TL;DR — GPT-5.5 doubles GPT-5.4 on both sides ($5/$30 vs $2.50/$15) — OpenAI's ladder is a clean 2× step. Every number below is from our weekly-verified pricing tracker (verified 2026-08-26).
Pricing side by side (per 1M tokens, USD)
| Model | Provider | Input | Output | |-------|----------|-------|--------| | GPT-5.5 | OpenAI | $5 | $30 | | GPT-5.4 | OpenAI | $2.5 | $15 |
Verified 2026-08-26 against official rate cards — the tracker keeps the change log.
What a real month costs
At a standard workload of 10M input + 2M output tokens/month:
- GPT-5.5: $110.00
- GPT-5.4: $55.00
On this mix, GPT-5.4 is the cheaper column (2.0× gap). Your ratio will differ — run your own mix through the LLM cost calculator.
Choose GPT-5.5 if
you need OpenAI's top tier for the hardest calls and can keep its share of traffic small — 2× on 10% of requests is a 10% budget bump, not a doubling.
Choose GPT-5.4 if
GPT-5.4 already clears your quality bar — at half price it is OpenAI's workhorse, and most workloads route the majority of traffic here.
Routing decision card
- GPT-5.4 default, GPT-5.5 escalation — mirror of the Anthropic two-rung pattern
- Because the ratio is a flat 2×, escalation share maps linearly to budget: cap it by percentage and the bill is predictable
- Cached-input discounts apply on OpenAI — keep system prompts stable to collect them
- The router answer: most teams shouldn't hard-pick one — ClawRouters routes each request to whichever side fits it, so the comparison becomes a per-call decision instead of a bet.
Part of the LLM model comparison index. Prices move fast in 2026 — the tracker logs every change with dates.