GPT-5 mini vs nano: which to use to cut costs
Most OpenAI bills are dominated by using a bigger model than the task needs. The mini and nano tiers handle a surprising amount of production work at a small fraction of flagship pricing.
nano: highest volume, simplest tasks
Classification, tagging, extraction and routing at scale. If the task has a narrow, well-defined output, nano is often all you need — and it's the cheapest option.
mini: the production default
Chat, summarization and most everyday generation run well on mini. Reserve the flagship for genuinely hard reasoning, and you cut spend without users noticing.
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