Cheapest GPT-5 mini API: RunAPI is 94% below the official price
GPT-5 mini costs $0.250/$2.00 per 1M tokens from OpenAI. The cheapest quote is RunAPI: $0.015 in, $0.120 out. Full table and buying checklist below.
| # | Provider | 1M input | 1M output | Discount | Tokens per $100 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| — | Official list | $0.250 | $2.00 | 0% | 185M |
| 1 | $0.015 | $0.120 | −94% | 3.08B | |
| 2 | $0.038 | $0.300 | −85% | 1.23B | |
| 3 | $0.184 | $1.47 | −27% | 251M |
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.