Alternatives
Best cheaper alternatives to GPT-5 Mini
Looking for a cheaper or smarter replacement for GPT-5 Mini 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 400K context
Gemini 1.5 Flash-8B79% CHEAPER
Google
Larger contextMore modalitiesSame category
$0.0375 in · $0.15 out / 1M Tokens 36 1.0M ctx 98%
Qwen Image Plus90% CHEAPER
Alibaba Cloud
Same category
$0.03 in · $0.03 out / image 78%
Palmyra Vision99% CHEAPER
Writer
Same category
$0.005 in · $0 out / 1M Tokens 76%
Imagen 487% CHEAPER
Google
Same category
$0.04 in · $0.04 out / image 80%
Llama 3.1 8B82% CHEAPER
Meta
Same category
$0.055 in · $0.055 out / 1M Tokens 34 128K ctx 85%
Llama 3.2 11B Vision82% CHEAPER
Meta
Same category
$0.055 in · $0.055 out / 1M Tokens 38 128K ctx 85%
Llama 3.1 8B Instant 128k82% CHEAPER
Groq
Same category
$0.05 in · $0.08 out / 1M Tokens 128K ctx 98%
Gemini 1.5 Flash58% CHEAPER
Google
Larger contextMore modalitiesSame category
$0.075 in · $0.3 out / 1M Tokens 48 1.0M ctx 98%
Qwen2.5 3B Instruct79% CHEAPER
Alibaba Cloud
Same category
$0.044 in · $0.13 out / 1M Tokens 78%
Qwen Image MAX76% CHEAPER
Alibaba Cloud
Same category
$0.075 in · $0.075 out / image 78%
Qwen Turbo72% CHEAPER
Alibaba Cloud
Same category
$0.05 in · $0.2 out / 1M Tokens 45 131K ctx 78%
GPT OSS 20B72% CHEAPER
Together AI
Same category
$0.05 in · $0.2 out / 1M Tokens 128K ctx 68%
Qwen 7B71% CHEAPER
Alibaba Cloud
Same category
$0.072 in · $0.144 out / 1M Tokens 131K ctx 78%
Ministral 3 3B68% CHEAPER
Mistral AI
Same category
$0.1 in · $0.1 out / 1M Tokens 128K ctx 98%
Ministral 368% CHEAPER
Mistral AI
Same category
$0.1 in · $0.1 out / 1M Tokens 128K ctx 78%
Ministral68% CHEAPER
Mistral AI
Same category
$0.1 in · $0.1 out / 1M Tokens 128K ctx 78%
Qwen3 8B68% CHEAPER
Fireworks AI
Same category
$0.1 in · $0.1 out / 1M Tokens 41K ctx 68%
Gemini 2.0 Flash44% CHEAPER
Google
Larger contextMore modalitiesSame category
$0.1 in · $0.4 out / 1M Tokens 56 1.0M ctx 80%
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.