Claude 3.5 Haiku vs o4-mini
Claude 3.5 Haiku (2024) and o4-mini (2025) are frontier-tier reasoning models from Anthropic and OpenAI. Claude 3.5 Haiku ships a 200k-token context window, while o4-mini ships a not-yet-sourced context window. On pricing, Claude 3.5 Haiku costs $0.8/1M input tokens versus $1/1M for the alternative. This comparison covers specs, pricing, capabilities, benchmarks, provider availability, and production fit. It focuses on practical selection signals rather than broad model-family marketing.
o4-mini is safer overall; choose Claude 3.5 Haiku when coding workflow support matters.
Specs
| Specification | ||
|---|---|---|
| Released | 2024-10-22 | 2025-04-16 |
| Context window | 200k | — |
| Parameters | — | — |
| Architecture | decoder only | decoder only |
| License | Unknown | Proprietary |
| Knowledge cutoff | - | 2025-08 |
Pricing and availability
| Pricing attribute | Claude 3.5 Haiku | o4-mini |
|---|---|---|
| Input price | $0.8/1M tokens | $1/1M tokens |
| Output price | $4/1M tokens | $4/1M tokens |
| Providers |
Capabilities
| Capability | Claude 3.5 Haiku | o4-mini |
|---|---|---|
| Vision | Yes | Yes |
| Multimodal | No | Yes |
| Reasoning | Yes | Yes |
| Function calling | No | Yes |
| Tool use | No | Yes |
| Structured outputs | Yes | Yes |
| Code execution | Yes | Yes |
Benchmarks
No shared benchmark rows are currently sourced for this pair.
Deep dive
The capability footprint differs most on multimodal input: o4-mini, function calling: o4-mini, and tool use: o4-mini. Both models share vision, reasoning mode, structured outputs, and code execution, so the practical split is not just feature count. Use those differences to decide whether the page is about raw model quality, agentic coding support, multimodal ingestion, or predictable structured API behavior.
For cost, Claude 3.5 Haiku lists $0.8/1M input and $4/1M output tokens, while o4-mini lists $1/1M input and $4/1M output tokens on the cheapest tracked provider. A 70/30 input-output blend puts Claude 3.5 Haiku lower by about $0.14 per million blended tokens. Availability is 5 providers versus 3, so concentration risk also matters.
Choose Claude 3.5 Haiku when coding workflow support, lower input-token cost, and broader provider choice are central to the workload. Choose o4-mini when coding workflow support are more important. For production, rerun your own prompts through the exact provider, region, and tool stack you plan to ship. This keeps the decision grounded in measurable tradeoffs instead of brand-level assumptions. It also helps separate model capability from provider packaging, which can change cost and latency.
FAQ
Which is cheaper, Claude 3.5 Haiku or o4-mini?
Claude 3.5 Haiku is cheaper on tracked token pricing. Claude 3.5 Haiku costs $0.8/1M input and $4/1M output tokens. o4-mini costs $1/1M input and $4/1M output tokens. Provider discounts or batch pricing can still change the final bill.
Is Claude 3.5 Haiku or o4-mini open source?
Claude 3.5 Haiku is listed under Unknown. o4-mini is listed under Proprietary. License labels affect whether you can self-host, redistribute weights, or rely only on hosted APIs, so confirm the upstream license before deployment.
Which is better for vision, Claude 3.5 Haiku or o4-mini?
Both Claude 3.5 Haiku and o4-mini expose vision. The better choice depends on benchmark fit, context budget, pricing, and whether your provider route exposes the same capability surface. Use this as a quick comparison signal, then confirm the provider-specific limits before committing to production.
Which is better for multimodal input, Claude 3.5 Haiku or o4-mini?
o4-mini has the clearer documented multimodal input signal in this comparison. If multimodal input is mission-critical, validate it against the provider endpoint because model-level support and API-level exposure can differ.
Which is better for reasoning mode, Claude 3.5 Haiku or o4-mini?
Both Claude 3.5 Haiku and o4-mini expose reasoning mode. The better choice depends on benchmark fit, context budget, pricing, and whether your provider route exposes the same capability surface. Use this as a quick comparison signal, then confirm the provider-specific limits before committing to production.
Where can I run Claude 3.5 Haiku and o4-mini?
Claude 3.5 Haiku is available on Anthropic, OpenRouter, AWS Bedrock, GCP Vertex AI, and Replicate API. o4-mini is available on OpenAI API, OpenRouter, and Replicate API. Provider coverage can affect latency, region availability, compliance posture, and fallback options.
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Last reviewed: 2026-05-11. Data sourced from public model cards and provider documentation.