OpenAI API Pricing 2026
Complete pricing guide with plans, hidden costs, and cost analysis
OpenAI API pricing ranges from $0.20 to $270/per million tokens.
OpenAI API costs $0.20 to $270 per per million tokens as of May 2026, with 3 plans available. Pricing depends on your chosen tier, contract length, and negotiated discounts.
Use the interactive pricing calculator to estimate your exact cost based on team size and requirements.
- Free tier: No free tier available
OpenAI API offers 3 pricing tiers: GPT-5.4 mini / nano (Economy), GPT-5.5 / GPT-5.4 / Pro (Flagship), Enterprise. The GPT-5.5 / GPT-5.4 / Pro (Flagship) plan is high-capability tasks requiring best performance.
Compared to other llm api providers software, OpenAI API is positioned at the mid-market price point.
- 4 documented hidden costs beyond list price
How much does OpenAI API cost?
OpenAI API Pricing Overview
OpenAI API has 3 pricing plans ranging from $0.20 to $270/per million tokens. The GPT-5.4 mini / nano (Economy) plan requires contacting sales for a custom quote and is designed for high-volume, cost-sensitive api workloads. The GPT-5.5 / GPT-5.4 / Pro (Flagship) plan requires contacting sales for a custom quote and is designed for high-capability tasks requiring best performance. The Enterprise plan requires contacting sales for a custom quote and is designed for large-scale enterprise api deployments.
There are at least 4 documented hidden costs beyond OpenAI API's list price, including implementation, training, and add-on fees.
This pricing was last verified in May 6, 2026 from 3 independent sources.
OpenAI API pricing starts at $0.10 per million input tokens (GPT-4.1 nano) up to $60 per million output tokens (o1) as of April 2026. All pricing is usage-based with no monthly subscription. GPT-4.1 (flagship) is $2.00/$8.00 per million tokens; o3 (reasoning) is $10.00/$40.00 per million tokens. Prompt caching automatically reduces cached input costs by 50%, and the Batch API cuts all rates in half for async workloads.
How OpenAI API Pricing Compares
Compare OpenAI API pricing against top alternatives in LLM API Providers.
All OpenAI API Plans & Pricing
| Plan | Monthly | Annual | Best For |
|---|---|---|---|
| GPT-5.4 mini / nano (Economy) | Contact Sales | Contact Sales | High-volume, cost-sensitive API workloads |
| GPT-5.5 / GPT-5.4 / Pro (Flagship) | Contact Sales | Contact Sales | High-capability tasks requiring best performance |
| Enterprise | Contact Sales | Contact Sales | Large-scale enterprise API deployments |
View all features by plan
GPT-5.4 mini / nano (Economy)
- GPT-5.4 nano: $0.20 input / $1.25 output per M tokens
- GPT-5.4 mini: $0.75 input / $4.50 output per M tokens
- Prompt caching: 90% discount on cached input tokens
- Great for high-volume, cost-sensitive workloads
- Batch API available at reduced rates
GPT-5.5 / GPT-5.4 / Pro (Flagship)
- GPT-5.5: $5.00 input / $30.00 output per M tokens (short context)
- GPT-5.5 long context: $10.00 input / $45.00 output per M tokens
- GPT-5.5 Pro: $30.00 input / $180.00 output per M tokens (short); $60.00 / $270.00 long context
- GPT-5.4: $2.50 input / $15.00 output per M tokens (short); $5.00 / $22.50 long context
- GPT-5.4 Pro: $30.00 input / $180.00 output per M tokens (short); $60.00 / $270.00 long context
- Cached input at 90% discount (Pro models do not support caching)
- Batch API available at reduced rates
Enterprise
- Volume discounts on API usage
- Dedicated support and SLAs
- Custom rate limits and higher concurrency
- Data processing agreements (DPA)
Usage-Based Rates
Per-unit pricing for OpenAI API API usage.
