ChatGPT 5.1 Pricing Analysis

OpenAI's Aggressive Pricing Move

ChatGPT 5.1 launched with notable pricing: $1.25 per 1M input tokens, $10.00 per 1M output tokens. Compared to the previous GPT-4.1 tier ($3.00 input / $12.00 output), this represents a 58% reduction on input costs and 17% on output costs.

But how does it actually stack up against Claude, Gemini, and Mistral? We verified current pricing across all four major providers to give you the real story.

Current Pricing: November 2025

Provider / Model	Input Cost (1M tokens)	Output Cost (1M tokens)	Best For
OpenAI GPT-5.1	$1.25	$10.00	General purpose, coding
OpenAI GPT-4.1	$3.00	$12.00	Previous generation
Claude Sonnet 3.7	$3.00	$15.00	Long context, reasoning
Gemini 2.0 Flash	$0.10	$0.40	Cost-sensitive, low latency
Mistral Large	$2.00	$6.00	European hosting, open

Cost Comparison: Real-World Scenarios

Scenario 1: Customer Support Chatbot (10M tokens/month)

Typical mix: 30% input, 70% output

Winner: Gemini 2.0 Flash dominates on price (60x cheaper than Claude). But GPT-5.1 is now the practical choice if you need GPT-level reasoning without Gemini's trade-offs.

Scenario 2: Batch Processing / Data Analysis (500M tokens/month)

Typical mix: 50% input, 50% output (analytical workloads)

Winner: For massive scale workloads, Gemini remains unbeatable. GPT-5.1 is now cheaper than Claude for the first time, and cheaper than Mistral.

The Key Trade-offs

• GPT-5.1: Best reasoning/coding, competitive pricing, newest features
• Claude Sonnet 3.7: Better at long-context tasks, industry-trusted, but 20-30% more expensive
• Gemini 2.0: Dramatically cheaper but lower quality for complex reasoning
• Mistral Large: Open-weight option, European hosting, middle ground on price

The Bottom Line

GPT-5.1 represents OpenAI's most aggressive pricing yet. For organizations using GPT-4.1, the upgrade is a no-brainer—58% cheaper on inputs with better performance.

For teams choosing between providers: GPT-5.1 is now the dominant choice if you value both performance and cost. Claude Sonnet remains preferred for specific workloads (long context, jailbreak resistance). Gemini is unbeatable for cost-sensitive applications.