OpenAI o4-mini vs O1 Preview
Performance benchmarks + pricing comparison — updated April 2026
OpenAI o4-mini
OpenAIUpdated mini reasoning model. Similar pricing to o3-mini with updated capabilities.
| Input | $1.10/M |
| Output | $4.40/M |
| Context | 200K tokens |
| Best For | General reasoning, coding tasks |
| Benchmark | 72/100 |
O1 Preview
OpenAIOpenAI's first reasoning model. Strong at complex problem solving but expensive.
| Input | $15.00/M |
| Output | $60.00/M |
| Context | 128K tokens |
| Best For | Complex math, science, algorithm design |
Cost Comparison by Scenario
Estimated cost per project with 30% cache hit rate. Actual costs may vary based on usage patterns.
| Scenario | OpenAI o4-mini | O1 Preview | Savings |
|---|---|---|---|
| Small Script (1K lines) | $0.17 | $2.32 | OpenAI o4-mini saves $2.15 (93%) |
| Medium Feature (10K lines) | $1.27 | $17.25 | OpenAI o4-mini saves $15.98 (93%) |
| Large Project (50K lines) | $6.33 | $86.25 | OpenAI o4-mini saves $79.92 (93%) |
| Code Review (5K lines) | $0.30 | $4.13 | OpenAI o4-mini saves $3.82 (93%) |
Verdict
OpenAI o4-mini wins on both price and performance — $1.10/M input with a benchmark score of N/A/100.
For most developers, this is the clear choice between these two models.
Compare with Other Models
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Claude Opus 4
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Claude 3.5 Sonnet
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Claude 3.5 Haiku
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Claude 3 Opus
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Claude 3 Sonnet
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