Current as of March 2026. O1 Mini is the cheaper, narrower version of O1: same reasoning architecture, smaller knowledge base, lower price. $1.10/$4.40 per million tokens gets you the chain-of-thought reasoning pass without paying $15/$60. The tradeoff is that it really only excels at math and code — general knowledge questions often get poor answers.
Specs
| Provider | OpenAI |
| Input cost | $1.10 / M tokens |
| Output cost | $4.40 / M tokens |
| Context window | 128K tokens |
| Max output | 66K tokens |
| Parameters | N/A |
| Features | vision |
What it’s good at
Logic and Math at a Reasonable Price
It beats GPT-4o on coding and math benchmarks without the O1 price tag. For problems in those domains, it punches above its weight.
66K Output
More than enough for a full code module. The output ceiling rarely causes problems for the tasks it handles well.
Where it falls short
Narrow Knowledge Base
Ask it about history, current events, or anything outside technical domains and the answers degrade. It’s not a general-purpose model.
System Prompt Handling
The O-series architecture treats instructions differently from standard chat models. Complex system-level constraints often get ignored. Test this carefully before deploying.
Best use cases with OpenClaw
- Complex Debugging — Tracing logic errors across multiple files, identifying why an edge case breaks. The reasoning phase catches things GPT-4o-mini misses.
- Mathematical Code — Symbolic math, algorithm correctness, proof-adjacent problems. This is what the model was shaped for.
Not ideal for
- Text Summarization — Seven times more expensive than GPT-4o-mini for tasks that don’t need reasoning.
- Creative Writing — Sterile output. The focus on instruction following leaves no room for style.
Run it through Haimaker
Skip juggling API keys. One Haimaker key gives you access to every model on the platform. Tell OpenClaw:
Add Haimaker as a custom provider to my OpenClaw config. Use these details:
- Provider name: haimaker
- Base URL: https://api.haimaker.ai/v1
- API key: [PASTE YOUR HAIMAKER API KEY HERE]
- API type: openai-completions
Add the auto-router model:
- haimaker/auto (reasoning: false, context: 128000, max tokens: 32000)
Create an alias "auto" for easy switching. Apply the config when done.
Or skip model selection entirely — Haimaker’s auto-router picks the best model for each task so you don’t have to.
OpenClaw setup
Since OpenClaw has native OpenAI support, you only need to set the OPENAI_API_KEY environment variable. No custom provider configuration or base URL overrides are necessary for standard deployment.
export OPENAI_API_KEY="your-key-here"
That’s it. OpenClaw picks up OpenAI models automatically.
How it compares
- vs Full O1 — O1 has broader knowledge and handles more problem types. O1 Mini is for technical tasks only.
- vs GPT-4o-mini — 4o-mini is $0.15/M and good at general tasks. O1 Mini costs 7x more but is notably better at hard logic and math problems.
Bottom line
Use O1 Mini when GPT-4o-mini fails on a technical reasoning problem. Don’t pay the $1.10/M premium for anything that doesn’t actually require the reasoning pass.
For setup instructions, see our API key guide. For all available models, see the complete models guide.