o1 Paid vs o4 Mini Paid
o1 vs o4 Mini compared — price per token, context window, multimodality, openness and which to choose. Full 2026 breakdown.
o1 — full profile › · o4 Mini — full profile ›
Prices & specs refreshed from live data · olud.ai
Open-model prices = cheapest provider via OpenRouter; official maker rates may be higher.
$60 /M outputManaged API (no infra to run)
$4.4 /M outputManaged API (no infra to run)
o1 vs o4 Mini specs
| Spec | o1 | o4 Mini | Winner |
|---|---|---|---|
| Maker | OpenAI | OpenAI | – |
| Type | Proprietary | Proprietary | – |
| Context window | 200K tokens | 200K tokens | = Tie |
| Input price | $15/M | $1.1/M | |
| Output price | $60/M | $4.4/M | |
| Vision / multimodal | Yes | Yes | = Tie |
| Tool / function calling | Yes | Yes | = Tie |
| Self-hostable | No (API only) | No (API only) | – |
| License | Proprietary | Proprietary | – |
Price gap & when to choose each
o4 Mini is ~14× cheaper than o1 on output tokens ($4.4 vs $60 per M tokens).
- You want frontier performance through a managed API
- You value reliability & ecosystem
- You don't want to manage infrastructure
- You want frontier performance through a managed API
- You want the lower output price
- You value reliability & ecosystem
- You don't want to manage infrastructure
Feature comparison
| Capability | o1 | o4 Mini |
|---|---|---|
| Open weights (downloadable) | ✗ | ✗ |
| Self-hostable | ✗ | ✗ |
| Runs fully offline | ✗ | ✗ |
| Vision / multimodal | ✓ | ✓ |
| Tool / function calling | ✓ | ✓ |
| 1M+ context window | ✗ | ✗ |
Benchmarks: o1 vs o4 Mini
Independent benchmark scores measured by Artificial Analysis. Higher is better (except latency).
Benchmark data by Artificial Analysis.
How o1 and o4 Mini score
| Criterion | o1 | o4 Mini |
|---|---|---|
| Cost-efficiency | 2.0 | 4.0 |
| Context window | 4.0 | 4.0 |
| Openness | 1.5 | 1.5 |
| Self-hosting | 1.0 | 1.0 |
| Multimodality | 5.0 | 5.0 |
Scores come from live data — output price (cost), context length, open vs closed weights (openness & self-hosting) and vision/tool support (multimodality). Raw task quality isn't scored here; it depends on your benchmark — see the verdict.
What each model is
o1 Paid
The latest and strongest model family from OpenAI, o1 is designed to spend more time thinking before responding. The o1 model series is trained with large-scale reinforcement learning to reason...
o4 Mini Paid
OpenAI o4-mini is a compact reasoning model in the o-series, optimized for fast, cost-efficient performance while retaining strong multimodal and agentic capabilities. It supports tool use and demonstrates competitive reasoning...
Other models in these families
These variants are tracked but not compared here — one page per family keeps the comparison readable.
Frequently asked questions
o1 vs o4 Mini — which is cheaper?
o4 Mini is cheaper on output ($4.4/M vs $60/M).
Which has the larger context window?
o1 offers the larger context window (200K tokens).
o1 vs o4 Mini — which should I pick in 2026?
Choose o4 Mini for the lower output price ($4.4/M vs $60/M). Choose o1 if you need the larger 200K context window.
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