OpenAI o4-mini: fast, cost-efficient o-series reasoning model optimized for coding and visual tasks, fine-tuning support, higher rate limits than o3.
Capabilities, design details, and architectural traits
o4-mini is OpenAI's small o-series model built for fast, cost-efficient reasoning with a specific focus on coding and visual tasks. Its most structurally distinctive trait within the o-series is that it supports fine-tuning - something o3 and o3-pro do not. OpenAI also explicitly documents that o4-mini supports significantly higher usage limits than o3, positioning it as the o-series option for high-volume, high-throughput workloads.
| Trait | Detail |
|---|---|
| Fine-tuning | Supported - unlike o3, which does not support fine-tuning |
| Usage limits | Significantly higher rate limits than o3, documented for high-volume and high-throughput use |
| Visual reasoning | Integrates images directly into the chain of thought, not as isolated inputs |
| Reasoning effort | Configurable via reasoning_effort; the o4-mini-high variant in ChatGPT uses the high setting |
| Speed tier | Medium (faster than o3, which is rated Slowest) |
| Reasoning summary | Supports the detailed reasoning summary setting |
o4-mini is optimized for exceptionally efficient performance in coding and visual tasks. Its combination of fine-tuning support, medium speed, and documented high-throughput positioning makes it the o-series choice when task-specific adaptation or volume are requirements that o3 cannot meet.
Independent evaluations · Artificial Analysis
Evaluate specifications, pricing, and independent benchmark indices
| Model Details | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| General Info | |||
| Provider | OpenAI | Anthropic | Anthropic |
| Release Date | April 16, 2025 | July 24, 2026 | June 9, 2026 |
| Knowledge Cutoff | Jun 2024 | May 2026 | - |
| Context & Limits | |||
| Context Window | 200K | 1M Best Context Window | 1M Best Context Window |
| Pricing (per 1M tokens) | |||
| Input Pricing | $1.10 Best Input Pricing | $5 | $10 |
| Output Pricing | $4.40 Best Output Pricing | $25 | $50 |
| Modalities | |||
| Inputs | imagetextfile | textimage | textimagefile |
| Outputs | text | text | text |
| Benchmarks (0-100) | |||
| Intelligence Index | 26.1 | 63.1 Best Intelligence Index | 62.1 |
| Coding Index | - | 78.0 Best Coding Index | 76.5 |
| Agentic Index | - | 59.2 Best Agentic Index | 56.6 |
Graduate-level reasoning and expert Q&A evaluation.
Extremely difficult logical reasoning and knowledge.
Logical reasoning over long context windows.
Independent evaluation data provided by Artificial Analysis. To view the latest benchmarks and full details, visit their official site.
