Tier: reasoning
Context: 200K
Cheapest Host: OpenAI Direct
Deprecation Alert: 2026-10-23
OpenAI o3-mini API Pricing Calculator & Cheapest Provider
Live unit economics and multi-provider host arbitrage for OpenAI o3-mini (openai/o3-mini).
Input tokens cost $1.10/1M, output tokens cost
$4.40/1M, and prompt cache reads drop to
$0.55/1M.
Input / Output / Cache Read
$1.10 / $4.40
Per 1M tokens · Cache Read: $0.55/1M
10,000 DAU Monthly Bill
$26,532/mo
Drops to $21,335/mo at 75% prompt cache hit rate
Speed & Context Spec
118 tok/s
Context: 200,000 · Max Out: 100,000
1. Multi-Provider Host Arbitrage Table for OpenAI o3-mini
Compare every verified inference provider hosting OpenAI o3-mini by input price, output price, cache read discount, and throughput speed:
| Provider / Endpoint | Input / 1M | Output / 1M | Cache Read / 1M | Throughput | 10K DAU Monthly Bill | Action |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| OpenAI Direct Lowest Price | $1.10 | $4.40 | $0.55 | 118 tok/s | $26,532/mo | Deploy (Route with 0% Markup Fallback) → |
| OpenRouter | $1.10 | $4.40 | $0.55 | 114 tok/s | $26,532/mo | Deploy (Unified API for 470+ Models) → |
2. Monthly SaaS Spend by DAU Scale & Prompt Cache Hit Rate
Exact monthly spend projections across 1,000 DAU, 10,000 DAU, and 50,000 DAU with 0%, 50%, 75%, and 90% prompt caching:
| Active Users (DAU) | Uncached (0% Hit) | 50% Cache Hit | 75% Cache Hit (RAG) | 90% Cache Hit (Agents) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1,000 DAU (1.55B tok/mo) | $2,653/mo | $2,307/mo | $2,133/mo | $2,030/mo |
| 10,000 DAU (15.5B tok/mo) | $26,532/mo | $23,067/mo | $21,335/mo | $20,295/mo |
| 50,000 DAU (77.4B tok/mo) | $132,660/mo | $115,335/mo | $106,673/mo | $101,475/mo |
3. Frequently Asked Questions (OpenAI o3-mini)
How much does the OpenAI o3-mini API cost per 1M tokens?
OpenAI o3-mini (OpenAI) costs $1.10 per 1M input tokens, $4.40 per 1M output tokens, and $0.55 per 1M cached input tokens. Its context window is 200K (200,000 tokens) with 100,000 max output tokens.
What is the cheapest inference provider for OpenAI o3-mini?
Among 2 verified endpoints, OpenAI Direct offers the lowest blended pricing at $1.10/1M input and $4.40/1M output (118 tok/s). For maximum throughput, OpenAI Direct delivers 118 tokens/sec.
How much does OpenAI o3-mini cost per month at 1,000, 10,000, and 50,000 DAU?
On a standard SaaS production workload (12 requests/user/day, 3,500 input + 800 output tokens), OpenAI o3-mini costs $2,653/month at 1,000 DAU, $26,532/month at 10,000 DAU, and $132,660/month at 50,000 DAU. Enabling 75% prompt caching reduces the 10,000 DAU bill to $21,335/month.
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