Model Comparison → OpenAI
GPT-4o
GPT-4o — OpenAI's multimodal workhorse, still widely deployed in production.
✓ Vision✓ Tool use✓ Prompt caching✗ ReasoningStandard
Pricing (verified 2026-08-19)
| Type | Price / 1M tokens | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Input | $2.50 | Per 1M input tokens |
| Output | $10.00 | Per 1M output tokens |
| Cache read | $1.25 | Cached prefix read-back |
| Batch API | $1.25 in / $5.00 out | ~50% off, async (up to 24h) |
Source: OpenAI official pricing page · Last verified 2026-08-19
Context Window
128K tokens
≈ 96K words · 0 pages of text
GPT-4o at $2.50/M input is the most battle-tested production model in the OpenAI lineup. Most teams migrating from GPT-4 land here first.
Best for
- Production workloads already built on GPT-4
- Vision and image understanding tasks
- Function calling and structured output
- Complex instruction following
Not ideal for
- Budget-sensitive workloads (GPT-5 mini is 16× cheaper)
- Reasoning-heavy tasks (o3 or o3-mini are better)
Real cost scenarios
| Scenario | Est. monthly cost | Breakdown |
|---|---|---|
| Production chatbot — 1M queries/month, 2k tokens avg | $7,500 | 1.4B input at $2.50/M + 600M output at $10/M |
| Vision pipeline — 100k images/month | $1,500 | Each image ≈ 600 tokens; 60M tokens at $2.50/M |
Estimates with typical token distributions. Use the Prompt Cost Calculator for your exact workload.
How to cut costs on GPT-4o
- Prompt caching is automatic on GPT-4o — static prefixes are cached after first use. No configuration needed.
- Consider migrating non-vision workloads to GPT-5 mini — same output quality for most tasks, 16× cheaper.
Calculate your GPT-4o costs
Prompt Cost Calculator
Exact cost for your prompt
Agent Cost Calculator
Multi-step agent loops
Prompt Caching Calculator
Caching savings
Conversation Cost
Chat history strategies
Other OpenAI models
Compare GPT-4o
Frequently Asked Questions
Should I use GPT-4o or GPT-5.4?
GPT-5.4 is same price as GPT-4o ($2.50/M input) and significantly more capable. Unless you have existing integrations tuned for GPT-4o behavior, migrate to GPT-5.4. The only reason to stay on GPT-4o: tested stability in production and no eval budget to re-validate.
Pricing verified 2026-08-19 from OpenAI official pricing. All prices in USD per 1M tokens. See methodology and price changelog.