OpenAI Introduces Costly o1-pro AI Model

OpenAI has unveiled its newest artificial intelligence model, named o1-pro, which serves as an upgraded variant of its reasoning model known as o1. However, this new release comes with a hefty price tag.

According to OpenAI, the o1-pro model utilizes significantly more computing power than its predecessor, allowing it to deliver more consistent and improved responses. The company highlighted several new features in its announcement, stating that o1-pro: "Supports vision, function calling, Structured Outputs, and works seamlessly with the Responses and Batch APIs."

As a result of the increased computational demand, OpenAI has set high pricing for this model. The cost is set at $150 for every 1 million input tokens and $600 for every 1 million output tokens. To put this in perspective, according to TechCrunch, these rates are roughly double the cost of OpenAI’s prior model, GPT-4.5, and ten times the cost of the basic o1 model.

An OpenAI representative explained to TechCrunch, "O1-pro in the API is a version of o1 that uses more computing to think harder and provide even better answers to the hardest problems. After receiving numerous requests from our developer community, we’re excited to offer it through the API for more reliable responses."

This indicates that OpenAI primarily targets the o1-pro model at developers, rather than the average user. Currently, access is limited to selected developers categorized in tiers 1 to 5, based on their past spending on OpenAI’s API services. Developers in higher tiers are permitted to submit more requests over time.

It's uncertain whether developers will willingly invest in this expensive new model. Upon its initial rollout as part of ChatGPT Pro a few months back, user feedback was not overwhelmingly positive. Users on Reddit expressed dissatisfaction, describing the model as "pathetic" and suggesting that while it performed well in benchmarks, its capabilities faltered in practical applications. Conversely, some users defended o1-pro, particularly praising its proficiency in programming tasks when given detailed instructions.

For those inclined to invest in OpenAI's latest offering, o1-pro is now accessible on the OpenAI development platform, pending their willingness to meet the high costs.

AI, OpenAI, costly