GPT-4o Pricing: What It Costs Per Token (April 2026)

GPT-4o launched in May 2024 at $5/$15 per million tokens and got a 50% price cut in October 2024. It now costs $2.50 input and $10 output per million tokens. OpenAI has since released GPT-4.1 as the recommended production replacement, but GPT-4o remains available and widely used. If you are running GPT-4o in production or evaluating whether to switch, this page covers everything: current per-token pricing, batch and caching discounts, comparison to GPT-4.1, and real-world cost estimates.

GPT-4o

$2.50 / $10.00 per 1M input / output tokens
  • Multimodal: text, image, and audio input
  • 128K context window
  • Function calling and structured outputs
  • Vision capabilities included at no extra charge
  • 50% cached input discount ($1.25/1M)
Most Popular

GPT-4o Mini

$0.15 / $0.60 per 1M input / output tokens
  • Cheapest GPT-4o variant
  • 128K context window
  • Good for classification, extraction, simple tasks
  • Function calling supported
  • 50% cached input discount ($0.075/1M)

GPT-4o Audio

$40.00 / $80.00 per 1M audio tokens
  • Native audio input and output
  • Text tokens still at standard GPT-4o rates
  • Audio tokens are significantly more expensive
  • Best for voice-first applications

GPT-4o (Batch)

$1.25 / $5.00 per 1M input / output tokens
  • 50% discount on standard pricing
  • 24-hour turnaround SLA
  • Same quality as synchronous API
  • Best for bulk processing and evaluation

GPT-4o Pricing Table (April 2026)

H

e

r

e

i

s

e

v

e

r

y

G

P

T

-

4

o

v

a

r

i

a

n

t

w

i

t

h

c

u

r

r

e

n

t

p

e

r

-

t

o

k

e

n

p

r

i

c

i

n

g

.

A

l

l

p

r

i

c

e

s

a

r

e

p

e

r

1

m

i

l

l

i

o

n

t

o

k

e

n

s

u

n

l

e

s

s

n

o

t

e

d

o

t

h

e

r

w

i

s

e

.

ModelInputCached InputOutputContext
GPT-4o$2.50$1.25$10.00128K
GPT-4o Mini$0.15$0.075$0.60128K
GPT-4o Audio (text)$2.50$1.25$10.00128K
GPT-4o Audio (audio)$40.00-$80.00128K
GPT-4o (Batch)$1.25-$5.00128K
GPT-4o Mini (Batch)$0.075-$0.30128K

GPT-4o Price History

G

P

T

-

4

o

l

a

u

n

c

h

e

d

i

n

M

a

y

2

0

2

4

a

t

$

5

.

0

0

i

n

p

u

t

a

n

d

$

1

5

.

0

0

o

u

t

p

u

t

p

e

r

m

i

l

l

i

o

n

t

o

k

e

n

s

.

I

n

O

c

t

o

b

e

r

2

0

2

4

,

O

p

e

n

A

I

c

u

t

p

r

i

c

e

s

b

y

5

0

%

t

o

t

h

e

c

u

r

r

e

n

t

$

2

.

5

0

/

$

1

0

.

0

0

.

G

P

T

-

4

o

M

i

n

i

l

a

u

n

c

h

e

d

i

n

J

u

l

y

2

0

2

4

a

t

$

0

.

1

5

/

$

0

.

6

0

a

n

d

h

a

s

n

o

t

c

h

a

n

g

e

d

s

i

n

c

e

.

T

h

e

p

r

i

c

e

c

u

t

s

m

a

d

e

G

P

T

-

4

o

c

o

m

p

e

t

i

t

i

v

e

w

i

t

h

C

l

a

u

d

e

3

.

5

S

o

n

n

e

t

a

t

t

h

e

t

i

m

e

,

t

h

o

u

g

h

b

o

t

h

p

r

o

v

i

d

e

r

s

h

a

v

e

s

i

n

c

e

r

e

l

e

a

s

e

d

n

e

w

e

r

m

o

d

e

l

s

.

