Tier: reasoning
Context: 200K
Cheapest Host: OpenAI Direct
Deprecation Alert: 2026-10-23
OpenAI o1 (Frontier Reasoning) API Pricing Calculator & Cheapest Provider
Live unit economics and multi-provider host arbitrage for OpenAI o1 (Frontier Reasoning) (openai/o1).
Input tokens cost $15.00/1M, output tokens cost
$60.00/1M, and prompt cache reads drop to
$7.50/1M.
Input / Output / Cache Read
$15.00 / $60.00
Per 1M tokens · Cache Read: $7.50/1M
10,000 DAU Monthly Bill
$361,800/mo
Drops to $290,925/mo at 75% prompt cache hit rate
Speed & Context Spec
62 tok/s
Context: 200,000 · Max Out: 100,000
1. Multi-Provider Host Arbitrage Table for OpenAI o1 (Frontier Reasoning)
Compare every verified inference provider hosting OpenAI o1 (Frontier Reasoning) 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 | $15.00 | $60.00 | $7.50 | 62 tok/s | $361,800/mo | Deploy (Route with 0% Markup Fallback) → |
| OpenRouter | $15.00 | $60.00 | $7.50 | 60 tok/s | $361,800/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) | $36,180/mo | $31,455/mo | $29,093/mo | $27,675/mo |
| 10,000 DAU (15.5B tok/mo) | $361,800/mo | $314,550/mo | $290,925/mo | $276,750/mo |
| 50,000 DAU (77.4B tok/mo) | $1,809,000/mo | $1,572,750/mo | $1,454,625/mo | $1,383,750/mo |
3. Frequently Asked Questions (OpenAI o1 (Frontier Reasoning))
How much does the OpenAI o1 (Frontier Reasoning) API cost per 1M tokens?
OpenAI o1 (Frontier Reasoning) (OpenAI) costs $15.00 per 1M input tokens, $60.00 per 1M output tokens, and $7.50 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 o1 (Frontier Reasoning)?
Among 2 verified endpoints, OpenAI Direct offers the lowest blended pricing at $15.00/1M input and $60.00/1M output (62 tok/s). For maximum throughput, OpenAI Direct delivers 62 tokens/sec.
How much does OpenAI o1 (Frontier Reasoning) 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 o1 (Frontier Reasoning) costs $36,180/month at 1,000 DAU, $361,800/month at 10,000 DAU, and $1,809,000/month at 50,000 DAU. Enabling 75% prompt caching reduces the 10,000 DAU bill to $290,925/month.
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