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Best o4-mini Alternatives

o4-mini by OpenAI is a reasoning model priced at $1.1/4.4 per 1M tokens (in/out). Looking for a better deal or different capabilities? Here are the best options.

o4-mini

OpenAIReasoning

Input

$1.1/1M

Output

$4.4/1M

Context

200K

Max Output

100K

Why Switch from o4-mini?

Slower than non-reasoning models
Reasoning tokens add to effective cost

Top Alternatives

#1o3OpenAIReasoning

Dramatically cheaper (64% less), higher benchmark scores.

Input

$0.4/1M

64% cheaper

Output

$1.6/1M

64% cheaper

Context

200K

Max Output

100K

MMLU-Pro: 87%(+2.0%)HumanEval: 94.5%(+1.0%)GPQA: 79.2%(+3.2%)
#2DeepSeek R1DeepSeekReasoning

Dramatically cheaper (50% less).

Input

$0.55/1M

50% cheaper

Output

$2.19/1M

50% cheaper

Context

128K

Max Output

64K

MMLU-Pro: 84%(-1.0%)HumanEval: 92%(-1.5%)GPQA: 71.5%(-4.5%)
#3GLM-4.7Zhipu AIMid-Tier

49% cheaper, comparable performance.

Input

$0.6/1M

45% cheaper

Output

$2.2/1M

50% cheaper

Context

200K

Max Output

128K

MMLU-Pro: 84.3%(-0.7%)HumanEval: GPQA: 85.7%(+9.7%)
#4Gemini 3 FlashGoogleBudget

36% cheaper, comparable performance, 1M context (5x more).

Input

$0.5/1M

55% cheaper

Output

$3/1M

32% cheaper

Context

1M

Max Output

66K

MMLU-Pro: 78%(-7.0%)HumanEval: 90%(-3.5%)GPQA:
#5GPT-5.2 CodexOpenAIFlagship

Comparable performance.

Input

$1.75/1M

59% more

Output

$14/1M

218% more

Context

200K

Max Output

66K

MMLU-Pro: 89%(+4.0%)HumanEval: 95.5%(+2.0%)GPQA: 76%(Same)
#6Mistral Large 3MistralFlagship

Higher benchmark scores.

Input

$2/1M

82% more

Output

$5/1M

14% more

Context

128K

Max Output

16K

MMLU-Pro: 83%(-2.0%)HumanEval: 91%(-2.5%)GPQA:
#7Mistral Medium 3MistralMid-Tier

Dramatically cheaper (56% less).

Input

$0.4/1M

64% cheaper

Output

$2/1M

55% cheaper

Context

128K

Max Output

16K

MMLU-Pro: 76%(-9.0%)HumanEval: 87%(-6.5%)GPQA:
#8GPT-5OpenAIFlagship

Comparable performance, adds audio.

Input

$1.25/1M

14% more

Output

$10/1M

127% more

Context

128K

Max Output

16K

MMLU-Pro: 88.5%(+3.5%)HumanEval: 95%(+1.5%)GPQA: 73.5%(-2.5%)

Full Comparison Table

ModelInput $/1MOutput $/1MContextMMLU-ProHumanEvalScore
o3OpenAI$0.4064% cheaper$1.6064% cheaper200K87%+2.0%94.5%+1.0%100
DeepSeek R1DeepSeek$0.5550% cheaper$2.1950% cheaper128K84%-1.0%92%-1.5%81
GLM-4.7Zhipu AI$0.6045% cheaper$2.2050% cheaper200K84.3%-0.7%79
Gemini 3 FlashGoogle$0.5055% cheaper$3.0032% cheaper1M78%-7.0%90%-3.5%78
GPT-5.2 CodexOpenAI$1.7559% more$14.00218% more200K89%+4.0%95.5%+2.0%75
Mistral Large 3Mistral$2.0082% more$5.0014% more128K83%-2.0%91%-2.5%75
Mistral Medium 3Mistral$0.4064% cheaper$2.0055% cheaper128K76%-9.0%87%-6.5%72
GPT-5OpenAI$1.2514% more$10.00127% more128K88.5%+3.5%95%+1.5%70
Gemini 3.1 ProGoogle$2.0082% more$12.00173% more1M91%+6.0%95%+1.5%70
Gemini 3 ProGoogle$2.0082% more$12.00173% more1M89.8%+4.8%94%+0.5%70
Gemini 2.5 ProGoogle$1.2514% more$10.00127% more1M87.5%+2.5%93.5%Same70
GLM-5Zhipu AI$1.009% cheaper$3.2027% cheaper200K70.4%-14.6%91%-2.5%70
Gemini 2.5 FlashGoogle$0.1586% cheaper$0.6086% cheaper1M76%-9.0%89.5%-4.0%68
Claude Opus 4.6Anthropic$5.00355% more$25.00468% more200K89.5%+4.5%95%+1.5%65
GPT-5.3 CodexOpenAI$2.0082% more$16.00264% more200K90%+5.0%96.5%+3.0%65
Claude Haiku 4.5Anthropic$0.8027% cheaper$4.009% cheaper200K69.4%-15.6%88.1%-5.4%64
Llama 4 MaverickMeta$0.3172% cheaper$0.8581% cheaper1M80.5%-4.5%90.2%-3.3%63
MiniMax M2.5MiniMax$0.3073% cheaper$1.2073% cheaper200K82%-3.0%90%-3.5%63
Claude Sonnet 4.6Anthropic$3.00173% more$15.00241% more200K86%+1.0%94%+0.5%58
Claude Sonnet 4.5Anthropic$3.00173% more$15.00241% more200K84.5%-0.5%93%-0.5%58
Llama 4 ScoutMeta$0.1884% cheaper$0.6386% cheaper10M74.2%-10.8%86%-7.5%56
GPT-4o MiniOpenAI$0.1586% cheaper$0.6086% cheaper128K68%-17.0%87.2%-6.3%54
Grok 4xAI$3.00173% more$15.00241% more128K86%+1.0%93%-0.5%53
GPT-4oOpenAI$2.50127% more$10.00127% more128K80.5%-4.5%91%-2.5%50
DeepSeek V3DeepSeek$0.1487% cheaper$0.2894% cheaper164K78%-7.0%89%-4.5%46

Head-to-Head Comparisons

Alternatives for Other Models