DateModelInput/1MOutput/1MChange
May 2024GPT-4o$5.00$15.00Launch price
Jul 2024GPT-4o Mini$0.15$0.60New model
Oct 2024GPT-4o$2.50$10.00-50%
Jan 2025GPT-4.1$2.00$8.00New (replaced 4o)

GPT-4o vs GPT-4.1: Which Should You Use?

G

P

T

-

4

.

1

r

e

p

l

a

c

e

d

G

P

T

-

4

o

a

s

O

p

e

n

A

I

'

s

r

e

c

o

m

m

e

n

d

e

d

p

r

o

d

u

c

t

i

o

n

m

o

d

e

l

i

n

J

a

n

u

a

r

y

2

0

2

5

.

I

t

i

s

c

h

e

a

p

e

r

(

$

2

.

0

0

/

$

8

.

0

0

v

s

$

2

.

5

0

/

$

1

0

.

0

0

)

,

s

c

o

r

e

s

h

i

g

h

e

r

o

n

c

o

d

i

n

g

b

e

n

c

h

m

a

r

k

s

(

S

W

E

-

b

e

n

c

h

)

,

h

a

n

d

l

e

s

i

n

s

t

r

u

c

t

i

o

n

f

o

l

l

o

w

i

n

g

b

e

t

t

e

r

,

a

n

d

s

u

p

p

o

r

t

s

a

1

m

i

l

l

i

o

n

t

o

k

e

n

c

o

n

t

e

x

t

w

i

n

d

o

w

v

e

r

s

u

s

G

P

T

-

4

o

'

s

1

2

8

K

.

T

h

e

m

a

i

n

r

e

a

s

o

n

t

o

s

t

a

y

o

n

G

P

T

-

4

o

i

s

v

i

s

i

o

n

s

u

p

p

o

r

t

G

P

T

-

4

.

1

d

o

e

s

n

o

t

a

c

c

e

p

t

i

m

a

g

e

i

n

p

u

t

s

.

F

o

r

t

e

x

t

-

o

n

l

y

a

p

p

l

i

c

a

t

i

o

n

s

,

G

P

T

-

4

.

1

i

s

s

t

r

i

c

t

l

y

b

e

t

t

e

r

o

n

p

r

i

c

e

a

n

d

p

e

r

f

o

r

m

a

n

c

e

.

T

h

e

A

P

I

i

n

t

e

r

f

a

c

e

i

s

i

d

e

n

t

i

c

a

l

,

s

o

m

i

g

r

a

t

i

o

n

r

e

q

u

i

r

e

s

o

n

l

y

c

h

a

n

g

i

n

g

t

h

e

m

o

d

e

l

p

a

r

a

m

e

t

e

r

f

r

o

m

g

p

t

-

4

o

t

o

g

p

t

-

4

.

1

.

FeatureGPT-4oGPT-4.1
Input price$2.50/1M$2.00/1M
Output price$10.00/1M$8.00/1M
Context window128K tokens1M tokens
Vision supportYesNo
Recommended forMultimodalProduction text
Batch discount50%50%
Cache discount50%75%

GPT-4o vs GPT-4o Mini: When to Use Each

G

P

T

-

4

o

M

i

n

i

c

o

s

t

s

9

4

%

l

e

s

s

t

h

a

n

G

P

T

-

4

o

o

n

i

n

p

u

t

t

o

k

e

n

s

a

n

d

9

4

%

l

e

s

s

o

n

o

u

t

p

u

t

t

o

k

e

n

s

.

F

o

r

t

a

s

k

s

t

h

a

t

d

o

n

o

t

r

e

q

u

i

r

e

G

P

T

-

4

o

'

s

f

u

l

l

c

a

p

a

b

i

l

i

t

i

e

s

c

l

a

s

s

i

f

i

c

a

t

i

o

n

,

e

n

t

i

t

y

e

x

t

r

a

c

t

i

o

n

,

s

i

m

p

l

e

Q

&

A

,

c

o

n

t

e

n

t

r

o

u

t

i

n

g

M

i

n

i

d

e

l

i

v

e

r

s

c

o

m

p

a

r

a

b

l

e

r

e

s

u

l

t

s

a

t

a

f

r

a

c

t

i

o

n

o

f

t

h

e

c

o

s

t

.

