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OpenAIvsParasail

OpenAI vs Parasail: Token Pricing, Speed & Intelligence

Full comparison of OpenAI and Parasail — live token pricing, latency, throughput, context window, strengths, weaknesses, and best use cases. Rates sourced from public APIs — verify before use.

OpenAI

GPT-6 Astra, GPT-5.6 Sol/Terra/Luna — plus image, voice, and realtime APIs

OpenAI's September 2026 API lineup spans GPT-6 Astra (flagship frontier), GPT-5.6 Sol (promotional), GPT-5.6 Terra (balanced), and GPT-5.6 Luna (everyday). Beyond text, the platform includes GPT-Image-2.5 (Sunburst and Flare), GPT-Live-1 voice, GPT-Realtime-2.1 for low-latency voice agents, and transcription/translation models. Batch API saves 50% on all models. Check the live table for current per-token rates.

CodingChatVisionReasoningAgentsVoiceImage generation
Proprietary models

Parasail

Serverless inference — Kimi K3, GLM-5.3, MiniMax M3, DeepSeek V4, Qwen3.5, Llama 4

Parasail is a serverless LLM inference platform offering a broad catalog of open-weight models including Kimi K3, Kimi K2.6, GLM-5.3, GLM-5.3 Flash, MiniMax M3, DeepSeek V4 Pro/Flash, Qwen3.5 397B-A17B, Qwen3 235B-A22B, Llama 4 Maverick, Llama 3.3 70B, Mistral Small 3.2 24B, MiMo v2.5, Gemma 4 31B, gpt-oss-120b, and gpt-oss-20b. Pricing is published at parasail.io/pricing.

Open-sourceCost-efficiencyReasoningChatCodingMultilingual
Open-weight hostHosts open weights

Key metric comparison

OpenAI
Parasail
Cheapest input ($/1M)

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Cheapest output ($/1M)

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Peak throughput

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Best latency (TTFT)

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Intelligence score

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Context window

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Live token pricing

Strengths and weaknesses

OpenAI

Wide API surface: text, image, voice, realtime, transcription, translation, web search, code execution
GPT-6 Astra at the frontier; GPT-5.6 Sol at promotional pricing
Prompt caching on all major models (10% of input price)
Batch API: 50% off all models for async workloads
Wide ecosystem — virtually every AI framework supports OpenAI natively
No open-weight models — full vendor lock-in
GPT-6 Astra output pricing is among the highest for frontier tier — check live table
Rate limits can be restrictive on lower tiers

Parasail

Broad open-weight model catalog: Kimi K3, GLM-5.3, MiniMax M3, DeepSeek V4, Qwen3.5, Llama 4
Competitive serverless pricing across all tiers
Kimi K3 and Kimi K2.6 availability — rare outside Chinese providers
gpt-oss-120b and gpt-oss-20b at competitive rates
OpenAI-compatible API
Newer platform — less battle-tested than Together AI or Fireworks
No proprietary frontier models
Smaller community and ecosystem

Key differentiators

OpenAI

A broad AI API platform — GPT-6 Astra to GPT-5.6 Luna covering multiple capability tiers, plus native image, voice, realtime, and transcription APIs under one key.

Parasail

One of the broadest serverless open-weight catalogs available — Kimi K3, GLM-5.3, MiniMax M3, DeepSeek V4, Qwen3.5, and Llama 4 Maverick at competitive per-token rates.

Frequently asked questions

OpenAI FAQs

What are the latest OpenAI models as of 2026?

OpenAI's current lineup includes GPT-6 Astra (flagship frontier), GPT-5.6 Sol (promotional), GPT-5.6 Terra (balanced), and GPT-5.6 Luna (everyday). The o-series reasoning models remain available for complex multi-step tasks. Check the live table or platform.openai.com/docs/pricing for current rates.

How much does the OpenAI API cost?

OpenAI uses tiered per-token pricing across its model lineup. The Batch API cuts all prices by 50% for async workloads, and prompt caching reduces input costs by 50% on eligible requests. Check platform.openai.com/docs/pricing for current rates.

Does OpenAI support prompt caching?

