Hello, I am Artem and I use AI for coding, math, reasoning and a lot of other compute-heavy tasks. For many kinds of uses, the usual GPT 4o does not have a pass. For power users, OpenAI has released some very robust AI models and it made a lot of developers, coders and advanced users very happy. What do I mean, exactly?

The o3 mini, o3 mini high, and o1 pro AI models each offer a lot of performance, but they differ in it and it would be useful to compare them all! My detailed article guide breaks down their major differences and I would like to help you choose the right one for your needs.  

Want to see which model works best for you? ChatLabs lets you test o1-mini, o1-preview, and o3-mini side by side and to use all three models for your daily tasks, within one single subscription and with no need for APi. Just type your question once and watch how each model answers differently. You can also try other top AI models like Claude 3.7 Sonnet, Claude 3 Opus, Grok 3, Gemini and more on the same platform. Hands-on testing and easy switch between any models helps you pick the right tool for your needs, all without guessing which one is better or reading a lot of articles or reddit posts. But this article can also be useful to understand how those three o-series models compare.

The New Generation: o3 Models Explained

But what are those o-series OpenAI models and how do they differ from that usual ChatGPT experience? Let’s see. Below, you will also find some comparison sheets.

What are o3-mini User Scenarios?

The o3-mini is as of now OpenAI's newest compact model. I now use it often and it is a balanced choice for most of my o-model needs. It is not really recent and was out at January 2025, but it has made lots of performance improvements over previous models while also using fewer resources. Many users ask is o3 mini out. Yes, it's available through ChatGPT Plus and the API. Here is a note by OpenAI about its public release: https://openai.com/index/openai-o3-mini/

What is its ‘feature set’? The standard o3-mini provides:

• Faster response times than some older models of OpenAI, especially for coding, math, development tasks, reasoning with AI and similar

• Better reasoning capabilities

• Lower cost per API call. That is especially useful if you use a model through API exclusively

• It works with context in a much better way

o3 mini high – is it worth the upgrade?

This comes down to whether you need more of performance, reasoning and compute resources. The o3 mini high is a much moreenhanced version of the base model. In brief and in my experience, it now has

• Significantly better reasoning

• Responses are usually more accurate

• Higher message limits (you have 50 messages per day for Plus users)

• Better performance on some complex tasks

I have been reading some Reddit discussions of my colleagues, and many users find the o3 mini high surprisingly capable. One user on r/singularity called it "insane"  for its performance in complex reasoning tasks, despite the models smaller size.

The Most Established Performer: o1 Models?

Those O1 models have been out for a while, and had became favourite tools for a lot of the people I work with. Not everyone needs an O1 pro model and can easily go with o3 mini, for example.

o1 pro - The Professional Choice

The o1 pro has been OpenAI's flagship model for professional use. It comes in two versions:

• o1 mini (smaller, faster)

• o1 pro (larger, more capable)

For this comparison, I will focus on the full o1 pro version, which can do a lot of deep reasoning, does excellent code generation, has some strong problem-solving skills and also higher token limits. Here are also some coding average of different models, made at LiveBench.

Head-to-Head Comparisons

I have tried my best to put all the information into simple tables and spreadsheets so that you don't need to read all of that text and can skip to comparison tables right away if you are short on time ;)

o3 mini vs o3 mini high

When I compared o3 mini vs o3 mini high, those general differences became clear. It is my rating, it is subjective but I believe you will experience it in a similar way:

The o3 mini high limits make it more suitable for power users who need more interactions daily. According to a Reddit thread on r/OpenAI, the 50 message limit for Plus users makes it much more practical for daily use.

o3 mini high vs o1

The comparison between o3 mini high vs o1 shows interesting tradeoffs:

Many users on Reddit report that for everyday tasks, the o3-mini-high vs o1 comparison often favors the newer model due to its speed and efficiency.

o3 mini high vs o1 pro

The most interesting comparison is o3 mini high vs o1 pro:

The o1 pro vs o3 mini high battle comes down to your specific needs. For professional developers and researchers, the o1 pro still holds advantages in deep reasoning and specialized tasks.

Performance Benchmarks

o3 mini benchmarks

According to the ChatBot Arena leaderboard (lmarena.ai), the o3 mini benchmarks show impressive results:

• MMLU (massive multitask language understanding): Competitive scores

• HumanEval (code generation): Good performance for its size

• GSM8K (math reasoning): Strong results, especially for a smaller model

The o3 mini vs o1 comparison in benchmarks shows the newer model performing surprisingly well despite its smaller size.

