GPT-3.5 Turbo (Instruct)
GPT-3.5 Turbo (Instruct) is worth evaluating for classification and json / tool use when its provider route and context window match the workload.
Use it for
- Teams evaluating classification and json / tool use
- Workloads that can use a 4k context window
- Buyers comparing 4 tracked provider routes
Do not use it for
- Vision or document-understanding workloads
- Family
- GPT-3.5
- Released
- 2023-09-19
- Context
- 4k
- Parameters
- 20B
- Architecture
- Decoder Only
- Knowledge cutoff
- 2021-09
- Specialization
- general
- Openness
- Proprietary
- License
- ProprietaryCommercial use: conditional
- Weights
- Not released
- Code
- Unknown
- Training
- Fine-tuned
Cheapest of 5 routes · OpenAI API
About
GPT-3.5 Turbo Instruct by OpenAI is designed to excel in precise instruction following and task completion, focusing on accuracy and clarity over conversational abilities. It offers key enhancements like efficient instruction adherence, reduced hallucination, and lower toxicity compared to previous models. Compatible with legacy completion endpoints, it retains the speed and affordability of the standard GPT-3.5 Turbo model while using a 4K context window and training data up to September 2021. Not specifically built for chat, it still supports diverse tasks like question answering, text completion, and code generation, aiming to enhance AI usability with safer and more accurate interactions.
Top use-case fit
Classification
Included by capability and metadata signals in the decision map.
JSON / Tool use
Included by capability and metadata signals in the decision map.
Provider price ladder
Compare all 5Compare API pricing across 4 providers for input and output tokens, batch, and cached reads when available.
| Provider | Input / 1M | Output / 1M | Batch in / out | Route |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| OpenAI API | $1.50 | $2.00 | $0.750 / $1.00 | Serverless |
| OpenRouter | $1.50 | $2.00 | - | Serverless |
| Vercel AI Gateway | $1.50 | $2.00 | - | Serverless |
| Salesforce Einstein Generative AI | - | - | - | ServerlessPartial |
Available via routers & gateways(16)
LiteLLM
GatewayOpen-source Python SDK and proxy server that unifies 100+ LLM APIs behind a single OpenAI-compatible interface, with load balancing, cost tracking, and configurable failover.
OpenRouter
HybridUnified hybrid gateway to 400+ models from 60+ providers via a single OpenAI-compatible API, with optional auto-routing that selects the best model per prompt.
Portkey
GatewayProduction AI gateway routing to 1,600+ LLMs with failover, load balancing, semantic caching, and guardrails; Apache 2.0 core is fully self-hostable with the complete feature set.
AIRouter
RouterCommercial LLM router that analyzes incoming requests and routes to the optimal model for cost/quality/latency via a drop-in OpenAI-compatible API, with a privacy-preserving embedding mode that avoids sending prompt content.
Azure AI Foundry Model Router
RouterMicrosoft Azure AI Foundry's native model router that uses a trained ML model to route each prompt in real time to the optimal Azure-hosted model, with Balanced/Cost/Quality mode selection and automatic failover.
Helicone
GatewayObservability-first AI gateway with routing, caching, rate limiting, and request tracing; Apache 2.0 open-source core with a managed hosted tier for logging and analytics.
Capabilities
Benchmark peer barsfor Classification
No task-mapped benchmark peers are available for this model yet.
Migration checks
No linked migration route is available for this model yet.
API versions
gpt-3.5-turbo-instructCheapest of 5 routes · OpenAI API