OpenAI launches new o3 mini model and how to access it
OpenAI continues to push the boundaries of artificial intelligence, and their latest offering, the o3-mini model, is generating quite a buzz. Designed for efficiency and accessibility, the o3-mini aims to bring the power of AI to a broader range of applications and users. This article will guide you through what the o3-mini model is, its potential applications, and, most importantly, provide a comprehensive guide on how you can access and utilize it.
In this article:
OpenAI o3-mini Released
OpenAI is releasing o3-mini, the latest and most cost-effective model in their reasoning series. This model is now accessible through both ChatGPT and the API. Originally previewed in December 2024, o3-mini represents a significant advancement in the capabilities of smaller models. It delivers exceptional STEM performance, with notable strengths in science, mathematics, and coding, while retaining the low cost and reduced latency characteristic of OpenAI's o1-mini.
Try search + reasoning together in ChatGPT.
— OpenAI (@OpenAI) January 31, 2025
Free users can use OpenAI o3-mini with search by selecting the Search + Reason buttons together. Paid users can select o3-mini from the model picker. https://t.co/8SGPBLFQ3P pic.twitter.com/S8bFBBG8yh
Key Features of OpenAI o3-mini
Small Reasoning Model:
o3-mini is OpenAI's inaugural small reasoning model, emphasizing efficient and cost-effective reasoning capabilities.
Developer Feature Support:
It incorporates highly requested developer functionalities:
Function Calling: Enables the model to interact with external tools and APIs.
Structured Outputs: Ensures generated data adheres to predefined formats for streamlined application processing.
Developer Messages: Provides developers with enhanced control and interaction.
These features facilitate "production-ready" deployment.
Streaming:
o3-mini supports streaming, allowing for real-time processing and display of generated content.
Adjustable Reasoning Effort:
It offers three reasoning effort options (low, medium, high), allowing developers to optimize performance based on specific use cases.
This flexibility enables the model to "think harder" for complex challenges or prioritize speed for latency-sensitive applications.
API Integration:
It is accessible to developers through the Chat Completions API, Assistants API, and Batch API.
It is being rolled out to select developers in API usage tiers 3-5.
Limitations:
No Vision Capabilities:
o3-mini does not support vision capabilities, visual reasoning tasks should continue to use OpenAI o1.
Open AI o3 mini vs Open AI o1 mini
o3-mini builds upon the STEM reasoning capabilities of o1-mini, while significantly enhancing performance, accuracy, and speed.
STEM Reasoning Optimization:
Both models are optimized for STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) reasoning.
Performance Improvements:
o3-mini (with medium reasoning effort) matches o1-mini's performance in math, coding, and science, but delivers faster responses.
Expert evaluations indicate that o3-mini produces more accurate and clearer answers, with stronger reasoning abilities.
Testers preferred o3-mini's responses 56% of the time.
o3-mini showed a 39% reduction in major errors on difficult real-world questions.
Open AI o3 mini vs DeepSeek R1
Although the team has not published any direct comparisons, some recent benchmarks suggest that OpenAI-o3-mini-high may be outperforming DeepSeek-R1.
Advanced Evaluations:
With medium reasoning effort, o3-mini matches the performance of o1 on some of the most challenging reasoning and intelligence evaluations, including AIME and GPQA.
Accuracy and Clarity:
o3-mini provides more accurate and clearer answers than o1-mini.
Speed:
o3-mini offers faster response times compared to o1-mini.
Safety
A key technique used to train OpenAI o3-mini for safe responses is deliberative alignment. This approach involved training the model to consider human-written safety specifications before responding to user prompts. Similar to OpenAI o1, it was observed that o3-mini significantly outperforms GPT-4o in challenging safety and jailbreak tests. Before deployment, the safety risks of o3-mini were thoroughly evaluated, using the same methods of preparedness, external red-teaming, and safety assessments as were applied to o1. The safety testers who participated in the early access testing of o3-mini are appreciated. Further details of the evaluations, along with an in-depth explanation of potential risks and the effectiveness of the mitigation strategies, can be found in the o3-mini system card.
How to Access to Open AI o3 mini
OpenAI's o3 mini model isn’t available for free testing right now. If you want to try it out, you'll need to subscribe to OpenAI's Plus plan.
No subscription? No problem! You can still check out o3 Mini from your free account. Just click "Reason" in the message textbox or regenerate a response. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman confirmed in a post on X that free users have access.
Conclusion
OpenAI has been constantly improving its models, and we think that’s a great thing! If you want to learn more about o3 Mini, check out OpenAI’s official website.

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