Frontier
US$1.25
GPT-5
OpenAI
At a glance
o3 from OpenAI is a frontier model priced at US$2.00 per 1M input tokens and US$8.00 per 1M output tokens. For a typical solo-developer workload (8 hours/day, 22 days/month — 1 medium feature, 5 small bug fixes, 4 PR reviews, 2 stack-trace debugs, ~1500 lines of TypeScript, 1 large-doc read, with prompt caching at the default mix) o3 costs about US$45/month. The 200K-token context window covers most monorepo scans without truncation.
What does your monthly budget buy?
Move the slider or switch task mix — values update live.
Monthly budget
US$100 / month
≈ $23/wk · ≈ $4.55/day
on o3
Input tokens
68.0M
Output tokens
1.9M
Total tokens
69.9M
Per month this budget delivers
- Medium feature (10–15 files)135
- PR review1,626
- Lines of TypeScript452,488
- Small bug fix1,763
- Work email40,000
- Unit test file1,317
How does this model compare on price?
Input vs output per 1M tokens
Hover a row to compare input vs output rates.
- o3US$2.00US$8.00
- Frontier median (other frontier models)US$3.00US$15.00
- Cheapest in catalog (Gemini 2.0 Flash)US$0.10US$0.40
Input per 1MOutput per 1M
Cost per task
At the default coding-agent mix with 50% cache hits.
USD per single task
Hover a bar to see per-task cost detail.
- Lines of TypeScriptUS$0.0002
- Small bug fixUS$0.0567
- PR reviewUS$0.0615
- Read a large docUS$0.0825
- Debug from stack traceUS$0.14
- Refactor a module (8–12 files)US$0.52
- Medium feature (10–15 files)US$0.74
- Onboard to a new repoUS$0.85
Typical developer day
The 22-day month is based on the median working-day count across DE/US.
| Activity | Count | Per task | Daily | Monthly |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Medium feature (10–15 files) | 1 | US$0.74 | US$0.74 | US$16.22 |
| Small bug fix | 5 | US$0.06 | US$0.28 | US$6.24 |
| PR review | 4 | US$0.06 | US$0.25 | US$5.41 |
| Debug from stack trace | 2 | US$0.14 | US$0.28 | US$6.09 |
| Read a large doc | 1 | US$0.08 | US$0.08 | US$1.82 |
| Micro-interaction (explain / lint fix) | 30 | US$0.00 | US$0.09 | US$1.88 |
| Lines of TypeScript | 1,500 | US$0.00 | US$0.33 | US$7.29 |
| Total | US$2.04 | US$44.95 | ||
The 1500-lines-of-TS row models ~1000 lines read (cache-hit) + ~500 lines written. Headline figures are precise to ~5% — see the FAQ.
Monthly cost matrix
What each monthly budget buys on this model (typical solo-developer day, 22 working days).
| Monthly budget | Medium features | PR reviews | Debug sessions | Lines of TS |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Typical (≈ $45) | 60 | 730 | 324 | 203,390 |
| $50/month | 67 | 813 | 361 | 226,244 |
| $200/month | 271 | 3,252 | 1,444 | 904,977 |
| $500/month | 678 | 8,130 | 3,611 | 2,262,443 |
| $2000/month | 2,712 | 32,520 | 14,445 | 9,049,773 |
Typical mix: coding-agent (85% input, 50% cache hits). Values show the maximum count of each task type at that budget.
What this model can do
Coding
Trained or post-trained for code generation tasks.
Reasoning
Strong multi-step reasoning over complex prompts.
Multimodal
Accepts images alongside text.
Prompt cache
Cache reads billed at ~10% of input price — cuts agent costs sharply.
Batch API
50% off when you accept up to 24-hour turnaround.
Tool use
Native function-calling / tool-use API support.
Long context
≥ 200K-token context window.
Extended thinking
Hidden reasoning tokens (Anthropic 'thinking' / OpenAI reasoning).
When does this model fit?
Best for
- Hard novel problems that need search-style reasoning
- Math/algorithmic coding (proofs, optimization, parsers)
- One-shot 'figure this out' tasks where iteration is expensive
Watch out for
- Hidden thinking tokens count toward output cost — total is 2–10× higher than non-reasoning equivalents
- Slower (10–60s per call) — bad fit for tight inner loops
OpenAI in the catalog
Total models
6
Median input/1M
US$1.63
Median output/1M
US$8.00
Input range
US$0.25–US$2.50
Related models
Sources
- OpenAI API Pricing ↗
Verified: 2026-05-07
Frequently asked questions about o3
What does a typical month on o3 cost?
Running the realistic solo-developer day (1 medium feature + 5 small bug fixes + 4 PR reviews + 2 debug sessions + ~1500 lines of TypeScript + 1 large-doc read, 22 working days) on o3 costs about US$45/month. Heavier workloads scale proportionally; lighter workloads cost less.
How big is o3's context window?
200K tokens total, with up to 100K of output. That fits whole repository snapshots, tests included in a single call.
Why is o3 output priced so much higher than input?
Providers charge US$8.00 per 1M output tokens against US$2.00 per 1M input — output requires real compute, input comes mostly from cache. Coding agents read many files (input-heavy) and emit compact diffs (low output), so total spend is usually input-driven.
How much does prompt caching save on o3?
Cache reads typically cost only 10% of the regular input rate. On a coding-agent mix with 50% cache hits, that saves roughly 45% on input — which is about 38% off your total bill on input-heavy workloads. Anthropic models charge a one-time cache-write surcharge (25% over input) that pays for itself after 2–3 hits.
How do thinking tokens affect o3's monthly bill?
Extended-thinking / reasoning tokens are billed at the full output rate but never appear in your visible response. On hard agentic tasks they can double your output bill, lifting the monthly total by 20–30%. Enable thinking only when the standard response visibly fails.
Is o3's batch API worth using?
Yes, if you can tolerate up to 24-hour turnaround: batch input/output are 50% cheaper than real-time rates. Perfect for nightly code reviews, bulk refactors or pre-merge analysis — wrong for inner-loop editing where you need an answer in seconds.
Try o3 pricing live
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