o4-mini-deep-research vs Vision Large vs solar-mini
Vision Large comes out ahead, 84 to 49 and 15 on our weighted score.
OpenAIo4-mini-deep-research
49/100- ECI—
- Price—
- Context200K
- Our pick
VisparkVision Large
84/100- ECI—
- Price—
- Context1M
Upstage
solar-mini
15/100- ECI—
- Price$0.15 / $0.15
- Context33K
Vision Large is our pick
Vision Large is the better all-round choice, scoring 84/100 against o4-mini-deep-research (49) and solar-mini (15). It leads on inputs & features and context window. 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 per 1M tokens (3:1 blend) · o4-mini-deep-research and Vision Large unpriced
- Longest contextVision LargeVision Large 1,000,000 · o4-mini-deep-research 200,000 · solar-mini 32,768 tokens
- Widest inputsVision Largeo4-mini-deep-research: Text, Images · Vision Large: Text, Images, PDFs, Audio, Video · solar-mini: Text
- Self-hostingNo open weightsAll three are available only through APIs
| Measure | Weight | o4-mini-deep-research | Vision Large | solar-mini |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Inputs & features | 60% | 60 | 100 | 25 |
| Context window | 40% | 32 | 60 | 0 |
| Overall | 100% | 49/100 | 84/100 | 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 | o4-mini-deep-researchOpenAI | Vision LargeVispark | solar-miniUpstage |
|---|---|---|---|
| Capability | |||
| Capabilities Index (ECI) | — | — | — |
| ECI rank | — | — | — |
| Price per million tokens | |||
| Input | — | — | $0.15 |
| Output | — | — | $0.15 |
| Cached input | — | — | — |
| Blended (3:1) | — | — | $0.15 |
| Long-context rate | — | — | Same rate |
| Price source | — | — | Official Upstage API |
| Limits | |||
| Context window | 200,000 tokens | 1,000,000 tokens (best) | 32,768 tokens |
| Max output | 100,000 tokens (best) | 65,536 tokens | 4,096 tokens |
| Inputs and features | |||
| Text | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Images | Yes | Yes | No |
| PDFs | No | Yes | No |
| Audio | No | Yes | No |
| Video | No | Yes | No |
| Reasoning | Yes | Yes | No |
| Tool calling | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Structured output | No | Yes | No |
| Availability | |||
| Weights | Proprietary | Proprietary | Proprietary |
| API model ID | — | — | solar-mini |
| API providers | — | — | 1 |
| Released | Jun 26, 2024 | May 15, 2024 | Jun 12, 2024 |
| Knowledge cutoff | May 2024 | — | 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.
- o4-mini-deep-research—
- Vision Large—
- solar-mini$1.80
Which should you choose?
Which is better: o4-mini-deep-research, Vision Large or solar-mini?
Vision Large is the better all-round choice, scoring 84/100 against o4-mini-deep-research (49) and solar-mini (15). It leads on inputs & features and context window. 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, o4-mini-deep-research, Vision Large or solar-mini?
solar-mini is cheaper at $0.15 input / $0.15 output per million tokens (official Upstage API price). . At a typical mix of three input tokens to one output token, that is $0.15 per million tokens for solar-mini versus . o4-mini-deep-research and Vision Large has no published per-token price.
Which scores higher on benchmarks?
There is no independent benchmark that covers all three models yet. o4-mini-deep-research has not been scored yet, Vision Large has not been scored yet and solar-mini has not been scored yet.
Which is better for coding?
There are no published SWE-bench Verified results for o4-mini-deep-research, Vision Large 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?
Vision Large has the largest context window at 1,000,000 tokens, against 200,000 for o4-mini-deep-research and 32,768 for solar-mini. Maximum output per response: o4-mini-deep-research up to 100,000, Vision Large up to 65,536, solar-mini up to 4,096 tokens.
Which can read images, PDFs, audio or video?
o4-mini-deep-research accepts text and images; Vision Large accepts text, images, PDFs, audio and video; solar-mini accepts text. Vision Large handles the widest range of inputs.
Are any of these open source?
No. o4-mini-deep-research, Vision Large and solar-mini are proprietary and only available through APIs and apps.
Which is newer?
o4-mini-deep-research is the newest, released Jun 26, 2024. solar-mini came out Jun 12, 2024; Vision Large came out May 15, 2024. Knowledge cutoff: o4-mini-deep-research May 2024, 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.
