Model index · Text · text generation · standard · OpenAI · released 2023-09-28
GPT-3.5 Turbo Instruct pricing
Served by 2 providers from $1.63 to $1.63 per 1M tokens on the standard tier.
This model is a variant of GPT-3.5 Turbo tuned for instructional prompts and omitting chat-related optimizations. Training data: up to Sep 2021.
OpenAI · first published 2023-09-28 · Text model · text generation · 4k context · description as published by the source, not written by us
$1.63
Cheapest standard /1M — OpenAI
4k
Native context window
2
Providers serving it
—
Quality not measured yet
Quality not measured yet
We measure models on request rather than pre-scoring the whole catalog, so this one has no score yet. Absence of a score is not a low score.
Every provider and service tier
Standard on-demand rows first, cheapest of each group first. Tiers are not interchangeable — see the note below the table.
| Provider | In /1M | Out /1M | Blended /1M | Tier | Region | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| OpenAI cheapest standard | $1.50 | $2.00 | $1.63 | standard | — | third_party |
| OpenRouter (default route) * resells other hosts | $1.50 | $2.00 | $1.63 | standard | — | provider_api |
* OpenRouter chooses a host for each request, and the figure above is what its default choice costs — not a fixed rate for this model. Selecting a specific host through the same account costs whatever that host charges, which is why this row can sit above or below the hosts listed beside it. Token rates are passed through from the underlying provider with no markup, so the per-1M price above is what that host charges directly — OpenRouter's own charge sits on funding instead: 5.5% (min $0.80) by Stripe or 5% by Coinbase to buy credits, 5% of the equivalent spend if you bring your own provider key. So budget about 5% above the rate shown unless you already hold credit. Fee schedule.
Compare GPT-3.5 Turbo Instruct with alternatives
One model per vendor, ordered by how prominent the vendor is and how many independent providers serve the model — hosts only carry what customers ask for, so that is a real demand signal. This is not traffic or popularity data, which we do not have. Every alternative below does the same job — text generation — because a price comparison between a generator and, say, an upscaler is arithmetic rather than advice. Prices on both sides are standard on-demand rates, so the comparison is like for like — a discounted batch or flex rate is never shown against another model’s standard rate.
| Alternative | Vendor | $/1M | vs GPT-3.5 Turbo Instruct | Quality | Kind | Context | Hosts |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Qwen2.5 72B Instruct | Alibaba | $0.3700 DeepInfra | 77% cheaper | not measured | standard open weights | 33k | 5 |
| Llama 3 8B Lunaris | Sao10K | $0.0425 OpenRouter (default route) | 97% cheaper | not measured | standard | 8k | 3 |
| Gemma 2 27B | $0.2700 DeepInfra | 83% cheaper | not measured | standard open weights | 8k | 2 | |
| ReMM SLERP 13B | Undi95 | $0.5000 OpenRouter (default route) | 69% cheaper | not measured | standard open weights | 6k | 2 |
| Saba | Mistral | $0.3000 Mistral | 82% cheaper | not measured | standard | 33k | 1 |
| Magnum v4 72B | Anthracite ORG | $3.50 OpenRouter (default route) | 115% dearer | not measured | standard open weights | 16k | 1 |
| R1 Distill Llama 70B | DeepSeek | $0.8000 OpenRouter (default route) | 51% cheaper | not measured | reasoning open weights | 8k | 2 |
| Perceptron Mk1 | Perceptron | $0.4875 Perceptron | 70% cheaper | not measured | reasoning | 33k | 1 |
Prices are the cheapest host for each model, blended at a 3:1 input:output ratio. "Quality" is our own probe suite where we have run it — see what it measures. A cheaper alternative is only a real saving if it also passes on the capability your workload needs.
7 of these alternatives cost less than GPT-3.5 Turbo Instruct — the cheapest being Llama 3 8B Lunaris at $0.0425 per 1M tokens blended (97% cheaper).
Cheaper is not automatically better: check the quality column, and confirm the context window and capabilities your workload depends on before switching.
Before you switch
Identical weights do not guarantee identical output. Check that the cheaper host serves the model at full precision rather than a quantised copy, that its context window matches what you need, and that its rate limits carry your peak traffic. A cheaper host that cannot take your throughput is not cheaper — it is an outage.
Move to OpenAI without a rewrite
VernaOne fronts every provider on this page with one API, so switching host is a config change — with automatic fallback if quality or latency regresses.
Try VernaOne free →Frequently asked
How much does GPT-3.5 Turbo Instruct cost?
The cheapest standard-tier provider is OpenAI at $1.63 per 1M tokens blended (3:1 input:output). Prices change often; verify with the provider before budgeting.
Which provider is best for GPT-3.5 Turbo Instruct?
Cheapest is not automatically best. Compare quantisation (a lossy copy of the weights changes output), the context window each host actually serves, and rate limits. Where a provider serves less context than the model's native window we flag it in the table above.
Can I switch providers for GPT-3.5 Turbo Instruct without changing code?
Yes, if you route through an abstraction. VernaOne exposes one API across every provider listed here, so switching host is a config change and you keep automatic fallback if the new one degrades.
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