Best o3 Alternatives
o3 by OpenAI is a reasoning model priced at $0.4/1.6 per 1M tokens (in/out). It's already affordable, but you might want different strengths or features.
o3
OpenAIReasoningInput
$0.4/1M
Output
$1.6/1M
Context
200K
Max Output
100K
Why Switch from o3?
Top Alternatives
Same category, different trade-offs.
Input
$1.1/1M
175% more
Output
$4.4/1M
175% more
Context
200K
Max Output
100K
Dramatically cheaper (63% less), 1M context (5x more).
Input
$0.15/1M
63% cheaper
Output
$0.6/1M
63% cheaper
Context
1M
Max Output
66K
Same category, different trade-offs.
Input
$0.55/1M
38% more
Output
$2.19/1M
37% more
Context
128K
Max Output
64K
1M context (5x more).
Input
$0.5/1M
25% more
Output
$3/1M
87% more
Context
1M
Max Output
66K
42% cheaper, comparable performance, 1M context (5x more).
Input
$0.31/1M
23% cheaper
Output
$0.85/1M
47% cheaper
Context
1M
Max Output
32K
25% cheaper, comparable performance, open-source and self-hostable.
Input
$0.3/1M
25% cheaper
Output
$1.2/1M
25% cheaper
Context
200K
Max Output
128K
Comparable performance.
Input
$2/1M
400% more
Output
$16/1M
900% more
Context
200K
Max Output
66K
Comparable performance.
Input
$2/1M
400% more
Output
$5/1M
213% more
Context
128K
Max Output
16K
Full Comparison Table
| Model | Input $/1M | Output $/1M | Context | MMLU-Pro | HumanEval | Score |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| o4-miniOpenAI | $1.10175% more | $4.40175% more | 200K | 85%-2.0% | 93.5%-1.0% | 83 |
| Gemini 2.5 FlashGoogle | $0.1563% cheaper | $0.6063% cheaper | 1M | 76%-11.0% | 89.5%-5.0% | 78 |
| DeepSeek R1DeepSeek | $0.5538% more | $2.1937% more | 128K | 84%-3.0% | 92%-2.5% | 71 |
| Gemini 3 FlashGoogle | $0.5025% more | $3.0087% more | 1M | 78%-9.0% | 90%-4.5% | 68 |
| Llama 4 MaverickMeta | $0.3123% cheaper | $0.8547% cheaper | 1M | 80.5%-6.5% | 90.2%-4.3% | 66 |
| MiniMax M2.5MiniMax | $0.3025% cheaper | $1.2025% cheaper | 200K | 82%-5.0% | 90%-4.5% | 66 |
| GPT-5.3 CodexOpenAI | $2.00400% more | $16.00900% more | 200K | 90%+3.0% | 96.5%+2.0% | 65 |
| Mistral Large 3Mistral | $2.00400% more | $5.00213% more | 128K | 83%-4.0% | 91%-3.5% | 65 |
| GPT-4o MiniOpenAI | $0.1563% cheaper | $0.6063% cheaper | 128K | 68%-19.0% | 87.2%-7.3% | 64 |
| GLM-4.7Zhipu AI | $0.6050% more | $2.2038% more | 200K | 84.3%-2.7% | — | 62 |
| Gemini 3.1 ProGoogle | $2.00400% more | $12.00650% more | 1M | 91%+4.0% | 95%+0.5% | 60 |
| Gemini 3 ProGoogle | $2.00400% more | $12.00650% more | 1M | 89.8%+2.8% | 94%-0.5% | 60 |
| GLM-5Zhipu AI | $1.00150% more | $3.20100% more | 200K | 70.4%-16.6% | 91%-3.5% | 60 |
| Claude Sonnet 4.6Anthropic | $3.00650% more | $15.00838% more | 200K | 86%-1.0% | 94%-0.5% | 58 |
| Claude Sonnet 4.5Anthropic | $3.00650% more | $15.00838% more | 200K | 84.5%-2.5% | 93%-1.5% | 58 |
| GPT-5.2 CodexOpenAI | $1.75338% more | $14.00775% more | 200K | 89%+2.0% | 95.5%+1.0% | 58 |
| Llama 4 ScoutMeta | $0.1855% cheaper | $0.6361% cheaper | 10M | 74.2%-12.8% | 86%-8.5% | 58 |
| DeepSeek V3DeepSeek | $0.1465% cheaper | $0.2883% cheaper | 164K | 78%-9.0% | 89%-5.5% | 56 |
| Claude Haiku 4.5Anthropic | $0.80100% more | $4.00150% more | 200K | 69.4%-17.6% | 88.1%-6.4% | 54 |
| Mistral Medium 3Mistral | $0.40Same price | $2.0025% more | 128K | 76%-11.0% | 87%-7.5% | 54 |
| GPT-5OpenAI | $1.25213% more | $10.00525% more | 128K | 88.5%+1.5% | 95%+0.5% | 53 |
| Gemini 2.5 ProGoogle | $1.25213% more | $10.00525% more | 1M | 87.5%+0.5% | 93.5%-1.0% | 53 |
| Grok 4xAI | $3.00650% more | $15.00838% more | 128K | 86%-1.0% | 93%-1.5% | 53 |
| Claude Opus 4.6Anthropic | $5.001150% more | $25.001462% more | 200K | 89.5%+2.5% | 95%+0.5% | 48 |
| GPT-4oOpenAI | $2.50525% more | $10.00525% more | 128K | 80.5%-6.5% | 91%-3.5% | 40 |