---
title: "Cheaper alternatives to o3 Mini High · Undominated.ai"
canonical: https://undominated.ai/alternatives/openai__o3-mini-high/
description: "73 models score at least as high as o3 Mini High and cost no more on a balanced workload. 7 give up nothing measurable; the other 66 name what they drop. Measured prices and independent scores."
---

# Cheaper alternatives to o3 Mini High · Undominated.ai

> 73 models score at least as high as o3 Mini High and cost no more on a balanced workload. 7 give up nothing measurable; the other 66 name what they drop. Measured prices and independent scores.

# Cheaper alternatives to o3 Mini High

OpenAI · LMArena 1336.6 · $1.93/M on a balanced workload · prices as of 2026-08-28

## 7 models are both better and cheaper, giving up nothing.

Of the 133 models carrying both an independent score and a published price at the same delivery mode, **73** score at least as high as o3 Mini High and cost no more under at least one workload. **7** match or beat it on every capability we hold — context, maximum output, input modes, tool use and extended reasoning. **66** do not, and every row names what it drops.

Dominance is not a property of a model. It is a property of a model, a capability lens and a workload, and all three are named on every row. Scores are LMArena Elo, used under CC BY 4.0 from the official dataset; prices are blended per million tokens. A higher score is not a drop-in replacement.

This page is built from that comparison and nothing else. When no model is both better and cheaper than o3 Mini High, it is not generated.

## Where it holds

| Workload | o3 Mini High $/M | Better and cheaper | With a trade |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Balanced | $1.93 | 6 | 63 |
| Summarise | $1.11 | 7 | 65 |
| Chat | $2.25 | 7 | 64 |
| Code gen | $3.04 | 7 | 64 |
| Agentic | $1.27 | 7 | 66 |

Workload mixes are defined on the [methodology page](/methodology/). Cached input is priced at the cached rate, and reasoning tokens at the worse of the reasoning and output rates.

## What you would be replacing

| Intelligence | 1336.6 |
| --- | --- |
| Context window | 200K |
| Max output | 100K |
| Input modes | text, file |
| Tool use | yes |
| Extended reasoning | yes |

A replacement has to clear every line above, not just the score. [Full record for o3 Mini High](/models/openai__o3-mini-high/).

## Better and cheaper, nothing given up 7

Each of these matches or beats o3 Mini High on context, maximum output, input modes, tool use and reasoning, scores at least as high, and costs no more.

| # | Model | Intelligence | $/M | Holds under |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | GPT-5.6 Luna OpenAI | 1428.5 +91.9 | $0.450 | Balanced −77% Summarise −82% Chat −76% Code gen −74% Agentic −81% |
| 2 | GPT-5.4 Mini OpenAI | 1412.1 +75.5 | $1.69 | Balanced −12% Summarise −33% Chat −9% Code gen −3% Agentic −28% |
| 3 | Grok 4.3 xAI | 1397.5 +60.9 | $1.56 | Balanced −19% Summarise −9% Chat −36% Code gen −37% Agentic −36% |
| 4 | GPT-5.4 Nano OpenAI | 1372.8 +36.2 | $0.463 | Balanced −76% Summarise −82% Chat −75% Code gen −73% Agentic −80% |
| 5 | GPT-5 Mini OpenAI | 1373.4 +36.8 | $0.688 | Balanced −64% Summarise −75% Chat −61% Code gen −58% Agentic −70% |
| 6 | o4 Mini OpenAI | 1352.5 +15.9 | $1.93 | Balanced same price Summarise −7% Chat −4% Code gen −1% Agentic −13% |
| 7 | Muse Spark 1.1 Meta | 1478.3 +141.7 | $1.09 summarise | Summarise −2% Chat −6% Code gen −2% Agentic −18% |

## Cheaper and higher-scoring, but you give something up 66

These score at least as high and cost no more on the two plotted axes, and lose something that is not on them. Read the last column before switching.

