OpenAI has launched a more powerful version of its o1 reasoning model: o1-pro. This version is now available via the developer API, but at a considerably higher price than previous models. OpenAI promises that o1-pro uses more computing power to deliver consistently better answers.
The new o1-pro variant is currently only available to selected developers who have spent at least 5 dollars on OpenAI API services. The model is not cheap, however: OpenAI charges 150 dollars per million tokens (approximately 750,000 words) that are entered into the model and 600 dollars per million generated tokens. This is twice as expensive as GPT-4.5 for input and no less than ten times more expensive than the regular o1 model.
Improved performance at a higher cost
“O1-pro in the API is a version of o1 that uses more computing power to think harder and provide even better answers to the most difficult problems,” said a spokesperson. “After many requests from our developer community, we are excited to bring it to the API for even more reliable answers.”
The high pricing fits in with a trend in which AI services are increasingly billed based on usage. For developers, this means that they must carefully consider whether the improved performance of o1-pro justifies the higher costs.
Mixed first impressions
Although OpenAI has high hopes for o1-pro, initial impressions were not entirely positive. The model, which has been available to ChatGPT Pro subscribers since December, appeared to struggle with Sudoku puzzles and was confused by simple optical illusions.
Internal benchmarks from OpenAI from the end of last year showed that o1-pro only performed slightly better than the standard o1 model in the areas of coding and math problems. However, the benchmarks did show that it solved these problems more reliably.
The launch of o1-pro follows earlier expansions of the o1 model. Just last month, OpenAI increased the API limits for o1 and o1-mini, giving tier 5 developers in particular more space. The full version of o1 was also recently made available to the most dedicated developers.
The question remains whether developers are willing to pay the high price for the improved performance of o1-pro. OpenAI is increasingly heading towards usage-based pricing to increase profitability. OpenAI recently announced that it was losing money on its ChatGPT Pro subscription of $200 per month because users are using it more than expected.