ZMIME
Comparison · 2 models · Updated Oct 4, 2026

o4-mini vs o3

Too close to call on our weighted score (o4-mini 59, o3 58). The right pick depends on what you value most.

  1. OpenAI

    o4-mini

    Released Apr 16, 2025Deprecated

    59/100
    • ECI145.6
    • Price$1.10 / $4.40
    • Context200K
    Full specs Remove o4-mini

  2. OpenAI

    o3

    Released Apr 16, 2025

    58/100
    • ECI146.9
    • Price$2.00 / $8.00
    • Context200K
    Full specs Remove o3

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01 — Verdict

Too close to call

It is close. Our weighted score puts them within a point (o4-mini 59/100, o3 58/100), so choose by what matters most for your work: o3 for raw capability and o4-mini on price. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.

  • Capabilityo3Capabilities Index (ECI): o3 146.9 · o4-mini 145.6
  • Lowest priceo4-minio4-mini $1.93 · o3 $3.50 per 1M tokens (3:1 blend)
  • Longest contextAbout the sameo4-mini 200,000 · o3 200,000 tokens
  • Widest inputso3o4-mini: Text, Images · o3: Text, Images, PDFs
  • Self-hostingNo open weightsBoth are available only through APIs
How the score is built
MeasureWeighto4-minio3
CapabilityCapabilities Index (ECI)50%7374
Price25%3624
Inputs & features15%7080
Context window10%3232
Overall100%59/10058/100
02 — Side by side

Every spec in one table

Highlighted cells lead their row. Dashes mean the data is not published.

o4-mini vs o3 specifications side by side
Specificationo4-miniOpenAIo3OpenAI
Capability
Capabilities Index (ECI)145.6146.9 (best)
ECI rank#76 of 148#63 of 148 (best)
GPQA DiamondGraduate-level science questions79.6%81.8% (best)
FrontierMath Tiers 1–3Research-level mathematics36.1% (best)33.3%
OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025Competition mathematics81.7%84.4% (best)
SWE-bench VerifiedFixing real GitHub issues—62.3%
SimpleQA VerifiedShort factual questions19.6%49.4% (best)
Price per million tokens
Input$1.10 (best)$2.00
Output$4.40 (best)$8.00
Cached input$0.275 (best)$0.50
Blended (3:1)$1.93 (best)$3.50
Long-context rateSame rateSame rate
Price sourceOfficial OpenAI APIOfficial OpenAI API
Limits
Context window200,000 tokens200,000 tokens
Max output100,000 tokens100,000 tokens
Inputs and features
TextYesYes
ImagesYesYes
PDFsNoYes
AudioNoNo
VideoNoNo
ReasoningYeslow · medium · highYeslow · medium · high
Tool callingYesYes
Structured outputYesYes
Availability
WeightsProprietaryProprietary
API model IDo4-minio3
API providers19 (best)18
ReleasedApr 16, 2025Apr 16, 2025
Knowledge cutoffMay 2024May 2024
03 — Cost

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$19.80
  • o3$36.00
04 — Questions

Which should you choose?

Which is better: o4-mini or o3?

It is close. Our weighted score puts them within a point (o4-mini 59/100, o3 58/100), so choose by what matters most for your work: o3 for raw capability and o4-mini on price. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.

Which is cheaper, o4-mini or o3?

o4-mini is cheaper at $1.10 input / $4.40 output per million tokens (official OpenAI API price). o3 costs $2.00 input / $8.00 output per million tokens (official OpenAI API price). At a typical mix of three input tokens to one output token, that is $1.93 per million tokens for o4-mini versus $3.50 for o3 (1.8× as much).

Which scores higher on benchmarks?

o3 scores higher on the Capabilities Index (ECI): o3 146.9 (#63 of 148) and o4-mini 145.6 (#76 of 148). The confidence ranges of the top two overlap (144.9–148.6 vs 143.0–147.4), so treat the gap as small. On individual benchmarks: GPQA Diamond — o3 81.8%, o4-mini 79.6%; FrontierMath Tiers 1–3 — o4-mini 36.1%, o3 33.3%; OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025 — o3 84.4%, o4-mini 81.7%; SimpleQA Verified — o3 49.4%, o4-mini 19.6%.

Which is better for coding?

There are no published SWE-bench Verified results for o4-mini yet, so there is no like-for-like coding score. On overall capability, o3 leads, which tends to carry over to coding, but test on your own codebase. Both support tool calling for agent workflows.

Which has the bigger context window?

o4-mini and o3 share the same 200,000-token context window. Maximum output per response: o4-mini up to 100,000, o3 up to 100,000 tokens.

Which can read images, PDFs, audio or video?

o4-mini accepts text and images; o3 accepts text, images and PDFs. o3 handles the widest range of inputs.

Are any of these open source?

No. o4-mini and o3 are proprietary and only available through APIs and apps.

Which is newer?

o4-mini is the newest, released Apr 16, 2025. o3 came out Apr 16, 2025. Knowledge cutoff: o4-mini May 2024, o3 May 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.

05 — Keep comparing

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