Is GPT-4o better than OpenAI o3 for coding?

GPT-4o scores 75 overall vs OpenAI o3's 85. OpenAI o3 has stronger benchmark performance, but pricing also matters — GPT-4o costs $2.50/M input vs $10.00/M for OpenAI o3.

Which is cheaper: GPT-4o or OpenAI o3?

GPT-4o is cheaper per million input tokens at $2.50/M vs $10.00/M.

What is the price-performance ratio of GPT-4o vs OpenAI o3?

Based on benchmark scores, GPT-4o costs $0.033 per score point while OpenAI o3 costs $0.167 per score point. GPT-4o offers better value.

GPT-4o vs OpenAI o3

Performance benchmarks + pricing comparison — updated April 2026

GPT-4o

OpenAI

OpenAI's flagship multimodal model. Strong coding and reasoning at competitive pricing.

Input	$2.50/M
Output	$10.00/M
Context	128K tokens
Best For	General coding, multimodal tasks, chatbots
Benchmark	75/100

OpenAI o3

OpenAI

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

Input	$10.00/M
Output	$40.00/M
Context	200K tokens
Best For	Advanced coding, complex problem-solving
Benchmark	85/100

Benchmark Performance Comparison

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

Benchmark	GPT-4o	OpenAI o3	Leader
Overall Score	75	85	o3 leads by 10pts
SWE-bench Verified	70	82	o3 leads by 12pts
LiveCodeBench	78	88	o3 leads by 10pts
HumanEval	90	96	o3 leads by 6pts
BigCodeBench	62	74	o3 leads by 12pts

Cost Comparison by Scenario

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

Scenario	GPT-4o	OpenAI o3	Savings
Small Script (1K lines)	$0.41	$1.55	GPT-4o saves $1.14 (74%)
Medium Feature (10K lines)	$3.06	$11.50	GPT-4o saves $8.44 (73%)
Large Project (50K lines)	$15.31	$57.50	GPT-4o saves $42.19 (73%)
Code Review (5K lines)	$0.78	$2.75	GPT-4o saves $1.97 (72%)

Value Analysis (Price per Benchmark Score Point)

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

Model	Overall Score	Price per Score Point	Verdict
GPT-4o	75	$0.033/pt	Better value
OpenAI o3	85	$0.167/pt	Higher cost per point

GPT-4o delivers the best value at $0.033 per score point.

Strengths & Weaknesses

GPT-4o

+ Strong general-purpose
+ Good multimodal
- Less consistent on coding than Claude

OpenAI o3

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

Verdict

GPT-4o is cheaper at $2.50/M, but OpenAI o3 scores higher on benchmarks (85 vs 75).

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

Compare with Other Models

Claude Sonnet 4

Anthropic

Anthropic's balanced model for coding and general tasks. Best price-performance ratio in the Claude family.

$3.00/M input $15.00/M output ~$4.66 per medium feature

Claude Opus 4

Anthropic

Anthropic's most powerful model. Best for complex reasoning and challenging coding tasks.

$15.00/M input $75.00/M output ~$23.29 per medium feature

Claude 3.5 Sonnet

Anthropic

Previous generation Sonnet. Still excellent for coding tasks at the same price point.

$3.00/M input $15.00/M output ~$4.66 per medium feature

Claude 3.5 Haiku

Anthropic

Fast, cost-effective model for high-volume tasks. Great for code review and simple queries.

$0.800/M input $4.00/M output ~$1.24 per medium feature

Claude 3 Opus

Anthropic

First generation Opus. Highest reasoning capability in the Claude 3 family.

$15.00/M input $75.00/M output ~$20.25 per medium feature

Claude 3 Sonnet

Anthropic

First generation Sonnet. Balanced performance for general tasks.

$3.00/M input $15.00/M output ~$4.05 per medium feature