T

h

e

q

u

a

l

i

t

y

g

a

p

s

h

o

w

s

u

p

o

n

c

o

m

p

l

e

x

r

e

a

s

o

n

i

n

g

,

n

u

a

n

c

e

d

w

r

i

t

i

n

g

,

a

n

d

m

u

l

t

i

-

s

t

e

p

t

o

o

l

u

s

e

.

A

c

o

m

m

o

n

p

a

t

t

e

r

n

i

s

t

o

u

s

e

M

i

n

i

f

o

r

i

n

i

t

i

a

l

f

i

l

t

e

r

i

n

g

o

r

c

l

a

s

s

i

f

i

c

a

t

i

o

n

a

n

d

r

o

u

t

e

o

n

l

y

c

o

m

p

l

e

x

r

e

q

u

e

s

t

s

t

o

t

h

e

f

u

l

l

G

P

T

-

4

o

o

r

G

P

T

-

4

.

1

m

o

d

e

l

.

T

h

i

s

h

y

b

r

i

d

a

p

p

r

o

a

c

h

c

a

n

c

u

t

A

P

I

c

o

s

t

s

b

y

8

0

%

o

r

m

o

r

e

d

e

p

e

n

d

i

n

g

o

n

y

o

u

r

t

r

a

f

f

i

c

m

i

x

.

Batch API: Half-Price GPT-4o

O

p

e

n

A

I

'

s

B

a

t

c

h

A

P

I

p

r

o

c

e

s

s

e

s

r

e

q

u

e

s

t

s

a

s

y

n

c

h

r

o

n

o

u

s

l

y

a

t

5

0

%

o

f

f

.

G

P

T

-

4

o

B

a

t

c

h

p

r

i

c

i

n

g

i

s

$

1

.

2

5

i

n

p

u

t

a

n

d

$

5

.

0

0

o

u

t

p

u

t

p

e

r

m

i

l

l

i

o

n

t

o

k

e

n

s

.

J

o

b

s

c

o

m

p

l

e

t

e

w

i

t

h

i

n

2

4

h

o

u

r

s

.

T

h

e

B

a

t

c

h

A

P

I

a

c

c

e

p

t

s

t

h

e

s

a

m

e

r

e

q

u

e

s

t

f

o

r

m

a

t

a

s

t

h

e

s

y

n

c

h

r

o

n

o

u

s

C

h

a

t

C

o

m

p

l

e

t

i

o

n

s

A

P

I

,

m

a

k

i

n

g

i

n

t

e

g

r

a

t

i

o

n

s

t

r

a

i

g

h

t

f

o

r

w

a

r

d

.

B

e

s

t

f

o

r

:

b

u

l

k

c

o

n

t

e

n

t

g

e

n

e

r

a

t

i

o

n

,

l

a

r

g

e

-

s

c

a

l

e

d

a

t

a

l

a

b

e

l

i

n

g

,

e

v

a

l

u

a

t

i

o

n

p

i

p

e

l

i

n

e

s

,

a

n

d

a

n

y

w

o

r

k

l

o

a

d

w

h

e

r

e

l

a

t

e

n

c

y

i

s

n

o

t

c

r

i

t

i

c

a

l

.

Y

o

u

s

u

b

m

i

t

a

J

S

O

N

L

f

i

l

e

o

f

r

e

q

u

e

s

t

s

a

n

d

p

o

l

l

f

o

r

r

e

s

u

l

t

s

.

ModelSync InputBatch InputSync OutputBatch Output
GPT-4o$2.50$1.25$10.00$5.00
GPT-4o Mini$0.15$0.075$0.60$0.30

Prompt Caching and How It Reduces GPT-4o Costs

O

p

e

n

A

I

a

u

t

o

m

a

t

i

c

a

l

l

y

c

a

c

h

e

s

t

h

e

p

r

e

f

i

x

o

f

y

o

u

r

p

r

o

m

p

t

.

W

h

e

n

a

s

u

b

s

e

q

u

e

n

t

r

e

q

u

e

s

t

s

t

a

r

t

s

w

i

t

h

t

h

e

s

a

m

e

t

o

k

e

n

s

,

c

a

c

h

e

d

i

n

p

u

t

t

o

k

e

n

s

a

r

e

b

i

l

l

e

d

a

t

5

0

%

o

f

f

(

$

1

.

