On Wednesday, OpenAI unveiled a new application programming interface (API) specifically for its recently launched o1-pro artificial intelligence (AI) model. This API aims to provide developers with enhanced responses compared to existing models from the company by leveraging increased computational power. However, OpenAI has opted to pass on the elevated computational costs to developers, making this API its priciest offering to date. Importantly, subscribers to ChatGPT Pro can access the o1-pro mode without incurring additional fees, although there are rate limits.
OpenAI’s o1-Pro Receives API
In an announcement via a post on X (formerly known as Twitter), OpenAI Developers confirmed the launch of the o1-pro API. The organization noted that the release followed numerous requests from developers wanting the model’s capabilities in API form. This new model employs greater computational resources than the previous o1 model to deliver “consistently better responses.”
Previously available only as a feature within ChatGPT, benchmark scores for the o1-pro model remain undisclosed. OpenAI stated that the API includes support for visual inputs, function calling, and structured outputs, and is compatible with Responses and Batch APIs. While it can process text and image inputs, audio input is not supported, and only text responses can be generated.
According to the company’s model documentation, the o1-pro features a context window of 200,000 tokens, a knowledge cutoff of October 2023, and reasoning token support. Despite these capabilities, it comes with a significant price tag: $150 (approximately Rs. 12,900) per million input tokens and $600 (approximately Rs. 51,800) per million output tokens. Currently, access to this API is limited to select developers within the paid 1-5 tiers.
For comparison, the costs for the o1-mini and o3-mini models are $1.10 (approximately Rs. 94) per million input tokens and $4.40 (approximately Rs. 380) per million output tokens. Additionally, developers should anticipate extra charges associated with the o1-pro, as it is a reasoning model, and users are billed for the reasoning tokens. Previously, several developers expressed concerns about their inability to observe the chain of thought (CoT) during interactions.
ChatGPT Pro, available for $200 (approximately Rs. 17,270) per month, grants users access to the o1-pro model through a dedicated mode on the platform. Despite having rate limits, it does not entail any additional costs for subscribers.