GPT-5.4 mini / nano (Economy)
| Model | Input | Output | Cached | Per |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| gpt-5-4-nano | $0.200 | $1.25 | $0.020 | 1M tokens |
| gpt-5-4-mini | $0.750 | $4.50 | $0.075 | 1M tokens |
- Prompt caching: 90% discount on cached input tokens
- Batch API available at reduced rates
- 10% regional processing uplift for data residency endpoints
GPT-5.5 / GPT-5.4 / Pro (Flagship)
| Model | Input | Output | Cached | Per |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| gpt-5-5 | $5.00 | $30.00 | $0.500 | 1M tokens |
| gpt-5-5-long-context | $10.00 | $45.00 | $1.00 | 1M tokens |
| gpt-5-5-pro | $30.00 | $180.00 | — | 1M tokens |
| gpt-5-5-pro-long-context | $60.00 | $270.00 | — | 1M tokens |
| gpt-5-4 | $2.50 | $15.00 | $0.250 | 1M tokens |
| gpt-5-4-long-context | $5.00 | $22.50 | $0.500 | 1M tokens |
| gpt-5-4-pro | $30.00 | $180.00 | — | 1M tokens |
| gpt-5-4-pro-long-context | $60.00 | $270.00 | — | 1M tokens |
- Prompt caching: 90% discount on cached input (Pro models do not support caching)
- Long context pricing applies to extended context windows
- Batch API available at reduced rates
- 10% regional processing uplift for data residency endpoints
Compare OpenAI API vs Alternatives
Before committing to OpenAI API, compare pricing with these 3 alternatives in the same category.
What Companies Actually Pay for OpenAI API
| Model | Input /1M | Output /1M | Blended /1M |
|---|---|---|---|
| openai_gpt-5-4 | $2.50 | $15.00 | $5.63 |
| openai_gpt-5-4-mini | $0.750 | $4.50 | $1.69 |
| openai_gpt-5-4-nano | $0.200 | $1.25 | $0.463 |
| openai_o3-pro | $20.00 | $80.00 | $35.00 |
| openai_o3 | $2.00 | $8.00 | $3.50 |
OpenAI API Year 1 Total Cost by Company Size
Real deployment costs including licenses, implementation, training, and admin — not just the sticker price.
50M input + 10M output tokens/month using GPT-4.1 nano
5M input + 2M output tokens/month using GPT-4.1
500K input + 200K output tokens/month using o3
Using gpt-image-1 via the OpenAI API to generate images at scale. Cost varies significantly by quality setting.
How OpenAI API Pricing Compares
| Software | Starting Price | Top Price |
|---|---|---|
| OpenAI API | $0.2/per million tokens | $270/per million tokens |
| Amazon Bedrock | $0.07/per million tokens | $75/per million tokens |
| Anyscale | $0.15/per million tokens | $5/per million tokens |
| Baidu ERNIE API | $0.1/per million tokens | $10/per million tokens |
| Cerebras Inference API | $0.1/per million tokens | $6/per million tokens |
| Claude API | $0.03/per million tokens | $75/per million tokens |
Detailed pricing comparisons:
OpenAI API Contract Terms
OpenAI API contracts do not auto-renew. Changes require advance notice. These terms are sourced from verified buyer experiences.
How to Negotiate OpenAI API Pricing
OpenAI API contracts are negotiable. These 3 tactics are sourced from real buyer experiences and procurement specialists.
Switching workloads from the GPT-5.4 / GPT-5.4 Pro (Flagship) tier to GPT-5.4 mini / nano (Economy) can reduce per-token costs by an order of magnitude. The nano variant tracked by Artificial Analysis runs at $0.20/1M input vs $2.50/1M for the flagship — a 12.5x reduction. Evaluate each workload independently: classification, routing, and summarization tasks often perform acceptably on economy models.
