gpt-5-mini vs gpt-4o-mini
OpenAI against OpenAI, priced on the same four workloads with price book 2026-10-22.
On real workloads
| Workload | gpt-5-mini per call | gpt-4o-mini per call | Monthly difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Chat reply 1,500 input and 400 output tokens, 100,000 calls a month |
$0.00118 | $0.000465 | −$71.00 |
| RAG answer, cached context 2,000 fresh + 4,000 cached input, 500 output, 100,000 calls a month |
$0.0016 | $0.0009 | −$70.00 |
| Agent step 4,000 fresh + 8,000 cached input, 800 output, 250,000 calls a month |
$0.0028 | $0.00168 | −$280.00 |
| Batch summary 3,000 input and 300 output tokens via the Batch API, 1,000,000 calls a month |
$0.000675 | $0.000315 | −$360.00 |
Monthly difference is gpt-4o-mini minus gpt-5-mini. Batch rows use each provider's Batch API rates where published. Price both on your own workload.
Rates
| Model | Input | Output | Cache read | Cache write | Context |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| openai/gpt-5-mini | $0.25 | $2.00 | $0.025 | — | 272K |
| openai/gpt-4o-mini | $0.15 | $0.60 | $0.075 | — | 128K |
Price is one input. Before switching, run your own prompts through both and compare quality; then veqen diff prices the change at your production volume.