o3-deep-research vs Claude Opus 4 vs solar-mini
Claude Opus 4 comes out ahead, 55 to 49 and 15 on our weighted score, though solar-mini is 200× cheaper per token.
OpenAIo3-deep-research
49/100- ECI—
- Price—
- Context200K
- Our pick
AnthropicClaude Opus 4
55/100- ECI142.7
- Price$15.00 / $75.00
- Context200K
Upstage
solar-mini
15/100- ECI—
- Price$0.15 / $0.15
- Context33K
Claude Opus 4 is our pick
Claude Opus 4 is the better all-round choice, scoring 55/100 against o3-deep-research (49) and solar-mini (15). It leads on inputs & features. The score weighs inputs & features 60%, context window 40%. None of the shared benchmarks cover every model here yet, so capability is left out of this verdict.
- CapabilityNot enough dataNo independent benchmark covers every model here yet
- Lowest pricesolar-minisolar-mini $0.15 · Claude Opus 4 $30.00 per 1M tokens (3:1 blend) · o3-deep-research unpriced
- Longest contexto3-deep-research and Claude Opus 4o3-deep-research 200,000 · Claude Opus 4 200,000 · solar-mini 32,768 tokens
- Widest inputsClaude Opus 4o3-deep-research: Text, Images · Claude Opus 4: Text, Images, PDFs · solar-mini: Text
- Self-hostingNo open weightsAll three are available only through APIs
| Measure | Weight | o3-deep-research | Claude Opus 4 | solar-mini |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Inputs & features | 60% | 60 | 70 | 25 |
| Context window | 40% | 32 | 32 | 0 |
| Overall | 100% | 49/100 | 55/100 | 15/100 |
Left out because at least one model lacks the data: capability and price. The remaining weights were rescaled.
Every spec in one table
Highlighted cells lead their row. Dashes mean the data is not published.
| Specification | o3-deep-researchOpenAI | Claude Opus 4Anthropic | solar-miniUpstage |
|---|---|---|---|
| Capability | |||
| Capabilities Index (ECI) | — | 142.7 | — |
| ECI rank | — | #87 of 148 | — |
| GPQA DiamondGraduate-level science questions | — | 76.3% | — |
| OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025Competition mathematics | — | 64.4% | — |
| SWE-bench VerifiedFixing real GitHub issues | — | 70.7% | — |
| Price per million tokens | |||
| Input | — | $15.00 | $0.15 (best) |
| Output | — | $75.00 | $0.15 (best) |
| Cached input | — | — | — |
| Blended (3:1) | — | $30.00 | $0.15 (best) |
| Long-context rate | — | Same rate | Same rate |
| Price source | — | Median of 5 providers | Official Upstage API |
| Limits | |||
| Context window | 200,000 tokens (best) | 200,000 tokens (best) | 32,768 tokens |
| Max output | 100,000 tokens (best) | 32,000 tokens | 4,096 tokens |
| Inputs and features | |||
| Text | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Images | Yes | Yes | No |
| PDFs | No | Yes | No |
| Audio | No | No | No |
| Video | No | No | No |
| Reasoning | Yes | Yes | No |
| Tool calling | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Structured output | No | No | No |
| Availability | |||
| Weights | Proprietary | Proprietary | Proprietary |
| API model ID | — | — | solar-mini |
| API providers | — | 5 (best) | 1 |
| Released | Jun 26, 2024 | May 22, 2025 | Jun 12, 2024 |
| Knowledge cutoff | May 2024 | Mar 31, 2025 | Sep 2024 |
What would a month cost?
Enter your expected volume in millions of tokens. List prices only; caching and batch discounts would lower these.
- o3-deep-research—
- Claude Opus 4$300.00
- solar-mini$1.80
Which should you choose?
Which is better: o3-deep-research, Claude Opus 4 or solar-mini?
Claude Opus 4 is the better all-round choice, scoring 55/100 against o3-deep-research (49) and solar-mini (15). It leads on inputs & features. The score weighs inputs & features 60%, context window 40%. None of the shared benchmarks cover every model here yet, so capability is left out of this verdict.
Which is cheaper, o3-deep-research, Claude Opus 4 or solar-mini?
solar-mini is cheaper at $0.15 input / $0.15 output per million tokens (official Upstage API price). Claude Opus 4 costs $15.00 input / $75.00 output per million tokens (median across 5 API providers). At a typical mix of three input tokens to one output token, that is $0.15 per million tokens for solar-mini versus $30.00 for Claude Opus 4 (200× as much). o3-deep-research has no published per-token price.
Which scores higher on benchmarks?
There is no independent benchmark that covers all three models yet. o3-deep-research has not been scored yet, Claude Opus 4 has an ECI of 142.7 and solar-mini has not been scored yet.
Which is better for coding?
There are no published SWE-bench Verified results for o3-deep-research and solar-mini yet, so there is no like-for-like coding score. Test both on a sample of your own tasks. All three support tool calling for agent workflows.
Which has the bigger context window?
o3-deep-research and Claude Opus 4 have the largest context windows (200,000 and 200,000 tokens), against 32,768 for solar-mini. Maximum output per response: o3-deep-research up to 100,000, Claude Opus 4 up to 32,000, solar-mini up to 4,096 tokens.
Which can read images, PDFs, audio or video?
o3-deep-research accepts text and images; Claude Opus 4 accepts text, images and PDFs; solar-mini accepts text. Claude Opus 4 handles the widest range of inputs.
Are any of these open source?
No. o3-deep-research, Claude Opus 4 and solar-mini are proprietary and only available through APIs and apps.
Which is newer?
Claude Opus 4 is the newest, released May 22, 2025. o3-deep-research came out Jun 26, 2024; solar-mini came out Jun 12, 2024. Knowledge cutoff: o3-deep-research May 2024, Claude Opus 4 Mar 31, 2025, solar-mini Sep 2024.
How do you decide the winner?
Each model gets a 0–100 score on capability (50%, independent benchmark results); price (25%, blended price per million tokens (3 input : 1 output), log scale); inputs & features (15%, image, PDF, audio and video input, tool calling, structured output and reasoning); context window (10%, maximum tokens per request, log scale). Dimensions missing for any model are dropped and the remaining weights rescaled, so every model is judged on the same evidence. Specs and prices come from public model listings and the labs’ own API pages; capability scores come from independent benchmark runs. Data updated Oct 4, 2026.
