenAI.
- Text Accepts and generates natural-language text.
- Image Accepts images as input alongside text.
- Reasoning Thinks before it answers, always on or as a switchable mode.
- Function calling Connect to external tools, APIs, and systems.
- Structured output Return responses in structured formats like JSON.
- Web search Search the web for up-to-date information.
- Code execution Write and execute code in a sandboxed environment.
- File upload Process uploaded documents, spreadsheets, and other files.
- MCP Connect to services via Model Context Protocol.
Common questions
What is o4-mini good for?
Cost-sensitive reasoning with tools, coding and visual tasks, as OpenAI's small o-series model. It sits in the lower half of OpenAI's price range.
When is o4-mini not a good fit?
New projects: OpenAI says GPT-5 Mini succeeds it and plans to shut it down in October 2026. Its knowledge is older and its inputs shorter than the GPT-5 line's, and there is no audio or video input.
What is the cheapest way to run o4-mini?
The cheapest hosted rate is $1.00 / $4.00 per 1M tokens via Replicate.
How does o4-mini compare with o3-mini?
OpenAI says o4-mini beats o3-mini on non-STEM tasks and data science, not just math and coding, and like o3 it is trained to use tools inside its reasoning and can think with images. Same 200K-token context. o4-mini costs 9% less per 1M input tokens and 9% less per 1M output tokens than o3-mini, at each model's cheapest listed provider. It came out 3 months later, has a newer knowledge cutoff (June 2024 against October 2023) and takes image input, which o3-mini does not.
Can I self-host o4-mini?
No. OpenAI does not publish the weights; o4-mini is available only through hosted APIs.
More from OpenAI
-
GPT-5.4 Mini
400K context · cutoff Aug 2025
From $0.75 / $4.50 /1M in / out at the cheapest provider -
o3-mini
200K context · cutoff Oct 2023
From $1.10 / $4.40 /1M in / out at the cheapest provider -
GPT-6.1 Terra
1M context · cutoff Jun 2026
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GPT-5
400K context · cutoff Sep 2024
From $1.25 / $10.00 /1M in / out at the cheapest provider -
GPT-5.1
400K context · cutoff Sep 2024
From $1.25 / $10.00 /1M in / out at the cheapest provider -
GPT-4.1
1M context · cutoff Jun 2024
From $2.00 / $8.00 /1M in / out at the cheapest provider -
o3
200K context · cutoff Jun 2024
From $2.00 / $8.00 /1M in / out at the cheapest provider -
GPT-6 Sol
1M context · cutoff Apr 2026
From $2.00 / $10.00 /1M in / out at the cheapest provider