GPT-4o vs Claude Cost Comparison

Side-by-side API pricing per token — GPT-4o, GPT-4o-mini, Claude Sonnet, Claude Haiku, Claude Opus (May 2025)

Full Pricing Table: GPT-4o vs Claude (per million tokens)

Model Provider Input (per 1M) Output (per 1M) Cache Read
GPT-4o OpenAI $5.00 $15.00 $2.50 (auto)
Claude Sonnet 3.5 40% cheaper input Anthropic $3.00 $15.00 $0.30 (explicit)
GPT-4o-mini OpenAI $0.15 $0.60 $0.075 (auto)
Claude Haiku 3.5 Anthropic $0.80 $4.00 $0.08 (explicit)
GPT-4o (128k context) OpenAI $5.00 $15.00 N/A
Claude Opus 3.7 Most capable Anthropic $15.00 $75.00 $1.50 (explicit)

Key Insights: Which Is Cheaper?

Best for balanced quality/cost

Claude Sonnet 3.5 beats GPT-4o on input cost by 40% ($3 vs $5/M tokens). For input-heavy apps like RAG or document analysis, Sonnet saves money at equivalent quality.

Cheapest raw price

GPT-4o-mini wins on sticker price: $0.15/M input vs Claude Haiku's $0.80/M. For simple classification or extraction tasks with no repeated context, GPT-4o-mini is the most affordable.

Best for agent / chatbot workloads

Claude's explicit prompt caching (90% off cache reads) beats OpenAI's automatic 50% cache discount when you have large, repeated system prompts — e.g. multi-turn agents, RAG with static context.

Real-World Cost Example: 10,000 API Calls/day

Assume: 500 input tokens + 200 output tokens per call = 5M input + 2M output tokens/day.

Model Daily Cost Monthly Cost Annual Cost
GPT-4o $55.00 $1,650 $19,800
Claude Sonnet 3.5 $45.00 $1,350 $16,200
GPT-4o-mini $1.95 $58.50 $702
Claude Haiku 3.5 $12.00 $360 $4,320

Calculate Your Actual Cost

Paste your real prompt text and see the exact cost across all models — GPT-4o, Claude, and Gemini — with monthly projections.

Open the LLM Cost Calculator →

Frequently Asked Questions

Is GPT-4o or Claude cheaper for API usage?

Claude Sonnet 3.5 is cheaper on input tokens ($3/M vs $5/M for GPT-4o). Output prices are the same ($15/M). For input-heavy workloads, Claude Sonnet saves ~40% on input costs. For simple tasks at scale, GPT-4o-mini ($0.15/M input) is significantly cheaper than Claude Haiku ($0.80/M input).

How does GPT-4o context caching compare to Claude prompt caching?

OpenAI applies automatic 50% caching for repeated context. Anthropic requires explicit cache control markers but gives a larger 90% discount on cache reads (0.1× the input price). For agents and chatbots reusing large system prompts, Claude's explicit caching is more cost-effective when you can control the cache keys.

Which model is best for cost-sensitive production apps?

For maximum cost efficiency: GPT-4o-mini or Claude Haiku with caching enabled. For production apps where quality matters: Claude Sonnet 3.5 (cheaper input than GPT-4o, same output quality tier). For long documents with repeated context: Claude with explicit prompt caching dramatically reduces costs.

Are these LLM API prices up to date?

This page reflects May 2025 pricing from Anthropic and OpenAI public pricing pages. Use the interactive calculator at prompt-pricing.vercel.app for the most current figures — it shows real-time costs with your own prompt text.

Also see: OpenAI API Cost Calculator · Claude vs GPT Pricing Deep Dive · Gemini API Pricing · LLM Cost Comparison 2026 · Claude Haiku Pricing