Sonnet 5 vs GPT-4o mini: which is cheaper?
A side-by-side of real API costs. Sonnet 5 (Claude) lists at $3/1M input and $15/1M output; GPT-4o mini (OpenAI) at $0.15/1M input and $0.6/1M output. Below: what that actually costs per month on three common workloads, then a calculator for your own.
Price per 1M tokens
| Model | Provider | Input | Output |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sonnet 5 | Claude | $3.00 | $15.00 |
| GPT-4o mini | OpenAI | $0.15 | $0.60 |
Monthly cost by workload
| Workload | Sonnet 5 | GPT-4o mini | Cheaper |
|---|---|---|---|
| Support chatbot Short prompts, short replies, high volume. | $180/mo | $7.65/mo | GPT-4o mini · 96% less |
| Document summarizer Long input, short output — read-heavy. | $293/mo | $13.50/mo | GPT-4o mini · 95% less |
| Long-form content Short brief, long generation — write-heavy. | $198/mo | $8.10/mo | GPT-4o mini · 96% less |
Workloads assume 30 days. “Support chatbot” = 500 in / 300 out × 1,000/day; “Document summarizer” = 4,000 in / 500 out × 500/day; “Long-form content” = 1,000 in / 2,000 out × 200/day. Prices verified July 2026 — check the providers’ pages before large commitments.
Run your own numbers
These three shapes are a starting point — your real input/output ratio decides the winner. The free LLM cost calculator compares all seven models (Sonnet 5, GPT-4o mini, and five more) against your exact token counts and request volume, and recommends the cheapest model that fits.
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