| Model | Intelligence | $/M | Holds under | What you give up |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Gemini 3.7 Flash Google | 1490.2 +153.6 | $0.750 | Balanced −61% Summarise −68% Chat −61% Code gen −59% Agentic −69% | 100K → 66K max output |
| Gemini 3.6 Flash Google | 1476.5 +139.9 | $1.50 | Balanced −22% Summarise −36% Chat −23% Code gen −18% Agentic −37% | 100K → 66K max output |
| MiMo-V2.5-Pro Xiaomi | 1465 +128.4 | $0.544 | Balanced −72% Summarise −70% Chat −79% Code gen −78% Agentic −81% | no file input |
| GLM 5.2 Z.ai | 1465.4 +128.8 | $1.83 | Balanced −5% Summarise −6% Chat −15% Code gen −13% Agentic −21% | no file input |
| Qwen3.7 Plus Qwen | 1456.2 +119.6 | $0.560 | Balanced −71% Summarise −73% Chat −72% Code gen −71% Agentic −75% | no file input |
| Kimi K2.6 Moonshot AI | 1455 +118.4 | $1.71 | Balanced −11% Summarise −21% Chat −14% Code gen −11% Agentic −26% | no file input |
| Gemma 4 31B Google | 1441.7 +105.1 | $0.152 | Balanced −92% Summarise −92% Chat −92% Code gen −92% Agentic −92% | 100K → 16K max output no file input |
| Kimi K2.5 Moonshot AI | 1445.2 +108.6 | $0.900 | Balanced −53% Summarise −61% Chat −53% Code gen −51% Agentic −61% | no file input |
| Hy3 Tencent | 1441.2 +104.6 | $0.144 | Balanced −92% Summarise −93% Chat −93% Code gen −93% Agentic −93% | no file input |
| GLM 5 Z.ai | 1445.2 +108.6 | $0.930 | Balanced −52% Summarise −52% Chat −56% Code gen −55% Agentic −60% | no file input |
| Qwen3.8 27B Qwen | 1440.8 +104.2 | $0.956 | Balanced −50% Summarise −61% Chat −48% Code gen −45% Agentic −57% | no file input |
| GLM 4.6 Z.ai | 1439.8 +103.2 | $0.875 | Balanced −55% Summarise −58% Chat −57% Code gen −55% Agentic −62% | no file input |
| Gemma 4 26B A4B Google | 1434.6 +98 | $0.138 | Balanced −93% Summarise −92% Chat −92% Code gen −92% Agentic −91% | 100K → 16K max output no file input |
| Qwen3.5 397B A17B Qwen | 1438.3 +101.7 | $0.877 | Balanced −54% Summarise −56% Chat −48% Code gen −49% Agentic −46% | 100K → 66K max output no file input |
| DeepSeek V4 Pro 0423 DeepSeek | 1439.2 +102.6 | $1.09 | Balanced −44% Summarise −38% Chat −57% Code gen −56% Agentic −59% | no file input |
| Qwen3.6 Plus Qwen | 1436.8 +100.2 | $0.731 | Balanced −62% Summarise −63% Chat −57% Code gen −57% Agentic −55% | 100K → 66K max output no file input |
| Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite Google | 1436.5 +99.9 | $0.850 | Balanced −56% Summarise −70% Chat −51% Code gen −47% Agentic −63% | 100K → 66K max output |
| MiniMax M3 MiniMax | 1434.8 +98.2 | $0.525 | Balanced −73% Summarise −75% Chat −74% Code gen −73% Agentic −77% | no file input |
| GLM 4.7 Z.ai | 1435.3 +98.7 | $0.738 | Balanced −62% Summarise −66% Chat −63% Code gen −61% Agentic −67% | no file input |
| DeepSeek V4 Flash 0423 DeepSeek | 1431.6 +95 | $0.101 | Balanced −95% Summarise −94% Chat −96% Code gen −96% Agentic −96% | no file input |
| Inkling Thinking Machines | 1439.2 +102.6 | $1.73 | Balanced −10% Summarise −21% Chat −13% Code gen −10% Agentic −25% | no file input |
| GLM 5V Turbo Z.ai | 1436.8 +100.2 | $1.90 | Balanced −1% Summarise −4% Chat −10% Code gen −8% Agentic −17% | no file input |
| MiMo-V2.5 Xiaomi | 1427.3 +90.7 | $0.175 | Balanced −91% Summarise −90% Chat −93% Code gen −93% Agentic −94% | no file input |
| GLM 4.5 Z.ai | 1429.4 +92.8 | $1.00 | Balanced −48% Summarise −51% Chat −52% Code gen −50% Agentic −57% | 200K → 131K context 100K → 98K max output no file input |
| R1 0528 DeepSeek | 1427.9 +91.3 | $0.912 | Balanced −53% Summarise −51% Chat −51% Code gen −51% Agentic −48% | 200K → 164K context 100K → 33K max output no file input |