2

5

/

1

M

i

n

s

t

e

a

d

o

f

$

2

.

5

0

/

1

M

f

o

r

G

P

T

-

4

o

)

.

C

a

c

h

i

n

g

w

o

r

k

s

b

e

s

t

w

i

t

h

l

o

n

g

,

s

t

a

b

l

e

s

y

s

t

e

m

p

r

o

m

p

t

s

a

n

d

f

e

w

-

s

h

o

t

e

x

a

m

p

l

e

s

.

T

h

e

c

a

c

h

e

h

a

s

a

s

h

o

r

t

T

T

L

t

y

p

i

c

a

l

l

y

a

f

e

w

m

i

n

u

t

e

s

s

o

i

t

h

e

l

p

s

m

o

s

t

w

i

t

h

h

i

g

h

-

t

h

r

o

u

g

h

p

u

t

a

p

p

l

i

c

a

t

i

o

n

s

m

a

k

i

n

g

f

r

e

q

u

e

n

t

s

i

m

i

l

a

r

r

e

q

u

e

s

t

s

.

S

t

r

u

c

t

u

r

e

y

o

u

r

p

r

o

m

p

t

s

w

i

t

h

s

t

a

t

i

c

c

o

n

t

e

n

t

f

i

r

s

t

a

n

d

d

y

n

a

m

i

c

c

o

n

t

e

n

t

l

a

s

t

t

o

m

a

x

i

m

i

z

e

c

a

c

h

e

h

i

t

s

.

Real-World Cost Examples

H

e

r

e

i

s

w

h

a

t

G

P

T

-

4

o

a

c

t

u

a

l

l

y

c

o

s

t

s

f

o

r

c

o

m

m

o

n

u

s

e

c

a

s

e

s

,

a

s

s

u

m

i

n

g

a

v

e

r

a

g

e

t

o

k

e

n

c

o

u

n

t

s

p

e

r

r

e

q

u

e

s

t

.

Use CaseInput TokensOutput TokensCost per RequestCost per 1K Requests
Chatbot reply~500~200$0.0033$3.25
Document summary (5 pages)~3,000~500$0.0125$12.50
Code generation~1,000~800$0.0105$10.50
Image analysis~1,500~300$0.0068$6.75
RAG with 10K context~10,000~500$0.0300$30.00

Rate Limits by Spending Tier

O

p

e

n

A

I

s

e

t

s

r

a

t

e

l

i

m

i

t

s

b

a

s

e

d

o

n

y

o

u

r

t

o

t

a

l

A

P

I

s

p

e

n

d

i

n

g

.

N

e

w

a

c

c

o

u

n

t

s

s

t

a

r

t

a

t

t

h

e

f

r

e

e

t

i

e

r

w

i

t

h

m

o

d

e

s

t

l

i

m

i

t

s

.

A

s

y

o

u

s

p

e

n

d

m

o

r

e

,

l

i

m

i

t

s

i

n

c

r

e

a

s

e

a

u

t

o

m

a

t

i

c

a

l

l

y

.

F

o

r

G

P

T

-

4

o

s

p

e

c

i

f

i

c

a

l

l

y

:

TierRequirementRPMTPMRPD
FreeVerified account50030K500
Tier 1$5+ spent50030K10K
Tier 2$50+ spent5K450K
Tier 3$100+ spent5K800K
Tier 4$250+ spent10K2M
Tier 5$1,000+ spent10K30M

How to Estimate Your Monthly GPT-4o Bill

M

u

l

t

i

p

l

y

y

o

u

r

a

v

e

r

a

g

e

i

n

p

u

t

t

o

k

e

n

s

p

e

r

r

e

q

u

e

s

t

b

y

y

o

u

r

r

e

q

u

e

s

t

v

o

l

u

m

e

,

t

h

e

n

d

i

v

i

d

e

b

y

1

m

i

l

l

i

o

n

a

n

d

m

u

l

t

i

p

l

y

b

y

$

2

.

5

0

.

