Cheaper alternatives to o3
o3 scores 1410 on the overall Arena and costs about $700.00/month at 100,000 calls (1,500 in / 500 out). Here are models that match or beat it on quality for less.
| DeepSeek V4.1 Flash | 1465 | $10.50 | $689.50/mo | DeepSeek |
| Qwen3.8 27B | 1438 | $22.75 | $677.25/mo | Alibaba |
| MiMo-V2.5 | 1428 | $35.00 | $665.00/mo | Xiaomi |
| MiMo-V2-Omni | 1423 | $35.00 | $665.00/mo | Xiaomi |
| MiMo-V2.6-Flash | 1451 | $35.00 | $665.00/mo | Xiaomi |
| GLM-5.3-Flash | 1473 | $38.84 | $661.16/mo | Z.ai (Zhipu AI) |
| DeepSeek V4 Flash | 1424 | $52.50 | $647.50/mo | DeepSeek |
| DeepSeek V3.2 | 1420 | $63.00 | $637.00/mo | DeepSeek |
| DeepSeek V3.1 | 1417 | $64.00 | $636.00/mo | DeepSeek |
| DeepSeek V3.1 Terminus | 1417 | $72.50 | $627.50/mo | DeepSeek |
| Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct | 1420 | $74.00 | $626.00/mo | Alibaba |
| GPT-5.6 Luna | 1431 | $90.00 | $610.00/mo | OpenAI |
Intelligence scores are community Arena ratings from LMArena / arena.ai, used under CC BY 4.0. Snapshot last refreshed 2 November 2026. Scores are a relative signal, not an absolute measure of capability. A Measured score was voted on directly; an Estimated score is inherited from an identical base model (a regional/creator-prefixed hosting duplicate). See our methodology.
FAQ
Is there a cheaper model as good as o3?
Yes. DeepSeek V4.1 Flash matches or beats o3 on the overall Arena leaderboard and costs about $10.50/month versus $700.00/month at a typical volume of 100,000 calls — saving roughly $689.50/month.
How is 'as good' defined?
We only list models with an overall Arena score at or above o3's (1410). Arena scores are community preference ratings, not a single benchmark — confirm the alternative on your own task before switching.
Cite / link to this page
You’re welcome to reference this page and its figures with attribution and a link back.
https://aicalculatorpro.com/alternatives/o3/<a href="https://aicalculatorpro.com/alternatives/o3/">Cheaper alternatives to o3 — AI Calculator Pro</a>