OpenAI · model
GPT-3.5 Turbo Instruct
$1.50/1M in · $2.00/1M out · 4K context. That's cheaper than 40% of the 298 models we track, by output price. Here's what it costs, how its price has moved, and where it fits.
- Context
- 4K
- Input / 1M
- $1.50
- Output / 1M
- $2.00
- Modality
- Text only
- Provider
- OpenAI
- Tokenizer
- GPT
Snapshot · source: provider list ↗ · how we measure →
For 1,500 input + 500 output tokens across 200,000 requests/month. That's 108× the cheapest tracked option (Ling-2.6-flash, $6.00/mo).
Flat at $2.00 since tracking began 2026-06-14. Full history →
Where it fits
- A mid-range option — $1.50 in / $2.00 out per 1M with a 4K-token context.
Watch for
- Small 4K-token context — not for long documents or large codebases.
- Text-only — no image, audio, or file input.
These notes are derived from price, context and modality — structural facts, not measured quality. Measured cost-to-finish-a-task lives on the real-cost index.
Related models
How to read GPT-3.5 Turbo Instruct's pricing
Two numbers decide most of the bill: $1.50/1M for input (everything you send — prompt, context, attachments) and $2.00/1M for output (everything it generates, including hidden reasoning tokens). Output is priced 1.3× the input rate here, so the shape of your workload — how much it reads versus writes — matters as much as the headline figure. This is the provider's first-party list price, reconciled against the routed market each run.
Frequently asked questions
How much does GPT-3.5 Turbo Instruct cost per million tokens?
GPT-3.5 Turbo Instruct is priced at $1.50 per 1M input tokens and $2.00 per 1M output tokens (first-party list price) as of the 2026-06-15 snapshot. Output is the figure that usually drives the bill. Enter your own token volumes in the cost calculator for a monthly estimate.
What is GPT-3.5 Turbo Instruct's context window?
GPT-3.5 Turbo Instruct has a 4K-token context window — roughly 6 pages of text. Prompt, attachments, conversation and the model's own output all share that budget, and every token you send is billed at the input rate.
Related
- API cost calculator — your monthly cost for GPT-3.5 Turbo Instruct and every other model.
- Model comparison — the full sortable table.
- Price history — how token prices move over time.
- LLM pricing explained — input, output, cached and reasoning tokens.