D

o

t

h

e

s

a

m

e

f

o

r

o

u

t

p

u

t

t

o

k

e

n

s

a

t

$

1

0

.

0

0

p

e

r

m

i

l

l

i

o

n

.

E

x

a

m

p

l

e

:

1

0

,

0

0

0

r

e

q

u

e

s

t

s

/

d

a

y

a

v

e

r

a

g

i

n

g

1

,

0

0

0

i

n

p

u

t

a

n

d

3

0

0

o

u

t

p

u

t

t

o

k

e

n

s

e

a

c

h

=

1

0

M

i

n

p

u

t

t

o

k

e

n

s

+

3

M

o

u

t

p

u

t

t

o

k

e

n

s

p

e

r

d

a

y

.

M

o

n

t

h

l

y

:

3

0

0

M

i

n

p

u

t

(

$

7

5

0

)

+

9

0

M

o

u

t

p

u

t

(

$

9

0

0

)

=

$

1

,

6

5

0

/

m

o

n

t

h

a

t

s

t

a

n

d

a

r

d

r

a

t

e

s

,

o

r

$

8

2

5

/

m

o

n

t

h

w

i

t

h

B

a

t

c

h

A

P

I

.

A

d

d

c

a

c

h

i

n

g

i

f

y

o

u

r

p

r

o

m

p

t

s

h

a

v

e

s

t

a

b

l

e

p

r

e

f

i

x

e

s

.

GPT-4o vs Claude Sonnet 4.6: Cross-Provider Comparison

A

n

t

h

r

o

p

i

c

'

s

C

l

a

u

d

e

S

o

n

n

e

t

4

.

6

i

s

t

h

e

c

l

o

s

e

s

t

c

o

m

p

e

t

i

t

o

r

t

o

G

P

T

-

4

o

.

C

l

a

u

d

e

S

o

n

n

e

t

4

.

6

c

o

s

t

s

$

3

.

0

0

i

n

p

u

t

a

n

d

$

1

5

.

0

0

o

u

t

p

u

t

p

e

r

m

i

l

l

i

o

n

t

o

k

e

n

s

m

o

r

e

e

x

p

e

n

s

i

v

e

t

h

a

n

G

P

T

-

4

o

o

n

b

o

t

h

d

i

m

e

n

s

i

o

n

s

.

C

l

a

u

d

e

o

f

f

e

r

s

a

2

0

0

K

c

o

n

t

e

x

t

w

i

n

d

o

w

v

e

r

s

u

s

G

P

T

-

4

o

'

s

1

2

8

K

.

P

e

r

f

o

r

m

a

n

c

e

i

s

c

o

m

p

a

r

a

b

l

e

o

n

m

o

s

t

b

e

n

c

h

m

a

r

k

s

,

w

i

t

h

C

l

a

u

d

e

g

e

n

e

r

a

l

l

y

s

t

r

o

n

g

e

r

o

n

l

o

n

g

-

f

o

r

m

w

r

i

t

i

n

g

a

n

d

a

n

a

l

y

s

i

s

,

a

n

d

G

P

T

-

4

o

s

t

r

o

n

g

e

r

o

n

s

t

r

u

c

t

u

r

e

d

o

u

t

p

u

t

a

n

d

t

o

o

l

u

s

e

.

F

o

r

c

o

s

t

-

s

e

n

s

i

t

i

v

e

a

p

p

l

i

c

a

t

i

o

n

s

,

G

P

T

-

4

o

(

o

r

b

e

t

t

e

r

y

e

t

,

G

P

T

-

4

.

1

)

h

a

s

t

h

e

e

d

g

e

.

ModelInput/1MOutput/1MContextVision
GPT-4o$2.50$10.00128KYes
GPT-4.1$2.00$8.001MNo
Claude Sonnet 4.6$3.00$15.00200KYes
Claude Haiku 4.5$0.80$4.00200KYes
Gemini 2.0 Flash$0.10$0.401MYes

Migration Guide: GPT-4o to GPT-4.1

I

f

y

o

u

a

r

e

r

u

n

n

i

n

g

G

P

T

-

4

o

f

o

r

t

e

x

t

-

o

n

l

y

a

p

p

l

i

c

a

t

i

o

n

s

,

s

w

i

t

c

h

i

n

g

t

o

G

P

T

-

4

.

