Inference Labs › Compare models › GPT-4o mini vs Claude Haiku 4.5
GPT-4o mini vs Claude Haiku 4.5
Side-by-side comparison of GPT-4o mini and Claude Haiku 4.5: per-token pricing, context windows, strengths, and which to pick for production workloads.
GPT-4o mini
Strengths
- Cheapest legacy OpenAI model still widely supported.
- Fast latency suitable for autocomplete and classification.
Trade-offs
- Generation quality lags 2026 frontier.
- Smaller context window than 2026 peers.
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.
Side-by-side pricing
| Metric | GPT-4o mini | Claude Haiku 4.5 |
|---|---|---|
| Input price ($/1M tokens) | $0.15 | $1.00 |
| Output price ($/1M tokens) | $0.60 | $5.00 |
| Context window | 128K tokens | 200K tokens |
| Cost for 1M in + 1M out | $0.75 | $6.00 |
| Tier | cheap | balanced |
Which should you pick?
GPT-4o mini is cheaper per 1M input tokens; GPT-4o mini is cheaper on output. For high-output workloads (long generation, structured extraction), the output rate dominates.
For long-context use cases, Claude Haiku 4.5 has the larger window (200K vs 128K).
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 GPT-4o mini, Claude Haiku 4.5, 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.