OpenAI's 2025 Pricing: Transparent, Modular, and Ready for AgentKit
Usage-based, modular, and finally clear — including how AgentKit bills for compute, data, and storage.
OpenAI's 2025 pricing overhaul finally gives developers a clear view of what building intelligent systems costs — from text and image generation to real-time audio, video, and fine-tuning. For the first time, it also clarifies AgentKit billing: you pay only for compute, data, and storage, with no flat subscription or hidden agent fee.
AgentKit billing starts November 1, 2025
Following a free launch period, AgentKit's billing officially begins on November 1, 2025. During the free window, anyone can build, deploy, and optimize agents using Agent Builder, ChatKit, and Evals at no charge. After that, pricing stays usage-based — with free tiers such as 1 GB of ChatKit file/image storage per account, and only $0.10 per GB-day beyond that.
Text tokens (per 1M tokens)
| Model | Input | Cached input | Output |
|---|---|---|---|
| gpt-5 | $1.25 | $0.125 | $10.00 |
| gpt-5-mini | $0.25 | $0.025 | $2.00 |
| gpt-4.1 | $2.00 | $0.50 | $8.00 |
| gpt-4o | $2.50 | $1.25 | $10.00 |
| gpt-4o-mini | $0.15 | $0.075 | $0.60 |
| o3 | $2.00 | $0.50 | $8.00 |
| o4-mini | $1.10 | $0.275 | $4.40 |
Batch and Flex tiers offer additional discounts for non-urgent requests.
Image, audio, and video
Image generation runs $10/1M input and $40/1M output tokens for gpt-image-1 (a mini tier is cheaper). Audio sits at $40/1M input and $80/1M output for gpt-audio, with transcription priced per minute. Video via sora-2 starts at $0.10 per second of 720p, rising to $0.30–$0.50 for sora-2-pro at higher resolutions.
Built-in tools and AgentKit
| Tool | Cost |
|---|---|
| Code Interpreter | $0.03 / container |
| File Search Storage | $0.10 / GB per day (1 GB free) |
| Web Search | $10.00 / 1k calls + token costs |
| ChatKit file / image storage | 1 GB free, then $0.10 / GB-day |
Embeddings start at $0.02/1M tokens for text-embedding-3-small, and moderation models remain free of charge.
Why it matters
This modular, transparent structure mirrors OpenAI's general API model: hobbyists can start small while enterprises scale without unpredictable costs. The usage-based AgentKit approach — pay for what you use, generous free tiers — lowers the barrier to building production agents considerably.
Pricing reflects OpenAI's published figures as of October 2025 and is subject to change; always confirm against the official pricing page before budgeting.
Frequently asked questions
November 1, 2025. Before that, building, deploying, and optimizing agents with Agent Builder, ChatKit, and Evals is free.
Usage-based — you pay for compute, data, and storage, with no flat agent fee. ChatKit file/image storage includes 1 GB free, then $0.10 per GB-day.
Yes. OpenAI's moderation models remain free of charge.