Inference Labs › Compare models › Claude Haiku 4.5 vs GPT-5 mini
Claude Haiku 4.5 vs GPT-5 mini
Side-by-side comparison of Claude Haiku 4.5 and GPT-5 mini: per-token pricing, context windows, strengths, and which to pick for production workloads.
Claude Haiku 4.5
Strengths
- Fastest Claude tier with the 4.5 reasoning recipe.
- Cleaner JSON-mode adherence than Sonnet for high-volume extraction.
Trade-offs
- Lower ceiling on multi-step reasoning vs Sonnet.
GPT-5 mini
Strengths
- High-throughput RAG and chat workloads.
- Strong tool-use performance.
- Cheap enough for caching to dominate spend.
Trade-offs
- Trails Sonnet on long-context recall.
- Weaker code reasoning than GPT-5.
Side-by-side pricing
| Metric | Claude Haiku 4.5 | GPT-5 mini |
|---|---|---|
| Input price ($/1M tokens) | $1.00 | $0.25 |
| Output price ($/1M tokens) | $5.00 | $2.00 |
| Context window | 200K tokens | 400K tokens |
| Cost for 1M in + 1M out | $6.00 | $2.25 |
| Tier | balanced | balanced |
Which should you pick?
GPT-5 mini is cheaper per 1M input tokens; GPT-5 mini is cheaper on output. For high-output workloads (long generation, structured extraction), the output rate dominates.
For long-context use cases, GPT-5 mini has the larger window (400K vs 200K).
In practice, the right answer depends on your traffic mix. Inference Labs lets you route the same request to whichever of these two is best for that prompt -- using policy you define (quality-first, cost-first, latency-first) without changing your application code.
Route between them automatically
Inference Labs is a vendor-neutral router that sits in front of Claude Haiku 4.5, GPT-5 mini, and the other major cloud LLMs. Set per-request policy (max cost, max latency, required quality tier) and the router picks the best model per call. You keep your existing provider accounts -- we just orchestrate.
- Allowlist only the models your team has approved.
- Automatic failover if one provider is degraded.
- Semantic + exact-hash cache reduces redundant calls.
- Per-workspace spend caps and audit-ready trace logs.
Stop hard-coding model names. Start a free Inference Labs trial → -- 500 credits, no card required, see your routing decisions in the dashboard within minutes.