GPT-3.5 Turbo Instruct
$1.50 per 1M input tokens and $2.00 per 1M output tokens · 4K context · JSON.
Prices checked Oct 21, 2026 · tracked by LLM Cost Index since Oct 21, 2026
$1.50
input / 1M tokens
$2.00
output / 1M tokens
4K
context window
4K
max output
What GPT-3.5 Turbo Instruct costs per month
Estimated monthly bill for typical workloads. Try your own numbers in the cost calculator.
| Workload | Per month |
|---|---|
| Customer chatbot 1,000 conversations a day, 8 turns each | $708 |
| Document Q&A (RAG) 500 questions a day over retrieved documents | $150 |
| Coding / tool-using agent 200 tasks a day, long tool-heavy contexts | $588 |
| Content generation 30 long articles a day | $8.55 |
| Classification / extraction 100,000 short items a day | $1,440 |
Price history
We started tracking GPT-3.5 Turbo Instruct on Oct 21, 2026; the chart appears as soon as there is a second data point. See all recent price changes.
Cheaper alternatives to GPT-3.5 Turbo Instruct
Models with the same structured output for at least 20% less (3:1 input/output mix), most capable first.
| Model | Input / 1M | Output / 1M | Context | Capabilities |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| MiMo-V2.6-Pro Xiaomi | $0.435 | $0.87 | 1.05M | visionaudiotoolsreasoningJSONopen weights |
| GLM 5.3 Z.ai | $0.079 | $1.40 | 1.05M | toolsreasoningJSONopen weights |
| Claude Haiku 5.5 Anthropic | $0.10 | $0.50 | 1M | visiontoolsreasoningJSON |
| GLM 5.3 Flash Z.ai | $0.041 | $0.12 | 1.05M | visiontoolsreasoningJSONopen weights |
| Ling 3.1 Flash inclusionAI | $0.075 | $0.225 | 262K | toolsreasoningJSON |
How to pay less for GPT-3.5 Turbo Instruct
For a customer chatbot (1,000 conversations a day, 8 turns each) that costs $708 a month at list price without caching:
| Option | Per month | You save |
|---|---|---|
| Move to MiMo-V2.6-Pro (similar capabilities) | $136 | $572 (81%) |
Other workloads: cut-your-bill tool for GPT-3.5 Turbo Instruct.
Specifications
| Model ID | openai/gpt-3.5-turbo-instruct |
| Input | text |
| Output | text |
| Tool calling | No |
| Structured output | Yes |
| Reasoning mode | No |
| Open weights | No |
| Knowledge cutoff | 2021-09-30 |
| Released | Sep 28, 2023 |
FAQ
- How much does GPT-3.5 Turbo Instruct cost?
- $1.50 per million input tokens and $2.00 per million output tokens. Prices as of Oct 21, 2026.
- What is the context window of GPT-3.5 Turbo Instruct?
- 4K tokens, with up to 4K output tokens per response.
- Does GPT-3.5 Turbo Instruct support images, tools and structured output?
- Images as input: no. Tool calling: no. Structured (JSON) output: yes. Reasoning mode: no.
- What are cheaper alternatives to GPT-3.5 Turbo Instruct?
- Models with the same key capabilities for at least 20% less include MiMo-V2.6-Pro ($0.435 / $0.87), GLM 5.3 ($0.079 / $1.40), Claude Haiku 5.5 ($0.10 / $0.50).
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