Last verified 2025-09-22 (left) · 2025-09-22 (right)

o3 vs o3-pro — Pricing & Capability Comparison

o3 charges $2.00 per million input tokens and $8.00 per million output tokens. o3-pro comes in at $20.00 / $80.00. Context windows span 200K vs 200K tokens respectively.

TL;DR — Quick Comparison

✓o3 is cheaper overall: $10.00 per 1M tokens (in+out) vs $100.00 for o3-pro — saves $90.00 per 1M tokens
✓Input pricing: o3 $2.00/1M vs o3-pro $20.00/1M
✓Output pricing: o3 $8.00/1M vs o3-pro $80.00/1M
✓Context window: o3 offers more (200K vs 200K)
✓Use our calculator below to estimate costs for your specific usage pattern

Input price (per 1M)

$2.00

o3-pro

$20.00

o3 leads here

Output price (per 1M)

$8.00

o3-pro

$80.00

o3 leads here

Context window

200,000 tokens

o3-pro

200,000 tokens

o3 leads here

Cached input

Not published

o3-pro

Not published

No published data

Which one should you choose?

Skip the spreadsheet if you just need the practical takeaway. Use these rules when deciding between o3 and o3-pro.

Choose o3 if input tokens dominate your bill

o3 has the lower input rate, which usually matters most for chat, RAG, classification, and long-prompt workflows where prompt volume stays much larger than generated output.

Choose o3 if you generate long answers

o3 is cheaper on output tokens, so it tends to win for report generation, coding assistance, reasoning traces, and any workflow where completions are long.

Choose o3 if context size is the blocker

o3 offers the larger published context window, which is more important than small pricing differences when you need to fit large files, long chats, or multi-document prompts into one request.

Cost comparison for 10K-token workloads

Side-by-side pricing for identical workloads (10,000 total tokens per request) across different distributions.

Scenario	o3	o3-pro
Balanced conversation 50% input · 50% output	$0.0500	$0.500
Input-heavy workflow 80% input · 20% output	$0.0320	$0.320
Generation heavy 30% input · 70% output	$0.0620	$0.620
Cached system prompt 90% cached input · 10% fresh output	$0.0260	$0.260

Frequently asked questions

Which is cheaper: o3 or o3-pro?

o3 is cheaper for input tokens at $2.00 per 1M tokens compared to $20.00. For output, o3 costs $8.00 per 1M tokens versus $80.00 for o3-pro.

What is the cost per 1M tokens for o3?

o3 pricing: $2.00 per 1M input tokens and $8.00 per 1M output tokens. Context window: 200,000 tokens.

What is the cost per 1M tokens for o3-pro?

o3-pro pricing: $20.00 per 1M input tokens and $80.00 per 1M output tokens. Context window: 200,000 tokens.

How much does it cost per 1K tokens?

Per 1K tokens: o3 costs $0.0020 input / $0.0080 output. o3-pro costs $0.0200 input / $0.0800 output. This is useful for calculating small-scale usage costs.

Which model supports a larger context window?

o3 offers 200,000 tokens (200K) versus 200K for o3-pro.

What is the estimated monthly cost for typical usage?

For a typical workload of 10M input + 2M output tokens per month: o3 would cost approximately $36.00, while o3-pro would cost $360.00. o3 is more economical for this usage pattern.

Do these models support prompt caching?

o3 does not publish cached pricing. o3-pro does not publish cached pricing.

Which model is best for my use case?

Choose o3 for cost-sensitive applications with high input volume. Choose o3 if you need 200K context for long documents or conversations. Consider prompt caching if you have repeated context. Use our token calculator to model your specific usage pattern.