Artificial Analysis (artificialanalysis.ai)Reddit discussions highlight that open-source alternatives (e.g., DeepSeek-R1 at ~$2.50/1M output) can significantly undercut OpenAI's flagship pricing. Obtaining competitive quotes and demonstrating willingness to migrate is among the strongest leverage points in Enterprise contract negotiations.
reddit (r/OpenAI)The Enterprise tier lists custom pricing, which means committing to a minimum spend or token volume threshold opens the door to negotiated per-token rates below published pay-as-you-go pricing. Come to the negotiation with actual consumption data from a proof-of-concept to anchor the volume discussion.
Current tier data (Enterprise tier is custom-quoted)OpenAI API Pricing FAQ
01 How much does the OpenAI API cost?
OpenAI API pricing varies by model. GPT-4.1 nano is $0.10/$0.40 per million tokens (input/output). GPT-4.1 is $2.00/$8.00 per million tokens. The reasoning model o3 is $10.00/$40.00 per million tokens.
02 What is the cheapest OpenAI API model?
GPT-4.1 nano is the most affordable at $0.10 per million input tokens and $0.40 per million output tokens. With prompt caching, cached input drops to $0.025/M tokens.
03 How does OpenAI Batch API work?
The Batch API processes requests asynchronously (within 24 hours) and offers 50% off all model rates. For high-volume workloads without real-time requirements, this halves your API costs.
04 What is prompt caching on OpenAI API?
OpenAI automatically caches repeated input prefixes and charges 50% of the standard input rate for cache hits (vs Anthropic's 10%). Caching is applied automatically for long, repeated contexts.
05 How much does 1 million GPT-4.1 tokens cost?
1M input tokens: $2.00. 1M output tokens: $8.00. With prompt caching on repeated inputs: $1.00/M for cached tokens. Batch API halves all rates: $1.00 input / $4.00 output.
06 How does OpenAI API pricing work for text models?
OpenAI API uses pay-as-you-go token pricing across all three tiers — GPT-5.4 mini / nano (Economy), GPT-5.4 / GPT-5.4 Pro (Flagship), and Enterprise. Input and output tokens are charged separately. There is no fixed monthly fee for API access. Costs vary significantly by model tier, and actual usage can far exceed simple estimates because system prompts, conversation context, and streaming overhead all count toward your token bill.
07 How does OpenAI API pricing compare to open-source alternatives?
OpenAI API is significantly more expensive than open-source alternatives for comparable benchmark performance. Community analysis from early 2025 found OpenAI's previous-generation models priced at $60–$600 per million output tokens depending on the tier, while open-source alternatives like DeepSeek-r1 were available at approximately $2.50 per million output tokens for comparable benchmark results — roughly 24–240x cheaper.
08 What does it cost to generate images through the OpenAI API?
The gpt-image-1 model charges per token with separate rates: text input tokens (prompt text) at $5 per 1M tokens, image input tokens at $10 per 1M tokens, and image output tokens at $40 per 1M tokens. In practice, this translates to roughly $0.02, $0.07, and $0.19 per generated image for low, medium, and high-quality square images, respectively.
09 Will OpenAI API prices increase over time?
OpenAI has not published an escalation schedule. However, community analysis notes that OpenAI has historically not operated at positive gross margins at current pricing and relies heavily on Microsoft subsidies, creating potential upward pricing pressure as the company pursues profitability. Teams building long-term infrastructure on the API should account for this uncertainty in their cost models.
10 Does OpenAI API have a free tier?
No. OpenAI API does not currently offer a free plan. All API usage is billed on a pay-as-you-go basis per token consumed.
11 What does OpenAI's image generation API cost?
OpenAI's image generation model (gpt-image-1) is a separate add-on priced at $5/1M text input tokens, $10/1M image input tokens, and $40/1M image output tokens. In practice, this translates to approximately $0.02, $0.07, and $0.19 per generated image at low, medium, and high quality for standard square images respectively.
Is this pricing incorrect? — we'll verify and update it.