API cost decision in 10 seconds

Relace Search vs GPT-5.1-Codex-Mini

Pick GPT-5.1-Codex-Mini when budget and context both matter.

Pricing data updated: 2026-05-26T11:08:00Z Prices normalized to USD per 1M tokens Sample workload: 1M input + 500K output

Budget verdict

Pick GPT-5.1-Codex-Mini when budget and context both matter.

On the standard 1M input plus 500K output workload, GPT-5.1-Codex-Mini is estimated at $1.25 vs $2.5 for Relace Search, saving $1.25 (50% lower).

Cost-first pickGPT-5.1-Codex-Mini

Context-first pickGPT-5.1-Codex-Mini

Sample savings$1.2550%

10x traffic gap$12.5

GPT-5.1-Codex-Mini is cheaper on the standard workload and also has the larger context window. At 10x that traffic, the same price gap is about $12.5. Use the calculator below to replace the sample workload with your own token volume.

Cost sensitivity

Workload Sensitivity

Same prices, different token mixes.

GPT-5.1-Codex-Mini stays cheaper across input-heavy, balanced, and output-heavy sample workloads.

Workload shape	Token mix	Better pick	Relace Search	GPT-5.1-Codex-Mini
Input-heavy / RAG	5M input + 500K output	GPT-5.1-Codex-Mini	$6.5	$2.25
Balanced workload	1M input + 1M output	GPT-5.1-Codex-Mini	$4	$2.25
Output-heavy chatbot	1M input + 5M output	GPT-5.1-Codex-Mini	$16	$10.25

Cheaper input GPT-5.1-Codex-Mini $1 vs $0.25 / 1M

GPT-5.1-Codex-Mini is $0.75 cheaper per 1M input tokens (75% lower; 4x difference).

Cheaper output GPT-5.1-Codex-Mini $3 vs $2 / 1M

GPT-5.1-Codex-Mini is $1 cheaper per 1M output tokens (33.3% lower; 1.5x difference).

Larger context GPT-5.1-Codex-Mini 256K vs 400K

GPT-5.1-Codex-Mini has 144K more context (1.56x larger).

Sample workload GPT-5.1-Codex-Mini $2.5 vs $1.25

GPT-5.1-Codex-Mini is $1.25 cheaper on the standard workload (50% lower).

Estimate your workload cost

Your Workload Cost

Prices are normalized to USD per 1M tokens.

Monthly input tokens Monthly output tokens

Relace Search Calculating… Estimated API cost

GPT-5.1-Codex-Mini Calculating… Estimated API cost

Cheaper for this workload Calculating… Difference: calculating…

This estimate uses normalized public API pricing per 1M tokens. It is a planning aid, not a billing quote. Verify provider pricing, limits, and terms before production use.

Quick Decision

Verdict

GPT-5.1-Codex-Mini has the lower input price; GPT-5.1-Codex-Mini has the lower output price; GPT-5.1-Codex-Mini offers the larger context window. For the 1M input plus 500K output sample, GPT-5.1-Codex-Mini is cheaper for the standard workload.

For a 1M input token plus 500K output token workload, the estimated API cost is $2.5 for Relace Search and $1.25 for GPT-5.1-Codex-Mini.

Best Fit

Choose Relace Search when its provider, model quality, latency, or availability is more important than the numeric price/context winner.

Choose GPT-5.1-Codex-Mini when you care most about lower input-token price, lower output-token price, and larger context window.

Decision Notes

On the standard 1M input plus 500K output workload, GPT-5.1-Codex-Mini is estimated at $1.25 vs $2.5 for Relace Search, saving $1.25 (50% lower).
GPT-5.1-Codex-Mini is $1.25 cheaper on the standard workload (50% lower).
GPT-5.1-Codex-Mini is $0.75 cheaper per 1M input tokens (75% lower; 4x difference).
GPT-5.1-Codex-Mini is $1 cheaper per 1M output tokens (33.3% lower; 1.5x difference).
GPT-5.1-Codex-Mini has 144K more context (1.56x larger).

Head-to-Head Specs

Feature	Relace Search (Relace)	GPT-5.1-Codex-Mini (OpenAI)
Input Price prompt tokens per 1M	$1	$0.25
Completion Price per 1M tokens	$3	$2
Sample Workload Cost 1M input + 500K output	$2.5	$1.25
Context Window	256K	400K
Release Date	2025-12-08	2025-11-13

Use-Case Decision Matrix

Use case	Better pick	Why
Budget-constrained production	GPT-5.1-Codex-Mini	On the standard 1M input plus 500K output workload, GPT-5.1-Codex-Mini is estimated at $1.25 vs $2.5 for Relace Search, saving $1.25 (50% lower).
High-volume input processing	GPT-5.1-Codex-Mini	Lower prompt-token price matters most when prompts, retrieved passages, or documents dominate the bill.
Long responses and chatbots	GPT-5.1-Codex-Mini	Lower output-token price matters most when assistants generate many completion tokens.
RAG or long-document work	GPT-5.1-Codex-Mini	A larger context window leaves more room for retrieved passages, conversation history, or source files.

Related Alternatives

Same-provider lower-cost swaps

Relace Apply 3 can replace Relace Search when lower sample workload cost matters most: $1.48.
gpt-oss-120b (free) can replace GPT-5.1-Codex-Mini when lower sample workload cost matters most: $0.
gpt-oss-20b (free) can replace GPT-5.1-Codex-Mini when lower sample workload cost matters most: $0.
gpt-oss-20b can replace GPT-5.1-Codex-Mini when lower sample workload cost matters most: $0.1.

Larger context near this budget

Llama 4 Scout offers 10M context with $0.23 sample workload cost.
Grok 4.20 offers 2M context with $2.5 sample workload cost.
Owl Alpha offers 1.05M context with $0 sample workload cost.
Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite offers 1.05M context with $1 sample workload cost.

Popular competitors

No popular competitor is currently available.

Cheaper alternatives

Review low-cost models sorted by a standard 1M input plus 500K output workload.

Open cheapest models

Larger context alternatives

Find models with larger context windows for RAG, long documents, and codebase review.

Open largest context models

Provider catalogs

Compare models within provider hubs before choosing a final API vendor.

Open provider hubs

Relace catalog

Review all tracked Relace models before deciding whether this matchup is the right shortlist.

Open Relace models

OpenAI catalog

Check other OpenAI models with comparable pricing, context, or release timing.

Open OpenAI models

Relace Search

The relace-search model uses 4-12 `view_file` and `grep` tools in parallel to explore a codebase and return relevant files to the user request. In contrast to RAG, relace-search performs agentic...

GPT-5.1-Codex-Mini

GPT-5.1-Codex-Mini is a smaller and faster version of GPT-5.1-Codex