1

s

a

v

e

s

2

0

%

o

n

e

v

e

r

y

A

P

I

c

a

l

l

w

i

t

h

n

o

q

u

a

l

i

t

y

l

o

s

s

.

T

h

e

m

i

g

r

a

t

i

o

n

i

s

s

i

m

p

l

e

:

c

h

a

n

g

e

t

h

e

m

o

d

e

l

p

a

r

a

m

e

t

e

r

f

r

o

m

"

g

p

t

-

4

o

"

t

o

"

g

p

t

-

4

.

1

"

i

n

y

o

u

r

A

P

I

c

a

l

l

s

.

B

o

t

h

m

o

d

e

l

s

u

s

e

t

h

e

s

a

m

e

C

h

a

t

C

o

m

p

l

e

t

i

o

n

s

A

P

I

f

o

r

m

a

t

,

s

u

p

p

o

r

t

t

h

e

s

a

m

e

t

o

o

l

s

(

f

u

n

c

t

i

o

n

c

a

l

l

i

n

g

,

s

t

r

u

c

t

u

r

e

d

o

u

t

p

u

t

s

,

J

S

O

N

m

o

d

e

)

,

a

n

d

a

c

c

e

p

t

t

h

e

s

a

m

e

p

a

r

a

m

e

t

e

r

s

.

T

e

s

t

w

i

t

h

a

s

m

a

l

l

s

a

m

p

l

e

f

i

r

s

t

t

o

v

e

r

i

f

y

o

u

t

p

u

t

q

u

a

l

i

t

y

m

e

e

t

s

y

o

u

r

r

e

q

u

i

r

e

m

e

n

t

s

,

t

h

e

n

s

w

i

t

c

h

o

v

e

r

.

T

h

e

o

n

l

y

b

l

o

c

k

e

r

i

s

i

f

y

o

u

r

e

l

y

o

n

v

i

s

i

o

n

i

n

p

u

t

G

P

T

-

4

.

1

d

o

e

s

n

o

t

s

u

p

p

o

r

t

i

m

a

g

e

s

.

Hidden Costs & Gotchas

  • {'title': 'GPT-4.1 is cheaper for most use cases', 'detail': "GPT-4.1 costs $2.00/$8.00 per 1M tokens versus GPT-4o's $2.50/$10.00. That's 20% cheaper on input and output. Unless you need vision or audio specifically, GPT-4.1 is the better deal with stronger benchmark performance."}
  • {'title': 'Output tokens cost 4x input tokens', 'detail': 'GPT-4o charges $2.50 per 1M input tokens but $10.00 per 1M output tokens. Applications that generate long responses (summaries, articles, code) will see output dominate the bill. Budget based on your output-to-input ratio.'}
  • {'title': 'Vision queries use image tokens', 'detail': 'Sending images to GPT-4o converts them to tokens based on resolution. A 1024x1024 image uses roughly 765 tokens. High-res mode can use 2-3x more. Vision is included in the base price, but the token count adds up fast.'}
  • {'title': 'Audio tokens are 16x more expensive', 'detail': "GPT-4o audio input costs $40 per 1M tokens and output costs $80 per 1M tokens. That's 16x and 8x the text token prices respectively. For voice applications, calculate audio token costs separately."}
  • {'title': 'Prompt caching only helps on repeated prefixes', 'detail': 'The 50% cached input discount applies only when the beginning of your prompt matches a recent request exactly. System prompts and few-shot examples benefit most. Dynamic user inputs typically do not get cached.'}
  • {'title': 'Rate limits depend on your spending tier', 'detail': "Free tier users get 500 RPM. Tier 1 (\\ spent) gets 500 RPM and 30K TPM. Tier 5 (\\+ spent) gets 10K RPM and 30M TPM. Your effective throughput depends on your account's spending history."}

Which Plan Do You Need?

Prototyping or light usage

GPT-4o Mini at $0.15/$0.60 per 1M tokens. 97% cheaper than standard GPT-4o for simple tasks. Use this for classification, extraction, routing, and early-stage development.

