Software · pricing
OpenAI API pricing
OpenAI API publishes 2 tiers. Below is each one, what it adds over the tier beneath it, and where the ladder stops being worth climbing for most people.
- Entry price
- $0.15/per-million-tokens
- Model
- Usage-based
- Tiers
- 2
- Free tier
- Not on record
OpenAI API plans, side by side
Every published tier in ascending order of price, with the number of features each one lists. An absence here means the record does not itemise it, not that the tier lacks it.
| Plan | Price | Features listed | Step up from the tier below |
|---|---|---|---|
| GPT-4o mini | $0.15/per-million-input-tokens | 2 | Entry tier |
| GPT-4o | $5/per-million-input-tokens | 2 | +$4.85/per-million-input-tokens, 2 more features |
What each tier adds
The set difference between each tier's feature list and the one beneath it. Where a tier lists nothing new, the vendor has either stopped repeating the inherited list or the tier raises limits rather than adding capability, the record does not distinguish the two, so this page does not either.
GPT-4o mini
$0.15/per-million-input-tokensThe entry tier. It covers fast, affordable.
GPT-4o
$5/per-million-input-tokensOver GPT-4o mini, this tier adds:
- Multimodal
- 128K context
What the product covers
The full OpenAI API feature record, grouped as the catalogue groups it. This is the product as a whole; the record does not map every feature onto a specific tier.
Core
- GPT models
- DALL-E
- Whisper
- Embeddings
Integrations
- REST API
- SDKs
- Azure OpenAI
Platform
- Api support
People bring OpenAI API in for calling hosted language models from an application, generating images, audio and embeddings through one api, building agents and tool calling workflows on managed models. If that is not the job you are buying for, the alternatives to OpenAI API are worth a look before you commit to a tier.
Before you pay for OpenAI API
Three things this page cannot tell you, and all three change the bill. The record carries a price and a billing period but not the unit - per-seat and flat-rate pricing are indistinguishable in this data, so a five-person team may be looking at five times the figure above. It carries no annual rate, so any discount for paying yearly is not something this page can quote. And it carries no trial length.
What it can tell you is the shape of the ladder: 2 tiers between $0.15/per-million-input-tokens and $5/per-million-input-tokens, with the jump itemised above. With no free tier on record, the cheapest way to answer the rest is to compare OpenAI API against the tools that do have one before committing.
OpenAI API runs on api, and is published by OpenAI of San Francisco, California, USA. The full record is on the OpenAI API review.
OpenAI API pricing questions
- How much does OpenAI API cost?
- OpenAI API publishes 2 tiers, from $0.15/per-million-input-tokens for GPT-4o mini up to $5/per-million-input-tokens for GPT-4o. The cheapest paid tier is $0.15/per-million-input-tokens.
- Does OpenAI API have a free plan?
- Not on the record we hold: OpenAI API is listed as usage-based. Whether a free trial is offered is not something this record captures, so check the vendor's site.
- What is the difference between GPT-4o mini and GPT-4o on OpenAI API?
- GPT-4o costs $5/per-million-input-tokens against $0.15/per-million-input-tokens, and adds multimodal, 128k context.
- Is the GPT-4o plan on OpenAI API worth it?
- That depends entirely on whether you need what it adds, which on the published record is multimodal, 128k context. It costs $5/per-million-input-tokens against $0.15/per-million-input-tokens for GPT-4o mini. Softwr has not used either tier, so this page can tell you what changes, not whether it is worth the difference to you.
- What am I actually paying for with OpenAI API?
- The record lists 8 features across 3 areas: core, integrations, platform. In practice it is brought in for calling hosted language models from an application, generating images, audio and embeddings through one api, building agents and tool calling workflows on managed models.
- Does OpenAI API charge per user?
- The record carries a price and a billing period for each of its 2 tiers, but not the unit that price is charged in. Per-seat and flat-rate billing look identical in this data, so check the vendor's page before budgeting for a team.
- Are these OpenAI API prices current?
- They are what the catalogue entry holds, refreshed when the entry is. Vendors change pricing without notice and nobody at Softwr re-verifies each tier by hand, so treat this as a structured summary and the vendor's own pricing page as the authority.
- What should I compare OpenAI API against before paying?
- Nothing else in this directory is filed close enough to OpenAI API to make a useful price comparison.