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GPT-5 mini vs GPT-5.5

OpenAI budget vs premium showdown — GPT-5 mini is 95% cheaper on input and 93% cheaper on output. When does the premium upgrade make sense?

Pricing data verified: Jun 29, 2026

Specification	GPT-5 mini	GPT-5.5
Input Price (per 1M tokens)	$0.25	$5.00
Output Price (per 1M tokens)	$2.00	$30.00
Context Window	272K tokens	1.05M tokens
Tier	Budget	Premium
Provider	OpenAI	OpenAI
Input Savings	95% cheaper	Baseline
Output Savings	93% cheaper	Baseline
Cost at 1M input + 500K output	$1.25	$20.00

Calculate Your Exact Costs

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Input Tokens per Request

Output Tokens per Request

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OpenAI

GPT-5 mini

$0.00

per month

Input cost

Output cost

Cost per request

Requests/month

OpenAI

GPT-5.5

$0.00

per month

Input cost

Output cost

Cost per request

Requests/month

Which Model for Which Use Case?

Cost-Effective Production

GPT-5 mini at $0.25/$2 per million tokens delivers excellent quality at 93-95% lower cost than GPT-5.5. For most production workloads including chatbots, code assistants, and content generation, GPT-5 mini is the clear winner on cost.

Best value: GPT-5 mini (93-95% cheaper)

Maximum Quality

GPT-5.5 delivers premium output quality for complex tasks that demand the highest accuracy and nuance. If your use case requires the best possible output and cost is secondary, GPT-5.5 is the right choice.

Best quality: GPT-5.5

Context Window Needs

GPT-5.5 offers 1.05M context vs GPT-5 mini's 272K — 3.9x more. If your application needs long document processing or large codebase analysis, GPT-5.5 gives you significantly more context per request.

Long context: GPT-5.5 (1.05M vs 272K)

Enterprise Scale

At 1M input + 500K output tokens/month, GPT-5 mini costs $1.25 vs GPT-5.5's $20 — saving $18.75/month. For enterprise-scale deployments, the 93-95% cost difference translates to $2,250/year in savings.

Enterprise: GPT-5 mini saves $2,250/year

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Frequently Asked Questions

Is GPT-5 mini cheaper than GPT-5.5?

Yes — GPT-5 mini is dramatically cheaper. GPT-5 mini costs $0.25/M input and $2/M output, while GPT-5.5 costs $5/M input and $30/M output. That's 95% cheaper on input and 93% cheaper on output.

Which is better for chatbots — GPT-5 mini or GPT-5.5?

For most chatbot use cases, GPT-5 mini is the better choice due to its 93-95% lower cost. GPT-5.5 makes sense when you need premium output quality or the larger 1.05M context window for complex conversations.

How much would I save using GPT-5 mini instead of GPT-5.5?

For a workload of 1M input + 500K output tokens/month, GPT-5 mini costs $1.25/month vs GPT-5.5's $20/month — saving $18.75/month (94%). At scale (10M input + 5M output), you save $187.50/month — $2,250/year.

When should I choose GPT-5.5 over GPT-5 mini?

Choose GPT-5.5 when: (1) you need premium output quality for complex tasks, (2) you need the larger 1.05M context window (vs GPT-5 mini's 272K), (3) cost is not a primary concern and quality is paramount. For everything else, GPT-5 mini delivers excellent value at 93-95% lower cost.