o3-mini vs Claude 4.8 Opus
Compare pricing, context windows, and strengths for o3-mini by OpenAI and Claude 4.8 Opus by Anthropic - and see how to put either to work in Appaca.
o3-mini
A small, cost-efficient reasoning model offering high intelligence at the same pricing and latency targets as o1-mini, with strong support for structured outputs and developer tooling.
View o3-miniClaude 4.8 Opus
Anthropic's flagship model for coding and agents, building on Opus 4.7 with stronger reliability, a cheaper fast mode, and gains across coding, computer use, and professional work.
View Claude 4.8 Opuso3-mini vs Claude 4.8 Opus at a glance
Specs and pricing side by side, from the Appaca AI models directory.
| Spec | o3-mini | Claude 4.8 Opus |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | OpenAI | Anthropic |
| Model type | Text | Text |
| Context window | 200K tokens | 1M tokens |
| Input price | $1.1 / 1M tokens | $5 / 1M tokens |
| Output price | $4.4 / 1M tokens | $25 / 1M tokens |
| Status | Current | Current |
How o3-mini and Claude 4.8 Opus differ
What the numbers mean in practice when choosing between o3-mini and Claude 4.8 Opus.
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o3-mini is 78% cheaper on input tokens ($1.1 vs $5 per million), which adds up quickly in document-heavy workloads.
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o3-mini is 82% cheaper on output tokens ($4.4 vs $25 per million) - the bigger factor for tools that generate long documents.
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Claude 4.8 Opus's 1M tokens context window is roughly 5x larger than o3-mini's 200K tokens, so it can work across bigger codebases, contracts, or archives in one pass.
Strengths side by side
Where each model shines, according to benchmarks and provider positioning.
o3-mini
1. High-intelligence small reasoning model
- Delivers strong reasoning performance in a compact footprint.
- Ideal for tasks that need intelligence but must stay cost-efficient.
2. Excellent for developer workflows
- Supports Structured Outputs, function calling, and Batch API.
- Reliable for backend automation, agents, and data-processing pipelines.
3. Strong text reasoning capabilities
- Handles multi-step logic, natural language analysis, SQL translation, entity extraction, and content generation.
- Works well for landing pages, policy summaries, and knowledge extraction (as shown in built-in examples).
4. 200K context window
- Allows large documents, multi-step analysis, and long-running conversations.
- Reduces the need for aggressive chunking or external retrieval systems.
5. High 100K-token output limit
- Enables long explanations, multi-section documents, or detailed reasoning sequences.
6. Pure text-focused model
- Input/output is text-only (no image or audio support).
- Optimized for language-heavy reasoning and logic tasks.
7. Broad API compatibility
- Works across Chat Completions, Responses, Realtime, Assistants, Embeddings, Image APIs (as tools), and more.
- Supports streaming, function calling, and structured outputs.
8. Cost-efficient for production at scale
- Same cost/performance profile as o1-mini but with higher intelligence.
Claude 4.8 Opus
1. Modest but tangible gains across the board
- 69.2% on SWE-bench Pro (+4.9 points over Opus 4.7's 64.3%), 88.6% on SWE-bench Verified, and a 1,890 Elo on GDPval-AA - about 121 Elo ahead of GPT-5.5.
- Anthropic frames it as an incremental refinement of Opus 4.7 rather than a step-change release.
2. The most reliable agent model Anthropic has shipped
- The only model to complete every case end-to-end on Anthropic's internal Super-Agent benchmark, beating prior Opus models and GPT-5.5 at parity on cost.
- Leads CursorBench across every effort level with more efficient tool calling - fewer steps for the same intelligence.
- 84% on Online-Mind2Web and stronger OSWorld-Verified scores make it the strongest computer-use and browser-agent model Anthropic has tested.
3. New highs for professional and legal work
- Highest score ever recorded on Anthropic's Legal Agent Benchmark, and the first model to break 10% on its all-pass standard.
- Roughly a 4x improvement in honesty and calibrated uncertainty versus Opus 4.7 on Anthropic's evaluations.
4. Cheaper, faster controls
- Standard pricing holds at $5/M input and $25/M output, unchanged from Opus 4.7.
- Fast mode now runs at 2.5x speed for $10/M input and $50/M output - about a third of what fast mode cost on prior Opus releases.
- A new effort dial gives finer control over how hard the model works before answering.
5. Long-horizon agent workflows
- 1M token context window in beta and up to 128K output tokens.
- Introduces Dynamic Workflows (research preview) in Claude Code - Opus can write its own orchestration script and run up to 16 concurrent / 1,000 total subagents in a single session.
Use o3-mini or Claude 4.8 Opus - or both
Appaca is the AI workspace for operators. Build internal tools and AI co-workers powered by o3-mini or Claude 4.8 Opus - connected to your real data and ready for your whole team. No code, no deployment.
Describe it, and it's built
Tell the Appaca agent the internal tool you need and it builds a working app powered by o3-mini or Claude 4.8 Opus. No code, no API keys, no deployment.
Switch models without rebuilding
Start on o3-mini, test the same tool on Claude 4.8 Opus, and keep whichever performs better - the rest of your app stays exactly as it is.
Automated for the whole team
Schedule tools to run on autopilot - daily digests, weekly reports, real-time triggers - and share them with your whole team from one workspace.
Describe it, and it's built
Tell the Appaca agent what your team needs and it builds a working app powered by o3-mini or Claude 4.8 Opus - connected to the tools you already use.
Related comparisons
See how o3-mini and Claude 4.8 Opus stack up against other models in the directory.
FAQs
o3-mini is generally cheaper: $1.1 input / $4.4 output per million tokens, versus $5 / $25 for Claude 4.8 Opus. Actual cost depends on how many tokens your workload reads and writes.
Claude 4.8 Opus has the larger context window at 1M tokens, compared to 200K tokens for o3-mini. A larger window means the model can consider more text at once - useful for long contracts, codebases, or months of records.
It depends on the job. Compare the pricing, context window, and strengths above against your workload - and remember the choice isn't permanent. In Appaca you can build a tool on o3-mini, test the same tool on Claude 4.8 Opus, and switch at any time without rebuilding anything.
Yes. Appaca is a no-code AI workspace: describe the internal tool your team needs and the Appaca agent builds it as a working app powered by o3-mini, Claude 4.8 Opus, or any other model in the directory - with a built-in database, team access, and integrations. No API keys to wire up and nothing to deploy.
Build AI tools with o3-mini or Claude 4.8 Opus
Describe the tool your team needs and get a working app powered by the model you choose - with a built-in database, team access, and integrations. No code, no deployment.