Production text applications

Migrate to GPT-4.1 ($2.00/$8.00). It's 20% cheaper than GPT-4o, benchmarks higher on coding and instruction following, and has a 1M token context window. GPT-4o is no longer the recommended production model.

Vision and multimodal workflows

GPT-4o is still the go-to for image understanding. GPT-4.1 does not support vision input. If your application sends images, stay on GPT-4o or evaluate o4-mini for reasoning-heavy vision tasks.

Bulk processing and evaluation

Batch API at $1.25/$5.00 per 1M tokens. Half the cost of synchronous GPT-4o, with 24-hour turnaround. Ideal for data labeling, content generation, and test suite evaluation.

The Bottom Line

GPT-4o at $2.50/$10.00 per million tokens is no longer OpenAI's best value for text-only applications — GPT-4.1 is 20% cheaper and performs better on most benchmarks. But GPT-4o remains the right choice for vision and multimodal workflows where GPT-4.1 has no support. If you're starting fresh, default to GPT-4.1 for text and GPT-4o for images. If you're already running GPT-4o, the migration is straightforward since they share the same API format.

Disclosure: Pricing information is sourced from official websites and may change. We update this page regularly but always verify current pricing on the vendor's site before purchasing.

Related Resources

Full OpenAI API pricing for all models → OpenAI API review and features → OpenAI vs Anthropic API pricing comparison → Best LLM frameworks for building with GPT-4o → Anthropic API pricing (Claude models) →

Frequently Asked Questions

How much does GPT-4o cost per token?

GPT-4o costs $2.50 per 1 million input tokens and $10.00 per 1 million output tokens. With prompt caching, input tokens drop to $1.25 per million. Batch API pricing is $1.25 input and $5.00 output per million tokens.

Is GPT-4o cheaper than GPT-4?

Yes. GPT-4o is significantly cheaper than the original GPT-4 ($30/$60 per 1M tokens) and GPT-4 Turbo ($10/$30 per 1M tokens). GPT-4o costs $2.50/$10.00 — roughly 75% cheaper than GPT-4 Turbo.

Should I use GPT-4o or GPT-4.1?

Use GPT-4.1 for text-only applications — it is 20% cheaper and benchmarks higher. Use GPT-4o only if you need vision (image input) or audio capabilities, which GPT-4.1 does not support.

What is GPT-4o Mini and when should I use it?

GPT-4o Mini costs $0.15/$0.60 per million tokens — 94% cheaper than GPT-4o. Use it for simple tasks like classification, extraction, routing, and early-stage development. Switch to GPT-4o or GPT-4.1 for complex reasoning and nuanced generation.

Does GPT-4o have a free tier?

The OpenAI API does not have a free tier for GPT-4o. New accounts get $5 in credits. ChatGPT Free includes limited GPT-4o access, but that is the consumer product, not the API.

How does GPT-4o batch pricing work?

Submit a JSONL file of requests to the Batch API endpoint. Processing completes within 24 hours. Pricing is 50% off standard rates: $1.25 input and $5.00 output per million tokens. Same quality as synchronous calls.

Is GPT-4o being deprecated?

OpenAI has not announced a deprecation date for GPT-4o. It is no longer the recommended production model (GPT-4.1 replaced it), but it remains available. OpenAI typically gives at least 6 months notice before deprecating models.

How much does it cost to analyze an image with GPT-4o?

Image analysis uses GPT-4o's standard text token pricing plus additional tokens for the image. A 1024x1024 image uses roughly 765 tokens ($0.002). High-res images use more tokens. There is no separate per-image charge.

What is the context window for GPT-4o?

GPT-4o supports 128K tokens of context (roughly 96K words). Both GPT-4o and GPT-4o Mini share this 128K limit. If you need more context, GPT-4.1 supports 1 million tokens.

How does GPT-4o pricing compare to Claude?

GPT-4o ($2.50/$10.00) is cheaper than Claude Sonnet 4.6 ($3.00/$15.00) on both input and output. Claude Haiku 4.5 ($0.80/$4.00) is cheaper than GPT-4o but more expensive than GPT-4o Mini ($0.15/$0.60).