OpenAI Launches o3-mini Model with Superior Performance, Faster Speed

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman teased two weeks ago that the o3-mini would be released 'in the coming weeks.' Today, OpenAI is making its latest reasoning model available to ChatGPT and its API service. Notably, this is the first time a version of the model has been made available to ChatGPT users for free, with some limitations on frequency of use.

ChatGPT o3-mini: Superior performance, faster speed

The o3-mini was first announced at OpenAI's "12 Days of Ship-mas" event in December 2024. The model is designed to perform on par with the o1 in math, programming, and science, but with significantly faster response speeds. According to OpenAI, the o3-mini can respond 24% faster than the o1-mini, while also improving answer accuracy.

A special feature of o3-mini is that it not only gives results but also shows how to solve the problem, similar to the previous o1-mini. This helps users better understand how AI thinks and comes up with answers.

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OpenAI has also released some early benchmark results, showing that o3 outperforms o1 on a variety of programming and reasoning tasks, while reducing cost and latency. Developers can take advantage of o3-mini through OpenAI's APIs, including the Chat Completions API, Assistants API, and Batch API.

Highlights of o3-mini

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1. Faster response speed: o3-mini is 24% faster than o1-mini, improving the interactive experience, especially when handling complex queries.
2. Higher Accuracy: This model is upgraded to solve math, programming, and handle scientific tasks better, and shows how to solve problems instead of just giving results.
3. Lower Cost, Higher Performance: Compared with o1-mini, o3-mini has lower cost and reduced latency, giving businesses and developers more optimal choices.
4. Free for ChatGPT Users: This is the first time OpenAI has made an advanced reasoning model available to free users, with the same frequency limits as GPT-4o.
5. Enhanced version – o3-mini-high: Paid users (ChatGPT Plus, Team, Pro) can access o3-mini-high, an optimized version for programmers, helping to write code, debug and optimize code more efficiently.
6. Web search support: o3-mini can search the web and provide results with source links, making the information more reliable.
7. Ecosystem Integration : This model has been integrated into Microsoft Azure OpenAI Service, GitHub Copilot, and AI models on GitHub, providing extensive developer support.

Paid ChatGPT users can also opt for o3-mini-high, an advanced version with deeper analysis and reasoning capabilities, especially optimized for programming tasks. However, this model has longer response times due to the complex computational requirements.

Micah Soto

Update 02 February 2025