--- title: "Is o3 Mini still undominated? · Undominated.ai" canonical: https://undominated.ai/check/openai__o3-mini/ description: "o3 Mini: whether it is still undominated. If anything in this catalogue is both better and cheaper, it is named, as of Sep 23, 2026. Unrated stays unrated." --- # Is o3 Mini still undominated? · Undominated.ai > o3 Mini: whether it is still undominated. If anything in this catalogue is both better and cheaper, it is named, as of Sep 23, 2026. Unrated stays unrated. # Is o3 Mini a good deal? Whether anything in this catalogue beats o3 Mini on both quality and price, and what you give up if it does. A computation on the current catalogue, not an opinion. 13 undominated of 136 · Sep 23, 2026 [1 · Choose & set workload](#check-input)[2 · Read verdict](#check-verdict)[3 · Inspect alternatives](#check-options) As of Sep 23, 2026, o3 Mini is dominated for Balanced on LMArena. GPT-5.6 Luna scores 110.8 higher and costs 77% less, with a covering envelope. 13 of 136 rated, priced standard models are undominated. [Inspect model evidence](/models/openai__o3-mini/) [Compare differences & requirements](/compare/?models=openai%2Fo3-mini%2Copenai%2Fgpt-5.6-luna) Current model o3 Mini Balanced 3 tokens in per 1 out Balanced Summarise Chat Code gen Agentic Monthly spend (USD) Used only to say how many months a named switching cost would take to earn back. Leave blank to skip. Switching cost (USD) GPT-5.6 Luna is both better and cheaper than o3 Mini: 110.8 points higher on LMArena and 77% less per million tokens, $1.48 cheaper at this mix. [o3 Mini](https://undominated.ai/models/openai__o3-mini/) LMArena Elo · higher is better Scale starts at 1040 Elo ** 1319.1 Effective $/M · Balanced · lower is better ** $1.93/M [GPT-5.6 Luna](https://undominated.ai/models/openai__gpt-5.6-luna/) LMArena Elo · higher is better Scale starts at 1040 Elo ** 1429.9 Effective $/M · Balanced · lower is better ** $0.450/M o3 Mini takes text, file, returns up to 100,000 tokens from a 200,000-token context, and is listed by 1 seller. Compared against 136 rated, priced models on this lens: 8 models dominate it and give up nothing, 5 more dominate it but give something up. o3 Mini scores 1319.1 at $1.93 per million tokens for this mix. ## Envelope-safe replacements Each row scores at least as high, costs no more, and covers this model’s context, output, modalities, tools, and reasoning. A cheaper narrower model is not listed here. | Model | LMArena | Effective $/M | You save | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | [GPT-5.6 Luna](/models/openai__gpt-5.6-luna/) | 1429.9 +110.8 | $0.450/M | 77% | | [GPT-5.4 Mini](/models/openai__gpt-5.4-mini/) | 1412.1 +93.0 | $1.69/M | 12% | | [Grok 4.3](/models/x-ai__grok-4.3/) | 1397.7 +78.6 | $1.56/M | 19% | | [GPT-5 Mini](/models/openai__gpt-5-mini/) | 1373.0 +53.9 | $0.688/M | 64% | | [GPT-5.4 Nano](/models/openai__gpt-5.4-nano/) | 1372.9 +53.8 | $0.463/M | 76% | | [o4 Mini](/models/openai__o4-mini/) | 1353.2 +34.1 | $1.93/M | 0% | | [o3 Mini High](/models/openai__o3-mini-high/) | 1336.5 +17.4 | $1.93/M | 0% | | [GPT-5 Nano](/models/openai__gpt-5-nano/) | 1319.7 +0.6 | $0.138/M | 93% | ## Higher score, lower price, named losses Not a drop-in. The loss is why these are not a recommendation. | Model | LMArena | Effective $/M | You give up | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | [Gemini 3.8 Flash](/models/google__gemini-3.8-flash/) | 1494.7 | $1.50/M | max output | | [Gemini 3.7 Flash](/models/google__gemini-3.7-flash/) | 1490.5 | $1.50/M | max output | | [Gemini 3.6 Flash](/models/google__gemini-3.6-flash/) | 1476.1 | $1.50/M | max output | | [GLM 5.3](/models/z-ai__glm-5.3/) | 1475.1 | $1.29/M | file | | [GLM 5.3 Flash](/models/z-ai__glm-5.3-flash/) | 1471.9 | $0.237/M | file | 136 rated, priced standard models. Chartreuse is the frontier. Cobalt is the model you named, when it is not on the staircase. Copy watch URL [Open the frontier](/frontier/) The link keeps the model and mix, using the current catalogue. Monthly spend and switching cost stay in this browser tab and are left out of the link. ## Saved decision references Save the model, workload, catalogue date and capability-preservation rule in this browser. Spend, switching cost and bill contents are not saved. No account or notifications. Constraint: replacements must preserve the model’s capabilities; any losses remain named trade-offs. Historical decisions cannot be fully replayed from saved references: past prices, scores and capability evidence are not stored. Save this reference ## Continue your investigation - [Build a shortlist](/compare/) - [Inspect alternatives](/alternatives/) - [Check billing conditions](/traps/) - [Read model evidence](/models/)