o4-mini vs solar-mini
solar-mini comes out ahead, 52 to 46 on our weighted score, and it is the cheaper option too.
OpenAIo4-mini
46/100- ECI145.6
- Price$1.10 / $4.40
- Context200K
- Our pick
Upstage
solar-mini
52/100- ECI—
- Price$0.15 / $0.15
- Context33K
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Make it a three-way comparison.
solar-mini is our pick
solar-mini is the better all-round choice, scoring 52/100 against o4-mini (46). It leads on price. o4-mini wins on inputs & features and context window. The score weighs price 50%, inputs & features 30%, context window 20%. 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 · o4-mini $1.93 per 1M tokens (3:1 blend)
- Longest contexto4-minio4-mini 200,000 · solar-mini 32,768 tokens
- Widest inputso4-minio4-mini: Text, Images · solar-mini: Text
- Self-hostingNo open weightsBoth are available only through APIs
| Measure | Weight | o4-mini | solar-mini |
|---|---|---|---|
| Price | 50% | 36 | 89 |
| Inputs & features | 30% | 70 | 25 |
| Context window | 20% | 32 | 0 |
| Overall | 100% | 46/100 | 52/100 |
Left out because at least one model lacks the data: capability. The remaining weights were rescaled.
Every spec in one table
Highlighted cells lead their row. Dashes mean the data is not published.
| Specification | o4-miniOpenAI | solar-miniUpstage |
|---|---|---|
| Capability | ||
| Capabilities Index (ECI) | 145.6 | — |
| ECI rank | #76 of 148 | — |
| GPQA DiamondGraduate-level science questions | 79.6% | — |
| FrontierMath Tiers 1–3Research-level mathematics | 36.1% | — |
| OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025Competition mathematics | 81.7% | — |
| SimpleQA VerifiedShort factual questions | 19.6% | — |
| Price per million tokens | ||
| Input | $1.10 | $0.15 (best) |
| Output | $4.40 | $0.15 (best) |
| Cached input | $0.275 | — |
| Blended (3:1) | $1.93 | $0.15 (best) |
| Long-context rate | Same rate | Same rate |
| Price source | Official OpenAI API | Official Upstage API |
| Limits | ||
| Context window | 200,000 tokens (best) | 32,768 tokens |
| Max output | 100,000 tokens (best) | 4,096 tokens |
| Inputs and features | ||
| Text | Yes | Yes |
| Images | Yes | No |
| PDFs | No | No |
| Audio | No | No |
| Video | No | No |
| Reasoning | Yeslow · medium · high | No |
| Tool calling | Yes | Yes |
| Structured output | Yes | No |
| Availability | ||
| Weights | Proprietary | Proprietary |
| API model ID | o4-mini | solar-mini |
| API providers | 19 (best) | 1 |
| Released | Apr 16, 2025 | 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$19.80
- solar-mini$1.80
Which should you choose?
Which is better: o4-mini or solar-mini?
solar-mini is the better all-round choice, scoring 52/100 against o4-mini (46). It leads on price. o4-mini wins on inputs & features and context window. The score weighs price 50%, inputs & features 30%, context window 20%. None of the shared benchmarks cover every model here yet, so capability is left out of this verdict.
Which is cheaper, o4-mini or solar-mini?
solar-mini is cheaper at $0.15 input / $0.15 output per million tokens (official Upstage API price). o4-mini costs $1.10 input / $4.40 output per million tokens (official OpenAI 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 $1.93 for o4-mini (13× as much).
Which scores higher on benchmarks?
There is no independent benchmark that covers both models yet. o4-mini has an ECI of 145.6 and solar-mini has not been scored yet.
Which is better for coding?
There are no published SWE-bench Verified results for o4-mini and solar-mini yet, so there is no like-for-like coding score. Test both on a sample of your own tasks. Both support tool calling for agent workflows.
Which has the bigger context window?
o4-mini has the largest context window at 200,000 tokens, against 32,768 for solar-mini. Maximum output per response: o4-mini up to 100,000, solar-mini up to 4,096 tokens.
Which can read images, PDFs, audio or video?
o4-mini accepts text and images; solar-mini accepts text. o4-mini handles the widest range of inputs.
Are any of these open source?
No. o4-mini and solar-mini are proprietary and only available through APIs and apps.
Which is newer?
o4-mini is the newest, released Apr 16, 2025. solar-mini came out Jun 12, 2024. Knowledge cutoff: o4-mini 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.
