GPT-5 vs GPT-4o: token pricing & cost compared (July 2026)

How GPT-5 (OpenAI) and GPT-4o (OpenAI) actually compare on price — input, output, and total monthly cost at the MAU you care about. Updated against live OpenRouter pricing.

OpenAI

GPT-5

Input: $1.25 / 1M tokens
Output: $10.00 / 1M tokens
Output / Input ratio: 8.0×
Context window: 400K

OpenAI

GPT-4o

Input: $2.50 / 1M tokens
Output: $10.00 / 1M tokens
Output / Input ratio: 4.0×
Context window: 128K

The short answer

GPT-5 is cheaper across the board for typical workloads.

Token pricing side-by-side

GPT-5
GPT-4o

Cost at your usage

Avg input tokens / call

Avg output tokens / call

Calls per active user / day: 5

Active days / month: 20

MAU: 1,000

GPT-5

Per call

$0.00563

Per user / mo

$0.5625

Total / mo

$563

GPT-4o

Per call

$0.00625

Per user / mo

$0.6250

Total / mo

$625

GPT-5 is cheaper by $0.0625/user/month — a saving of $63/month at 1,000 MAU.

Total monthly bill across MAU

GPT-5
GPT-4o

Same usage profile applied to both models; only the per-token price differs.

Run this against your real numbers

The mini-calculator above is a preview. Use the full tools to model power-user blast radius, gross margin, and 12-month spend forecasts.

Other comparisons

o1 vs GPT-4o GPT-5.1 vs GPT-5 GPT-4o vs GPT-4o mini GPT-4o vs GPT-4 Turbo Command R+ vs GPT-4o

Comparing GPT-5 vs GPT-4o on price alone never tells the whole story — output-token weighting, context length, and your usage profile change the answer dramatically. Use the calculators below for the full picture.