| DeepSeek V3.2 DeepSeek | 1424.6 +88 | $0.290 | Balanced −85% Summarise −79% Chat −88% Code gen −89% Agentic −84% | 200K → 164K context no file input |
| DeepSeek V3.2 Exp DeepSeek | 1424.4 +87.8 | $0.305 | Balanced −84% Summarise −75% Chat −86% Code gen −88% Agentic −77% | 200K → 164K context 100K → 66K max output no file input |
| Qwen3 235B A22B Instruct 2507 Qwen | 1419.3 +82.7 | $0.205 | Balanced −89% Summarise −90% Chat −88% Code gen −88% Agentic −87% | 100K → 16K max output no file input no extended reasoning |
| Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct Qwen | 1420.9 +84.3 | $0.632 | Balanced −67% Summarise −76% Chat −62% Code gen −60% Agentic −69% | 100K → 33K max output no file input no extended reasoning |
| DeepSeek V3.1 Terminus DeepSeek | 1419.6 +83 | $0.453 | Balanced −76% Summarise −76% Chat −77% Code gen −77% Agentic −76% | 200K → 164K context 100K → 33K max output no file input |
| Qwen3 Next 80B A3B Instruct Qwen | 1418.6 +82 | $0.350 | Balanced −82% Summarise −87% Chat −78% Code gen −77% Agentic −82% | no file input no extended reasoning |
| DeepSeek V3.1 DeepSeek | 1419.1 +82.5 | $0.825 | Balanced −57% Summarise −45% Chat −56% Code gen −60% Agentic −44% | 200K → 164K context no file input |
| Qwen3.5-122B-A10B Qwen | 1417.9 +81.3 | $0.715 | Balanced −63% Summarise −68% Chat −56% Code gen −55% Agentic −58% | no file input |
| Gemini 2.5 Flash Google | 1417.3 +80.7 | $0.850 | Balanced −56% Summarise −70% Chat −51% Code gen −47% Agentic −63% | 100K → 66K max output |
| Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview Google | 1414.8 +78.2 | $0.563 | Balanced −71% Summarise −78% Chat −70% Code gen −68% Agentic −76% | 100K → 66K max output |
| Qwen3 235B A22B Thinking 2507 Qwen | 1413.8 +77.2 | $0.748 | Balanced −61% Summarise −70% Chat −53% Code gen −52% Agentic −57% | 200K → 131K context no file input |
| Inkling Small Thinking Machines | 1411.7 +75.1 | $0.637 | Balanced −67% Summarise −65% Chat −71% Code gen −71% Agentic −72% | no file input |
| Qwen3.5-27B Qwen | 1407.9 +71.3 | $0.536 | Balanced −72% Summarise −76% Chat −67% Code gen −67% Agentic −68% | 100K → 66K max output no file input |
| Qwen3 Max Qwen | 1412.7 +76.1 | $1.56 | Balanced −19% Summarise −32% Chat −18% Code gen −14% Agentic −31% | 100K → 66K max output no file input |
| Step 3.5 Flash StepFun | 1403.8 +67.2 | $0.150 | Balanced −92% Summarise −90% Chat −92% Code gen −93% Agentic −90% | 100K → 66K max output no file input |
| MiniMax M2.7 MiniMax | 1405.3 +68.7 | $0.525 | Balanced −73% Summarise −75% Chat −74% Code gen −73% Agentic −77% | no file input |
| Qwen3.5-Flash Qwen | 1397.6 +61 | $0.114 | Balanced −94% Summarise −93% Chat −94% Code gen −94% Agentic −93% | 100K → 66K max output no file input |
| Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Thinking Qwen | 1400.6 +64 | $1.30 | Balanced −32% Summarise −48% Chat −18% Code gen −16% Agentic −26% | 200K → 131K context 100K → 33K max output no file input |
| Qwen3.5-35B-A3B Qwen | 1395.6 +59 | $0.500 | Balanced −74% Summarise −73% Chat −71% Code gen −72% Agentic −68% | no file input |
| Qwen3 30B A3B Instruct 2507 Qwen | 1384.3 +47.7 | $0.084 | Balanced −96% Summarise −95% Chat −95% Code gen −96% Agentic −94% | 100K → 32K max output no file input no extended reasoning |
| GLM 4.5 Air Z.ai | 1382.8 +46.2 | $0.310 | Balanced −84% Summarise −88% Chat −83% Code gen −82% Agentic −86% | 200K → 131K context 100K → 98K max output no file input |
| Solar Pro 4 Upstage | 1376.2 +39.6 | $0.052 | Balanced −97% Summarise −98% Chat −97% Code gen −97% Agentic −98% | no file input |
| DeepSeek V3 0324 DeepSeek | 1375 +38.4 | $0.438 | Balanced −77% Summarise −74% Chat −76% Code gen −77% Agentic −71% | 200K → 164K context no file input no extended reasoning |
