OpenAI
Alternatives

Best cheaper alternatives to GPT-3.5 Turbo

Looking for a cheaper or smarter replacement for GPT-3.5 Turbo by OpenAI? We compared every LLM model with verifiable pricing on real input/output cost, context window, intelligence and modalities. 18 options are meaningfully cheaper.

Category: LLM Intelligence 25 16K context
DeepSeek
DeepSeek-V3 (Chat)84% CHEAPER
DeepSeek
Better valueSmarter (63 vs 25)Larger contextSame category
OpenAI
o358% CHEAPER
OpenAI
Better valueSmarter (78 vs 25)Larger contextMore modalitiesSame category
Google
Gemini 2.0 Flash77% CHEAPER
Google
Better valueSmarter (56 vs 25)Larger contextMore modalitiesSame category
DeepSeek
DeepSeek-R1 (Reasoner)68% CHEAPER
DeepSeek
Better valueSmarter (73 vs 25)Larger contextSame category
Google
Gemini 1.5 Flash83% CHEAPER
Google
Better valueSmarter (48 vs 25)Larger contextMore modalitiesSame category
Meta
Llama 3.2 11B Vision93% CHEAPER
Meta
Better valueSmarter (38 vs 25)Larger contextMore modalitiesSame category
OpenAI
o4 Mini58% CHEAPER
OpenAI
Better valueSmarter (70 vs 25)Larger contextMore modalitiesSame category
Google
Gemini 1.5 Flash-8B91% CHEAPER
Google
Better valueSmarter (36 vs 25)Larger contextMore modalitiesSame category
Alibaba Cloud
Qwen Turbo88% CHEAPER
Alibaba Cloud
Better valueSmarter (45 vs 25)Larger contextSame category
Meta
Llama 3.2 90B Vision69% CHEAPER
Meta
Better valueSmarter (54 vs 25)Larger contextMore modalitiesSame category
OpenAI
o158% CHEAPER
OpenAI
Better valueSmarter (71 vs 25)Larger contextSame category
OpenAI
GPT-4o58% CHEAPER
OpenAI
Better valueSmarter (60 vs 25)Larger contextMore modalitiesSame category
Mistral AI
Ministral 3 8B80% CHEAPER
Mistral AI
Better valueSmarter (37 vs 25)Larger contextMore modalitiesSame category
Mistral AI
Mistral Small80% CHEAPER
Mistral AI
Better valueSmarter (44 vs 25)Larger contextSame category
Meta
Llama 3.1 8B93% CHEAPER
Meta
Better valueSmarter (34 vs 25)Larger contextSame category
Meta
Llama 3.1 70B69% CHEAPER
Meta
Better valueSmarter (52 vs 25)Larger contextSame category
OpenAI
GPT 4.1 Mini58% CHEAPER
OpenAI
Better valueSmarter (53 vs 25)Larger contextMore modalitiesSame category
OpenAI
GPT-4o Mini58% CHEAPER
OpenAI
Better valueSmarter (42 vs 25)Larger contextMore modalitiesSame category

Costs are normalised to a blended 1M-token workload (or per-unit price for non-token models) using each model's latest verified pricing. Models with pricing under review are excluded from recommendations.