Which model is better: OpenAI o1 or o3-mini?

o3-mini is 92.7% cheaper for input tokens ($1.10 vs. $15.00 per 1M tokens) and $4.40 vs. $60.00 for output tokens (13.6x cost difference). In terms of operational performance, OpenAI o1 delivers faster response latency with 850ms TTFT (350ms faster than o3-mini). o3-mini leads coding benchmarks at 49.3% SWE-bench vs. 48.9% for OpenAI o1.
Verified daily via automated API latency tests and official documentation.

Verified Performance & Unit Economics Delta

Daily synchronized metrics from synthetic latency endpoints and benchmark evaluations.

Metric / Dimension OpenAI o1 o3-mini Net Delta / Advantage
Input Cost / 1M Tokens $15.00 $1.10 o3-mini is 13.6x cheaper
Output Cost / 1M Tokens $60.00 $4.40 o3-mini (1263.6% lower)
Avg TTFT Response Latency 850ms 1200ms OpenAI o1 (+350ms faster)
SWE-bench Verified (Coding) 48.9% 49.3% o3-mini (+0.4% lead)
Inference Value Score (IVR) 21 / 100 77 / 100 o3-mini (+56 pts)

Interactive Monthly Token Economics & ROI Forecaster

Model your expected production workload across prompt (input) and completion (output) tokens.

Live Calculation Engine
10.0M Tokens
100K 50M 250M 500M+
2.5M Tokens
100K 10M 50M 100M+

Estimated Monthly Spend

OpenAI o1 $5.45

$15/1M in · $60/1M out

o3-mini $67.50

$1.1/1M in · $4.4/1M out

Projected Monthly Cost Reduction
$62.05 / mo
(91.9% lower cost)
A

When to Choose OpenAI o1

Choose OpenAI o1 when you need Complex PhD-level multi-step science research, formal algorithm synthesis, and high-stakes reasoning pipelines. and have an infrastructure budget aligned with $15.00/1M tokens.

B

When to Choose o3-mini

Choose o3-mini when you need Cost-efficient STEM reasoning, high-throughput math problem-solving, and structured code synthesis. and prioritize OpenAI ecosystem integration at $1.10/1M tokens.

Related Questions & Decision Factors

Which is cheaper: OpenAI o1 or o3-mini?

o3-mini is cheaper at $1.10/1M input tokens compared to $15.00/1M for OpenAI o1.

Which model has lower latency: OpenAI o1 or o3-mini?

OpenAI o1 delivers faster response times with an average TTFT of 850ms vs 1200ms for o3-mini.

When should you choose OpenAI o1?

Choose OpenAI o1 when you need Complex PhD-level multi-step science research, formal algorithm synthesis, and high-stakes reasoning pipelines. and have an infrastructure budget aligned with $15.00/1M tokens.

When should you choose o3-mini?

Choose o3-mini when you need Cost-efficient STEM reasoning, high-throughput math problem-solving, and structured code synthesis. and prioritize OpenAI ecosystem integration at $1.10/1M tokens.

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