Cheap OpenAI Models With Tool Calling | Generated by AI
I’ll search for more affordable OpenAI model options that still support tool calling.Great question! Here are the best cheaper OpenAI models that support tool calling:
Most Affordable Options with Tool Calling
GPT-4o Mini — Priced at 15 cents per million input tokens and 60 cents per million output tokens, making it more than 60% cheaper than GPT-3.5 Turbo. It demonstrates strong performance in function calling, enabling developers to build applications that fetch data or take actions with external systems. This is one of the best budget-friendly options.
GPT-4.1 Mini — Excels at instruction following and tool calling, features a 1M token context window, and has low latency without a reasoning step. It’s more capable than GPT-4o Mini while remaining cost-effective.
GPT-5.1 Codex Mini — A smaller, more cost-effective, less-capable version of GPT-5.1-Codex, specifically designed for budget-conscious Codex users who need tool calling support.
o3-Mini — Available at $1.10 per million input tokens—cheaper than GPT-4.1’s $2.00 rate, making it the most economical reasoning option.
For Your config.toml
For a custom provider setup prioritizing cost-efficiency with tool calling, I’d recommend:
- GPT-4o Mini for general-purpose tasks
- GPT-4.1 Mini if you need better instruction following
- o3-Mini for reasoning-heavy tasks on the tightest budget
What’s your primary use case—would that help narrow down the best choice?