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CostPerPrompt

o4 Mini API Pricing

OpenAI · context window 200K · prices updated 2026-08-02

Input per 1M tokens
$1.10
Output per 1M tokens
$4.40
Cached input per 1M
$0.275
75% cheaper than fresh input

What real workloads cost on o4 Mini

Workload Per request Per month
1K short requests/day (500 in / 150 out) $0.0012 $36.30
Support chatbot, 500 convs/day (~5K in / 1.4K out per conv) $0.0117 $175
Document pipeline, 10K docs/day (3K in / 500 out) $0.0055 $1650

Model your exact traffic in the API cost calculator — it preloads o4 Mini with caching and batch options.

Cheaper alternatives

Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Thinking Alibaba (Qwen) $0.4 in · $4.00 out GPT-3.5 Turbo 16k OpenAI $3.00 in · $4.00 out GLM 5V Turbo Z.ai (GLM) $1.20 in · $4.00 out

More OpenAI models

o1-pro GPT-5.5 Pro GPT-5.4 Pro GPT-4

Frequently asked questions

› How much does the o4 Mini API cost?

o4 Mini costs $1.10 per million input tokens and $4.40 per million output tokens, with cached input at $0.275 per million (75% cheaper). In practice, a typical short request (500 tokens in, 150 out) costs about $0.0012.

› What does 1,000 requests per day cost on o4 Mini?

At 500 input + 150 output tokens per request, 1,000 requests/day costs about $36.30 per month. Heavier workloads scale linearly — use our API cost calculator to model your exact traffic.

› How can I reduce o4 Mini costs?

Three levers, in order of impact: (1) route routine requests to a cheaper tier and keep o4 Mini for hard cases; (2) enable prompt caching — cached input is 75% cheaper, which typically halves chatbot bills; (3) use the batch API for non-urgent jobs at a ~50% discount.

› Is o4 Mini worth the price?

It depends on task difficulty. Flagship models earn their premium on complex reasoning, coding, and high-stakes output; mini/flash tiers handle classification, extraction and routine chat at 10–30× lower cost. Benchmark a sample of your real workload on both before committing.