o4 Mini (batch) API Pricing
OpenAI · context window 200K · prices updated 2026-08-23
Where o4 Mini (batch) sits on price
At $2.20 per million output tokens, o4 Mini (batch) is a mid tier model — right at the median output price of $2.25, which puts it cheaper than 52% and pricier than 48% of the models we track. It sits 28th cheapest of the 93 OpenAI models we track. Output costs 4.0× input, the usual spread — trim both, starting with the answer length.
Cached input is 75% cheaper. On an input-heavy workload you need roughly a 33% cache-hit rate to take 25% off the input line — reachable for chatbots and agents that resend the same system prompt and history.
What real workloads cost on o4 Mini (batch)
These three workloads are the ones teams actually run on a mid-priced model — a $2.20/1M model is not bought for the same job as one ten times the price.
| Workload | Per request | Per month |
|---|---|---|
| Support chatbot — 500 conversations/day (5K in / 1.4K out) Conversation history re-sent each turn — the classic prompt-caching win. | $0.0058 | $87.45 |
| Document pipeline — 10K docs/day (3K in / 500 out) Batch-friendly: no user waiting, so a ~50% batch discount usually applies. | $0.0028 | $825 |
| Small app — 1K requests/day (500 in / 150 out) The baseline most side projects actually run at. | $0.0006 | $18.15 |
Model your exact traffic in the API cost calculator — it preloads o4 Mini (batch) with caching and batch options.
o4 Mini (batch) price history
o4 Mini (batch)'s price has not moved since we began tracking it on Aug 6, 2026 — 17 days of stability in a market where 55 of the 302 models we track have repriced over the same period, including 9 of OpenAI's own 93 models.
Change-points from our daily price snapshots (tracking since Aug 6, 2026; intraday moves between snapshots are not captured).
o4 Mini (batch) vs MiniMax M1
The closest-priced alternative from another vendor is MiniMax M1 (MiniMax) — priced within a rounding error on output, with identical input pricing. When two models land this close on price, the decision is quality on your own workload, not the price sheet: run 50 real requests through both and compare.
See MiniMax M1 pricing →Cheaper alternatives
More OpenAI models
Frequently asked questions
› How much does the o4 Mini (batch) API cost?
o4 Mini (batch) costs $0.55 per million input tokens and $2.20 per million output tokens, with cached input at $0.1375 per million (75% cheaper). That works out to roughly 454,545 output tokens per dollar.
› What does the support chatbot workload cost on o4 Mini (batch)?
Support chatbot — 500 conversations/day (5K in / 1.4K out) costs about $0.0058 per request and $87.45 per month on o4 Mini (batch). Conversation history re-sent each turn — the classic prompt-caching win.
› What does it cost to fill o4 Mini (batch)'s 200K context window?
Sending 200K of input in a single request costs $0.11 at $0.55 per million tokens — before any output. With prompt caching that same fill drops to about $0.0275 on repeat requests. This is why large context windows are cheap to advertise and expensive to actually use.
› Is o4 Mini (batch) worth the price?
o4 Mini (batch) sits in the middle of the market (28 of 93 by price within OpenAI). The honest test is a routing experiment: send the same 200 real requests to this model and to a tier below, and compare failure rate against the price gap — most teams find a majority of traffic never needed the pricier model.