GPT-3.5 Turbo vs o3 Mini
How do these models stack up? Below is an expert side-by-side comparison of specifications, context window capacity, live pricing per million tokens, and standardized benchmark scores for GPT-3.5 Turbo and o3 Mini.
GPT-3.5 Turbo
GPT-3.5 Turbo is OpenAI's fastest model. It can understand and generate natural language or code, and is optimized for chat and traditional completion tasks. Training data up to Sep 2021.
o3 Mini
OpenAI o3-mini is a cost-efficient language model optimized for STEM reasoning tasks, particularly excelling in science, mathematics, and coding. This model supports the `reasoning_effort` parameter, which can be set to...
Technical Specifications
| Specification | GPT-3.5 Turbo | o3 Mini |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | OpenAI | OpenAI |
| Context Window | 16,385 tokens | 200,000 tokens |
| Agent Suitability | N/A | 91/100 |
| Time to First Token (TTFT) | N/A | 800 ms |
| Deployment Model | managed api | managed api |
| Production Stability | stable | stable |
| API Available | Yes | Yes |
| Released Date | 2023-05-28 | 2025-01-31 |
API Pricing Comparison
Input Price per Million Tokens
GPT-3.5 Turbo
$0.50
o3 Mini
$1.10
Output Price per Million Tokens
GPT-3.5 Turbo
$1.50
o3 Mini
$4.40
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Benchmark Performance Metrics
Scores show the raw performance percentages verified across key evaluation suites. Higher bars indicate superior accuracy and capability in that domain.
GPT-3.5 Turbo Quirks & Gotchas
No developer gotchas reported.
o3 Mini Quirks & Gotchas
- ▸Best cost/performance ratio for reasoning tasks in the OpenAI lineup
- ▸Still slower than GPT-5 for simple tool calls — route accordingly