| GLM 4.6V Z.ai | 1374.7 +38.1 | $0.450 | Balanced −77% Summarise −77% Chat −79% Code gen −79% Agentic −81% | 200K → 131K context 100K → 33K max output no file input |
| R1 DeepSeek | 1372.7 +36.1 | $1.15 | Balanced −40% Summarise −29% Chat −37% Code gen −41% Agentic −23% | 200K → 64K context 100K → 16K max output no file input |
| Qwen3 Next 80B A3B Thinking Qwen | 1367.5 +30.9 | $0.412 | Balanced −79% Summarise −82% Chat −75% Code gen −74% Agentic −76% | 100K → 33K max output no file input |
| gpt-oss-120b OpenAI | 1365.6 +29 | $0.070 | Balanced −96% Summarise −96% Chat −96% Code gen −96% Agentic −96% | 200K → 131K context no file input |
| Qwen3 235B A22B Qwen | 1366 +29.4 | $0.796 | Balanced −59% Summarise −53% Chat −56% Code gen −58% Agentic −48% | 200K → 131K context 100K → 8K max output no file input |
| Nova 2 Lite Amazon | 1362.2 +25.6 | $0.850 | Balanced −56% Summarise −63% Chat −48% Code gen −47% Agentic −50% | 100K → 66K max output |
| Gemma 3 27B Google | 1358.3 +21.7 | $0.172 | Balanced −91% Summarise −92% Chat −90% Code gen −90% Agentic −91% | no file input no extended reasoning |
| MiniMax M2.5 MiniMax | 1359 +22.4 | $0.472 | Balanced −75% Summarise −78% Chat −77% Code gen −76% Agentic −81% | no file input |
| Mercury 2 Inception | 1357.8 +21.2 | $0.375 | Balanced −81% Summarise −81% Chat −83% Code gen −82% Agentic −85% | 200K → 128K context 100K → 50K max output no file input |
| GLM 4.7 Flash Z.ai | 1352.9 +16.3 | $0.145 | Balanced −92% Summarise −94% Chat −92% Code gen −91% Agentic −94% | 100K → 16K max output no file input |
| Trinity Large Thinking Arcee | 1341.9 tie | $0.378 | Balanced −80% Summarise −81% Chat −81% Code gen −81% Agentic −83% | no file input |
| MiniMax M2 MiniMax | 1342.1 tie | $0.446 | Balanced −77% Summarise −74% Chat −75% Code gen −76% Agentic −71% | no file input |
| Qwen3 32B Qwen | 1340.1 tie | $0.130 | Balanced −93% Summarise −92% Chat −93% Code gen −93% Agentic −91% | 200K → 131K context 100K → 16K max output no file input |
| MiniMax M1 MiniMax | 1341.9 tie | $0.963 | Balanced −50% Summarise −43% Chat −46% Code gen −49% Agentic −37% | 100K → 40K max output no file input |
| GPT-4.1 Mini OpenAI | 1340.5 tie | $0.700 | Balanced −64% Summarise −66% Chat −65% Code gen −64% Agentic −68% | 100K → 33K max output no extended reasoning |
| GLM 5.3 Z.ai | 1476.9 +140.3 | $1.17 agentic | Agentic −8% | no file input |
| GLM 5.1 Z.ai | 1464.1 +127.5 | $1.10 summarise | Summarise −1% Chat −10% Code gen −8% Agentic −17% | no file input |
| Claude Haiku 4.5 Anthropic | 1394.9 +58.3 | $0.944 summarise | Summarise −15% Agentic −16% | 100K → 64K max output |

## What this compares, and what it leaves out

 - Quality is LMArena Elo, used under CC BY 4.0 from the official dataset. The 95% confidence interval on a difference between two scores is about ±10.68 points, so a gap smaller than that is marked *tie* rather than an improvement — see [significance bands](/significance/).
 - 188 further models at this delivery mode carry a price but no independent score. They are absent from the comparison in both directions — unrated is not a zero, and an unmeasured model is neither an alternative nor a worse buy.
 - Retired models are never offered as an alternative, and a model only competes against its own delivery mode: batch trades latency for price, so it is not a like-for-like swap.
 - Nothing here measures latency, throughput, rate limits or how a model behaves on your prompts. Two models with the same index score are not interchangeable.
 - The models that nothing beats on both axes are on the [value frontier](/frontier/), and every other model something cheaper beats is [listed here](/alternatives/).