Real-world Performance

As I have been exploring real user reviews, some users on Reddit have shared their experiences with these models. Let me quote some:

"For me, ChatGPT's o3 mini high/o3 mini and o1 are all better than Claude 3 Opus for creative writing and roleplay." - Reddit user on r/ClaudeAI

"o3-mini-high is insane. The reasoning capabilities are incredible for such a small model." - Reddit user on r/singularity

Cost Analysis

The o3 mini api pricing is, in a way, designed to be affordable:

• Input tokens: $0.15 per million tokens

• Output tokens: $0.60 per million tokens

This in my opinion makes it roughly 75% cheaper than GPT-4 and significantly less expensive than o1 pro.

o3 mini high limit and Pricing

But while the o3 mini high has higher performance, it unfortunately (and naturally) also comes with:

• Slightly higher API costs

• Some message limits for free users

• 50 messages per day for Plus subscribers

Cost Comparison

Here are rough estimates of costs I found over various web pages.

I saw some dramatic price difference between o3 mini api pricing and o1 pro. It means that newer models are in fact more accessible for startups, small businesses and individual developers. O1 pro may be good for enterprise users and established companies, let’s put it this way.

Use Case Recommendations

After those comparison tables and comparing basic feature sets and performance, let me conclude on when to use which model.

When to Use o3 mini:

• Quick, factual questions

• Simple content generation

• Basic coding assistance

• High-volume, cost-sensitive applications

When to Use o3 mini high:

• More complex reasoning tasks

• Better accuracy needed

• Daily use within the 50-message limit

• Good balance of performance and cost

When to Use o1 pro:

• Professional development work

• Complex code generation

• Advanced reasoning and problem-solving

• Research applications

• When accuracy is critical

And here is also the video about how to use live side-by-side model comparison on ChatLabs tool.

Testing These Models

You can test and compare these models directly in ChatLabs. This all-in-one AI tool gives you access to both o1-mini, o1-preview, and to o3-mini. This makes it easy to see the differences firsthand and to see it yourself not on some abstract tasks and metrics, but on your work precisely.

Other models that you can use in ChatLabs are Claude 3.7 Sonnet, Claude 3 Opus, new Gemini and Llama, Grok 3 and dozens of other models in a one 20$ subscription. Each model has different strengths and weaknesses and their specific use cases. Claude Sonnet 3.7 is also a nice choice for basic coding tasks and is in some cases more reasonable than o1 or o3 OpenAI models.

My Verdict: o1 vs o3, Which Wins?

This o1 vs o3 comparison isn't as straightforward as I thought at first sight. The winner depends on your specific needs and on what you do with an AI model.

• For everyday use and general questions: o3 mini high

• For professional development: o1 pro

• For cost-effective deployments and some basic testing: o3 mini

My o3 mini vs o1 pro comparison has shown that while o1 pro still leads in absolute capability, the o3 models has a very sufficient performance for their size and API cost. Don’t want to use through API and pay for each use? Have ChatLabs subscription and it works in a much less limiting way then.

OpenAI now continues to improve these models. The gap I explored between openai o1 vs o3 is likely to narrow as the newer models receive updates.

The battle between o3 mini, o3 mini high, and o1 pro has no clear winner. Here are best use scenarios that I figured out in my comparisons:

• o3 mini: Best for speed and cost-efficiency

• o3 mini high: Best balance of performance and accessibility

• o1 pro: Best for professional and complex tasks

For most users, the o3 mini high may be that sweet spot as it still has impressive capabilities at a more reasonable cost, with decent daily limits. But when it comes to professionals with specific needs, you may still prefer the more powerful o1 pro despite its (slightly) higher cost.

As these models continue to be developed and are fixed in many ways, the best approach is to test them all for your specific use cases. What is the right choice ultimately depends on your unique requirements, budget constraints, and of course performance needs.

Conclusion

So, if you're trying to decide between OpenAI o3 mini high, usual o3 mini or o1 pro, it also boils down to whether you know how to compare and review those models for your exact tasks and knowing the different other AI models that are out there.

I just reviewed at least some benefits that I get as a user of over a dozen of models in my work, both advanced models like those o-series OpenAI models, or usual text generation models and even image generation models. If you use a ChatLabs platform, you can easily switch, compare and use multiple AI models including o3 mini, o3mini high and o1pro. Each has its own advantages and performance metrics. With ChatLabs simple interface and features, within one simple subscription, you can access all three. As developers add all the recent models to the tool, you also need to be sure to stay up to date just by looking at a list of available models and descriptions of what those models do. Now, ChatLabs has a lot of free features and is a beginner-friendly power house and all-in-one AI tool. Try it here: labs.writingmate.ai

In my experience, having access to a free AI generator with all latest models and easy comparison tool makes makes diving into the world of AI super easy. So go ahead and compare the models that you want to use, then find the perfect AI for your needs. I hope this was useful, and until the next article!

For other detailed articles on AI topics, you may read our blog. There I write about different language models, well-known and new. I share a lot of updates, news and tutorials about Artificial Intelligence. There are a lot of useful guides, comparisons and ideas of AI use in different industries based on my experience and knowledge.