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API price comparison · checked Oct 23, 2026
GPT-5 mini vs GPT-5.4 mini: API price
Short answerGPT-5 mini is the cheaper one: 1,000 chatbot replies cost $1.18 against $2.93 on GPT-5.4 mini, so GPT-5.4 mini costs 2.49x as much. Across our 6 workloads GPT-5 mini is cheaper on 6 and GPT-5.4 mini on 0. Standard prices: GPT-5 mini $0.25 / $2, GPT-5.4 mini $0.75 / $4.5 per 1M input / output tokens, checked Oct 23, 2026.
Cost of the same work
| Workload (1,000 requests) | GPT-5 mini | GPT-5.4 mini | Ratio |
|---|---|---|---|
| Chatbot replya 1,500-token prompt (1,000 of it a fixed system prompt) and a 400-token answer | $1.18 | $2.93 | 0.40x |
| Answer from your docs (RAG)6,000 tokens of retrieved context plus the question, a 500-token answer | $2.50 | $6.75 | 0.37x |
| Summarize a long documenta 20,000-token document in, an 800-token summary out | $6.60 | $18.60 | 0.35x |
| Coding agent step40,000 tokens of repo context and history (30,000 of it repeated from the last step), 2,000 out | $14.00 | $39.00 | 0.36x |
| Batch extraction2,000 tokens per record in, 300 tokens of JSON out, sent through the batch API where there is one | $0.55 | $1.43 | 0.39x |
| Long-document Q&Aa 150,000-token contract or codebase in one prompt, a 1,000-token answer | $39.50 | $117 | 0.34x |
Side by side
| Price | GPT-5 mini | GPT-5.4 mini |
|---|---|---|
| Input / 1M | $0.25 | $0.75 |
| Output / 1M | $2 | $4.5 |
| Cache read / 1M | $0.025 | $0.075 |
| Batch input / output | $0.125 / $1 | $0.375 / $2.25 |
| Long-prompt tier | none listed | none listed |
| Provider | OpenAI | OpenAI |
| Status | listed | listed |
When each one is cheaper
- GPT-5 mini is cheaper or equal on both input and output, so it costs less on every workload at standard prices.
- With caching on a coding-agent step (30,000 of 40,000 input tokens cached): GPT-5 mini $7.25 vs GPT-5.4 mini $18.75 per 1,000 steps (0.39x).
- This page compares price only. Which model answers better for your task is a separate question: test both on your own prompts.
Each model in full
Sources
- OpenAI API pricing: https://developers.openai.com/api/docs/pricing, checked Oct 23, 2026.