GPT-4 Turbo vs OpenAI o3

Performance benchmarks + pricing comparison — updated April 2026

GPT-4 Turbo

OpenAI

Previous generation high-performance model. Good for complex reasoning tasks.

Input$10.00/M
Output$30.00/M
Context128K tokens
Best ForComplex reasoning, data extraction, analysis
Benchmark70/100

OpenAI o3

OpenAI

Next generation reasoning model. Improved coding and math over o1.

Input$10.00/M
Output$40.00/M
Context200K tokens
Best ForAdvanced coding, complex problem-solving
Benchmark85/100

Benchmark Performance Comparison

Third-party benchmark scores — higher is better. Data sourced from SWE-bench, LiveCodeBench, HumanEval, and BigCodeBench.

BenchmarkGPT-4 TurboOpenAI o3Leader
Overall Score 70 85 o3 leads by 15pts
SWE-bench Verified 64 82 o3 leads by 18pts
LiveCodeBench 72 88 o3 leads by 16pts
HumanEval 88 96 o3 leads by 8pts
BigCodeBench 56 74 o3 leads by 18pts

Cost Comparison by Scenario

Estimated cost per project with 30% cache hit rate. Actual costs may vary based on usage patterns.

ScenarioGPT-4 TurboOpenAI o3Savings
Small Script (1K lines) $1.25 $1.55 GPT-4 Turbo saves $0.30 (19%)
Medium Feature (10K lines) $9.50 $11.50 GPT-4 Turbo saves $2.00 (17%)
Large Project (50K lines) $47.50 $57.50 GPT-4 Turbo saves $10.00 (17%)
Code Review (5K lines) $2.50 $2.75 GPT-4 Turbo saves $0.25 (9%)

Value Analysis (Price per Benchmark Score Point)

Lower is better — how much you pay for each point of benchmark performance.

ModelOverall ScorePrice per Score PointVerdict
GPT-4 Turbo 70 $0.133/pt Better value
OpenAI o3 85 $0.167/pt Higher cost per point

GPT-4 Turbo delivers the best value at $0.133 per score point.

Strengths & Weaknesses

GPT-4 Turbo

  • + Proven model
  • + Large context
  • - Superseded by GPT-4o

OpenAI o3

  • + Latest reasoning model
  • + Top-tier across all benchmarks
  • - Very expensive
  • - Slow

Verdict

GPT-4 Turbo is cheaper at $10.00/M, but OpenAI o3 scores higher on benchmarks (85 vs 70).

Choose GPT-4 Turbo for cost-sensitive projects, OpenAI o3 when performance matters most.

Compare with Other Models