Cheapest GPT-4.1 mini API: RunAPI is 94% below the official price
GPT-4.1 mini costs $0.400/$1.60 per 1M tokens from OpenAI. The cheapest quote is RunAPI: $0.024 in, $0.096 out. Full table and buying checklist below.
| # | Provider | 1M input | 1M output | Discount | Tokens per $100 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| — | Official list | $0.400 | $1.60 | 0% | 167M |
| 1 | $0.024 | $0.096 | −94% | 2.78B | |
| 2 | $0.060 | $0.240 | −85% | 1.11B | |
| 3 | $0.588 | $2.35 | — | 113M |
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.