Complete side-by-side cost comparison: GPT-4o vs Claude 3.5 Sonnet, GPT-4o mini vs Haiku, and o3 vs Opus — with real cost scenarios to help you pick the right API.
| Tier | OpenAI Model | Price (in/out MTok) | Claude Model | Price (in/out MTok) | Cheaper |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Budget | GPT-4o mini | $0.15 / $0.60 | Claude 3.5 Haiku | $0.80 / $4.00 | OpenAI ~5x |
| Flagship | GPT-4o | $2.50 / $10.00 | Claude 3.5 Sonnet | $3.00 / $15.00 | OpenAI ~1.5x |
| Reasoning / Top | o3 | $10.00 / $40.00 | Claude 3 Opus | $15.00 / $75.00 | OpenAI ~2x |
| Model | Provider | Input (per MTok) | Output (per MTok) | Context |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| GPT-4o mini | OpenAI | $0.15 | $0.60 | 128K |
| Claude 3.5 Haiku | Anthropic | $0.80 | $4.00 | 200K |
| GPT-4o | OpenAI | $2.50 | $10.00 | 128K |
| Claude 3.5 Sonnet | Anthropic | $3.00 | $15.00 | 200K |
| o3-mini | OpenAI | $1.10 | $4.40 | 200K |
| o1 | OpenAI | $15.00 | $60.00 | 200K |
| o3 | OpenAI | $10.00 | $40.00 | 200K |
| Claude 3 Opus | Anthropic | $15.00 | $75.00 | 200K |
| GPT-3.5 Turbo | OpenAI | $0.50 | $1.50 | 16K |
| Claude 3 Haiku | Anthropic | $0.25 | $1.25 | 200K |
| Feature | OpenAI | Anthropic Claude |
|---|---|---|
| Max context window | 128K (GPT-4o) | 200K (Sonnet/Haiku) |
| Free tier / credits | Small free credits at signup | Small free credits at signup |
| Prompt caching | Yes — 50% off cached input | Yes — varies by TTL |
| Batch API (async, 50% off) | Yes — all major models | Yes — Message Batches API |
| Function calling / tools | Yes — robust, well-documented | Yes — strong tool use support |
| Vision / image input | Yes — GPT-4o and newer | Yes — Claude 3 and newer |
| Native audio/voice | Yes — GPT-4o + Realtime API | No native audio API |
| Embeddings API | Yes — text-embedding-3-small/large | No embeddings (use Cohere/OpenAI) |
| Image generation | Yes — DALL·E 3 | No image generation |
| Enterprise on-prem | Azure OpenAI Service | Amazon Bedrock / GCP Vertex |
| API ecosystem / libraries | Larger — more tutorials, integrations | Growing but smaller |
| System prompt adherence | Good | Excellent — strict instruction following |
| Coding benchmarks (SWE-bench) | Strong | Claude 3.5 Sonnet leads |
| Use Case | Recommendation | Reason |
|---|---|---|
| Cost-sensitive chatbot / Q&A | OpenAI GPT-4o mini | 5-7x cheaper than Claude Haiku, comparable quality |
| Agentic coding / SWE tasks | Claude 3.5 Sonnet | Leads SWE-bench; better instruction following for complex tasks |
| Long document processing | Claude 3.5 Sonnet | 200K context vs 128K; fewer chunking edge cases |
| Multimodal (image + audio) | OpenAI GPT-4o | Native audio + Realtime API; DALL·E integration |
| High-volume batch processing | OpenAI Batch API (GPT-4o mini) | 50% off + cheapest base price = lowest possible cost |
| Complex reasoning / math | OpenAI o3-mini | Better at structured reasoning than Claude; $1.10 input vs Claude Opus $15 |
| RAG / semantic search | OpenAI (with Embeddings) | |
| Enterprise GCP/AWS deployment | Either | Claude on Bedrock/Vertex; OpenAI on Azure — match to your cloud |
| Strict instruction following | Claude (any model) | Claude is more conservative and literal in following system prompts |
Both providers offer async batch processing at half price — ideal for offline workloads.
| Provider / Model | Batch Input (per MTok) | Batch Output (per MTok) | Max Turnaround |
|---|---|---|---|
| GPT-4o mini Batch (OpenAI) | $0.075 | $0.30 | 24 hours |
| GPT-4o Batch (OpenAI) | $1.25 | $5.00 | 24 hours |
| Claude Haiku Batches (Anthropic) | $0.40 | $2.00 | 24 hours |
| Claude Sonnet Batches (Anthropic) | $1.50 | $7.50 | 24 hours |
Both providers cut prices multiple times per year. PricePulse monitors both APIs automatically — get instant alerts so your cost estimates stay accurate.
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