Choose OpenAI: o3 if…
- you need image input — to read screenshots, charts and scanned pages; OpenAI: o3 Mini High does not advertise it
OpenAI: o3 vs OpenAI: o3 Mini High
Neither wins outright: OpenAI: o3 is the pick when you need image input, OpenAI: o3 Mini High when cost matters at scale.
Key numbers
| Spec | OpenAI: o3 | OpenAI: o3 Mini High |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | OpenAI | OpenAI |
| Input price (per 1M tokens) | $2.00 | $1.10 |
| Output price (per 1M tokens) | $8.00 | $4.40 |
| Blended price (3:1 input/output) | $3.50 | $1.93 |
| Cheaper than … of all models we track | 17% | 27% |
| Context window | 200K tokens (~300 pages) | 200K tokens (~300 pages) |
| Larger context than … of all models | 37% | 37% |
| Max output per response | 100K tokens (~75,000 words) | 100K tokens (~75,000 words) |
| Input types | image, text, file | text, file |
| Output types | text | text |
| Free variant | No | No |
| Listed since | 2025-04-16 | 2025-02-12 |
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What it costs for real workloads
Monthly cost at list price for five common workloads. Token counts per unit are stated so you can scale them to your own traffic. A workload that does not fit a model's context window is marked rather than priced.
| Workload (per month) | OpenAI: o3 | OpenAI: o3 Mini High | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Customer-support chatbot 50,000 conversations — each a 6-turn conversation (1,500 in / 400 out tokens) | $310 | $171 | OpenAI: o3 Mini High saves $140 |
| RAG search over documents 20,000 questions — each a question answered from ~8 retrieved passages (6,000 in / 500 out tokens) | $320 | $176 | OpenAI: o3 Mini High saves $144 |
| Coding / tool-using agent 2,000 tasks — each a multi-step task with tool calls and file context (60,000 in / 6,000 out tokens) | $336 | $185 | OpenAI: o3 Mini High saves $151 |
| Batch summarisation 10,000 documents — each a 6,000-word report summarised to a page (8,000 in / 600 out tokens) | $208 | $114 | OpenAI: o3 Mini High saves $93.60 |
| Long-document analysis 500 documents — each a 150-page contract or codebase read in one pass (100,000 in / 2,000 out tokens) | $108 | $59.40 | OpenAI: o3 Mini High saves $48.60 |
Capabilities side by side
| Capability | OpenAI: o3 | OpenAI: o3 Mini High | What it lets you do |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tool / function calling | ✓ Yes | ✓ Yes | call your APIs and run agent loops |
| Structured output (JSON schema) | ✓ Yes | ✓ Yes | return JSON that validates against your schema |
| Reasoning / thinking mode | ✓ Yes | ✓ Yes | spend extra tokens thinking before answering hard problems |
| Image input | ✓ Yes | — | read screenshots, charts and scanned pages |
| Audio input | — | — | take speech or audio directly |
| File / PDF input | ✓ Yes | ✓ Yes | accept documents without your own parsing step |
| Image output | — | — | generate images, not just text |
| Built-in web search | ✓ Yes | ✓ Yes | answer from live web results |
| Seed (reproducible sampling) | ✓ Yes | ✓ Yes | repeat a generation for tests and evals |
| Log-probabilities | — | — | read token confidence for classification and scoring |
From each model's published parameters and input/output types. “—” means not advertised, not proven absent.
Price history
- OpenAI: o3: price unchanged since we started tracking it on 2026-03-10.
- OpenAI: o3 Mini High: price unchanged since we started tracking it on 2026-03-10.
Which should you choose?
Choose OpenAI: o3 Mini High if…
- cost matters at scale — it is 45% cheaper on a typical 3:1 input/output mix ($171 vs $310 a month for 50,000 support chats)
Frequently asked questions
Is OpenAI: o3 better than OpenAI: o3 Mini High?
Neither wins outright: OpenAI: o3 is the pick when you need image input, OpenAI: o3 Mini High when cost matters at scale. In short: OpenAI: o3 when you need image input; OpenAI: o3 Mini High when cost matters at scale.
Which is cheaper, OpenAI: o3 or OpenAI: o3 Mini High?
OpenAI: o3 Mini High is cheaper: $1.93 vs $3.50 per 1M tokens at a typical 3:1 input/output mix, 45% less. For 50,000 support conversations a month that is $171 against $310.
How much do OpenAI: o3 and OpenAI: o3 Mini High cost per million tokens?
OpenAI: o3 costs $2.00 per 1M input tokens and $8.00 per 1M output tokens; OpenAI: o3 Mini High costs $1.10 input and $4.40 output. Output tokens are billed separately, so long answers shift the gap.
Which has the bigger context window, OpenAI: o3 or OpenAI: o3 Mini High?
Both take 200K tokens per request — roughly 300 pages of text.
Do OpenAI: o3 and OpenAI: o3 Mini High support function calling and JSON output?
Tool calling — OpenAI: o3: yes, OpenAI: o3 Mini High: yes. JSON-schema structured output — OpenAI: o3: yes, OpenAI: o3 Mini High: yes.
Can OpenAI: o3 or OpenAI: o3 Mini High read images?
Only OpenAI: o3 accepts image input; OpenAI: o3 Mini High is text-only for input.
Is OpenAI: o3 or OpenAI: o3 Mini High free to use?
No free variant is listed for either; both are pay-per-token.
What is the maximum output length of OpenAI: o3 and OpenAI: o3 Mini High?
OpenAI: o3 can write up to 100K tokens (about 75,000 words) per response; OpenAI: o3 Mini High up to 100K (about 75,000 words).
When were OpenAI: o3 and OpenAI: o3 Mini High released?
OpenAI: o3 was listed on 2025-04-16; OpenAI: o3 Mini High on 2025-02-12.
About the two models
OpenAI: o3
o3 is a well-rounded and powerful model across domains. It sets a new standard for math, science, coding, and visual reasoning tasks. It also excels at technical writing and instruction-following....
Full OpenAI: o3 specs →OpenAI: o3 Mini High
OpenAI o3-mini-high is the same model as [o3-mini](/openai/o3-mini) with reasoning_effort set to high. o3-mini is a cost-efficient language model optimized for STEM reasoning tasks, particularly excelling in science, mathematics, and...
Full OpenAI: o3 Mini High specs →