GPT-4o Mini vs Groq Llama 3.3 Cost (2026)

Part of the guide: Local Marketing Strategy

June 13, 2026·Nataliia· 9 min read All posts

Which is cheaper, GPT-4o Mini or Groq Llama 3.3 70B? On list prices GPT-4o Mini is cheaper per token: $0.15 input and $0.60 output per million tokens on OpenAI, against $0.59 and $0.79 for Llama 3.3 70B on Groq (Groq figure from a secondary source). For a single-location business running a few hundred AI tasks a month, either costs pennies. One catch: Groq's deprecation page schedules llama-3.3-70b-versatile for shutdown on August 16, 2026 for free and developer-tier usage.

$0.15→

GPT-4o Mini, input per 1M tokens

OpenAI model page

$0.60→

GPT-4o Mini, output per 1M tokens

OpenAI model page

$0.59→

Groq Llama 3.3 70B, input per 1M tokens (secondary)

Trevor Fox calculator, July 2026

$0.79→

Groq Llama 3.3 70B, output per 1M tokens (secondary)

Trevor Fox calculator, July 2026

Estimates for illustration; actual numbers vary.

What do the two models cost and offer?

GPT-4o Mini (OpenAI). OpenAI's model page lists a 128,000-token context window, up to 16,384 output tokens, text and image input, function calling and structured outputs. Pricing is $0.15 per million input tokens and $0.60 per million output tokens (OpenAI).

Llama 3.3 70B (Groq). Groq's model page lists about 280 tokens per second, a 131,072-token context window, text-only input and output, tool use and JSON object mode (Groq). Groq's models page shows no public per-token price for it, only "contact sales" and an Enterprise tag (Groq models). The $0.59 and $0.79 per million figures come from a third-party calculator that says it copied them from Groq's pricing page and verified them on July 24, 2026 (Trevor Fox, secondary). Check Groq's console before relying on them.

OpenAI's pricing page (openai.com/api/pricing) returned a 403 error when opened for this article, so OpenAI prices rest on the model page above.

Is Groq Llama 3.3 70B still available?

Groq's deprecations page lists llama-3.3-70b-versatile with a shutdown date of 08/16/26 and suggests openai/gpt-oss-120b or qwen/qwen3.6-27b instead. The page says users were emailed on June 17, 2026, and that the deprecation applies to free and developer-tier usage, not to enterprise customers with committed-spend contracts (Groq deprecations).

So a small business starting today should treat this comparison as a method for pricing any pair of models, not as a recommendation to build on Llama 3.3 70B. Re-check the current model list and prices at the time you build. OpenAI's deprecations page does not list the base gpt-4o-mini model as deprecated, though it does list several variants such as the search-preview and transcribe versions (OpenAI deprecations).

How much would a small business actually pay?

Every input below is an assumption about a hypothetical café, not measured usage. The token counts are round numbers chosen to show the method.

Task	Requests per month (assumption)	Input tokens each (assumption)	Output tokens each (assumption)	Total input	Total output
Review replies	100	60	80	6,000	8,000
Email responses	50	200	150	10,000	7,500
Social captions	30	100	120	3,000	3,600
Total	180			19,000	19,100

Cost on GPT-4o Mini: 19,000 x ($0.15 / 1,000,000) = $0.003 for input, and 19,100 x ($0.60 / 1,000,000) = $0.011 for output. The total is about $0.014 a month.

Cost on Groq Llama 3.3 70B at the secondary-source prices: 19,000 x ($0.59 / 1,000,000) = $0.011 for input, and 19,100 x ($0.79 / 1,000,000) = $0.015 for output. The total is about $0.026 a month.

At this volume both are effectively free. Scale the same assumptions to 10,000 review replies a month (600,000 input and 800,000 output tokens) and GPT-4o Mini comes to about $0.57, while Groq at the secondary-source prices comes to about $0.99. Your real decision is about capability and reliability, not price.

Which one is faster?

Groq publishes about 280 tokens per second for Llama 3.3 70B. This article does not give an OpenAI speed figure, because none was confirmed on OpenAI's model page, and speed also varies with load. For a website chatbot where a customer waits on screen, test both on your own prompts. For overnight batch work such as drafting next week's captions, speed does not matter.

When does GPT-4o Mini fit better?

Choose GPT-4o Mini when the task needs one of the things OpenAI's page lists and Groq's Llama page does not:

Image input. GPT-4o Mini accepts images; the Groq Llama 3.3 70B page lists text only.
Structured outputs. OpenAI lists structured outputs as supported; Groq's page lists JSON object mode.
Ecosystem fit. Check whether your automation tool already has an OpenAI connection before you add a second provider.

How should you pick a model in 2026?

List your tasks and estimate tokens, as in the table above.
Price them on each provider's current page, and prefer primary sources.
Check the provider's deprecations page, as the Groq example shows.
Test five real prompts on each model and keep the one your staff would send without editing.

For a router across providers, see our OpenRouter guide, and for a free local option see Ollama for small business.

FAQ

Is GPT-4o Mini cheaper than Groq Llama 3.3 70B?

On list prices, yes: $0.15 and $0.60 per million tokens on OpenAI, against $0.59 and $0.79 for Groq per a secondary source. At a few hundred requests a month the gap is about a cent.

Is Groq Llama 3.3 70B being shut down?

Groq's deprecations page lists a shutdown date of August 16, 2026 for free and developer-tier usage, with openai/gpt-oss-120b or qwen/qwen3.6-27b as suggested replacements. Enterprise customers with committed-spend contracts are excluded.

Does GPT-4o Mini support images?

Yes. OpenAI's model page lists text and image input with text output.

What is Groq's free tier limit?

This article could not confirm current free-tier limits for Llama 3.3 70B, because Groq's rate-limits page does not list that model. Check the Limits page in your Groq console.

Which should a café or salon use?

Use whichever model is currently available and passes your own prompt test. At this volume the cost is a few cents a month either way.

Sources

OpenAI: GPT-4o mini model page
OpenAI: Deprecations
Groq: Llama 3.3 70B model page
Groq: Supported models
Groq: Deprecations
Trevor Fox: Groq Llama 3.3 70B cost calculator (secondary source for Groq per-token prices)

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Nataliia

Local marketing strategist with 10+ years at global agencies — OMD, Dentsu, GroupM, and BBDO. Now helping small businesses get the same data-driven edge. Based in Europe, working with clients in the US, UK, Australia, and beyond.

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GPT-4o Mini vs Groq Llama 3.3 Cost (2026)

What do the two models cost and offer?

Is Groq Llama 3.3 70B still available?

How much would a small business actually pay?

Which one is faster?

When does GPT-4o Mini fit better?

How should you pick a model in 2026?

FAQ

Is GPT-4o Mini cheaper than Groq Llama 3.3 70B?

Is Groq Llama 3.3 70B being shut down?

Does GPT-4o Mini support images?

What is Groq's free tier limit?

Which should a café or salon use?

Sources

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