Cheapest o3 API: RunAPI is 91% below the official price
o3 costs $2.00/$8.00 per 1M tokens from OpenAI. The cheapest quote is RunAPI: $0.180 in, $0.720 out. Full table and buying checklist below.
| # | Provider | 1M input | 1M output | Discount | Tokens per $100 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| — | Official list | $2.00 | $8.00 | 0% | 33.3M |
| 1 | $0.180 | $0.720 | −91% | 370M | |
| 2 | $2.94 | $11.75 | — | 22.7M |
Tokens per $100 assume a “code” mix: 5 input tokens per output token. Prices are crawled; verify them on the provider page before buying.
What to check before buying
- Test the key with the free API checker — it verifies the endpoint responds, without sending tokens.
- Compare the blended cost for your workload, not just the input price: output tokens dominate in agent workloads.
- Check uptime and minimum top-up: the cheapest provider is useless if it is down half the day.