Simulating realistic Agentic workflow parameters (40,000 in / 1,500 out with 65% cache reuse). o4-mini delivers a 19% cost reduction over Qwen 2.5 Max.
| Traffic Volume Tier | o4-mini Monthly | Qwen 2.5 Max Monthly | Monthly Savings by picking o4-mini |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1,000 reqs/mo (Dev/Testing) | $29.15 | $36.16 | Save $7.01 / mo |
| 10,000 reqs/mo (Small App) | $291.50 | $361.60 | Save $70.10 / mo |
| 100,000 reqs/mo (Growth Production) | $2,915.00 | $3,616.00 | Save $701.00 / mo |
| 1,000,000 reqs/mo (Scale SaaS) | $29,150.00 | $36,160.00 | Save $7,010.00 / mo |
o4-mini is 19% cheaper for Agentic workflow workloads. At standard Agentic workflow parameter ratios (40,000 input tokens, 1,500 output tokens, 65% cache hit), o4-mini costs $0.0292 per request compared to $0.0362 on Qwen 2.5 Max.
o4-mini offers a context window of 256,000 tokens (max output: 100,000), while Qwen 2.5 Max offers 32,768 tokens (max output: 8,192).
At 100,000 requests per month, using o4-mini saves $701.00 every month (or $8,412.00 annually) compared to Qwen 2.5 Max.
Prompt caching is the single biggest lever — each step re-reads prior context. Summarize or prune tool outputs before appending them to the transcript. Cap the step budget; runaway loops are the #1 surprise on agent invoices.