Yes. Prompt caching is available on GPT-6 Astra, GPT-5.6 Sol, and other major models. Cached input tokens are billed at 50% of the standard input price, making long-context and repeated-system-prompt workloads significantly cheaper.

Parasail FAQs

What is Parasail?

Parasail is a serverless LLM inference platform offering a broad catalog of open-weight models. See parasail.io/pricing for current rates and model availability.

What models does Parasail offer?

Parasail's catalog includes Kimi K3, Kimi K2.6, GLM-5.3, GLM-5.3 Flash, MiniMax M3, DeepSeek V4 Pro/Flash, Qwen3.5 397B-A17B, Qwen3 235B-A22B, Llama 4 Maverick, Llama 3.3 70B, Mistral Small 3.2 24B, MiMo v2.5, Gemma 4 31B, gpt-oss-120b, and gpt-oss-20b. See parasail.io/pricing for current rates.

How much does Parasail cost?

As of October 2026: Kimi K3 $3.00/$15.00, Kimi K2.6 $0.75/$3.50, GLM-5.3 $1.40/$4.40, GLM-5.3 Flash $0.15/$0.50, MiniMax M3 $0.30/$1.20, DeepSeek V4 Pro $1.74/$3.48, DeepSeek V4 Flash $0.14/$0.28. See parasail.io/pricing for current rates.

Provider resources

OpenAI

Provider page
Website
PricingDocs

Parasail

Provider page
Website
Pricing

OpenAI — GPT-6 Astra, GPT-5.6 Sol/Terra/Luna — plus image, voice, and realtime APIs

OpenAI's September 2026 API lineup spans GPT-6 Astra (flagship frontier), GPT-5.6 Sol (promotional), GPT-5.6 Terra (balanced), and GPT-5.6 Luna (everyday). Beyond text, the platform includes GPT-Image-2.5 (Sunburst and Flare), GPT-Live-1 voice, GPT-Realtime-2.1 for low-latency voice agents, and transcription/translation models. Batch API saves 50% on all models. Check the live table for current per-token rates.

A broad AI API platform — GPT-6 Astra to GPT-5.6 Luna covering multiple capability tiers, plus native image, voice, realtime, and transcription APIs under one key.

Parasail — Serverless inference — Kimi K3, GLM-5.3, MiniMax M3, DeepSeek V4, Qwen3.5, Llama 4

Parasail is a serverless LLM inference platform offering a broad catalog of open-weight models including Kimi K3, Kimi K2.6, GLM-5.3, GLM-5.3 Flash, MiniMax M3, DeepSeek V4 Pro/Flash, Qwen3.5 397B-A17B, Qwen3 235B-A22B, Llama 4 Maverick, Llama 3.3 70B, Mistral Small 3.2 24B, MiMo v2.5, Gemma 4 31B, gpt-oss-120b, and gpt-oss-20b. Pricing is published at parasail.io/pricing.

One of the broadest serverless open-weight catalogs available — Kimi K3, GLM-5.3, MiniMax M3, DeepSeek V4, Qwen3.5, and Llama 4 Maverick at competitive per-token rates.

Key strengths compared

OpenAI

  • Wide API surface: text, image, voice, realtime, transcription, translation, web search, code execution
  • GPT-6 Astra at the frontier; GPT-5.6 Sol at promotional pricing
  • Prompt caching on all major models (10% of input price)
  • No open-weight models — full vendor lock-in
  • GPT-6 Astra output pricing is among the highest for frontier tier — check live table

Parasail

  • Broad open-weight model catalog: Kimi K3, GLM-5.3, MiniMax M3, DeepSeek V4, Qwen3.5, Llama 4
  • Competitive serverless pricing across all tiers
  • Kimi K3 and Kimi K2.6 availability — rare outside Chinese providers
  • Newer platform — less battle-tested than Together AI or Fireworks
  • No proprietary frontier models

Key weaknesses compared

OpenAI

  • No open-weight models — full vendor lock-in
  • GPT-6 Astra output pricing is among the highest for frontier tier — check live table
  • Rate limits can be restrictive on lower tiers

Parasail

  • Newer platform — less battle-tested than Together AI or Fireworks
  • No proprietary frontier models
  • Smaller community and ecosystem

Provider category context

OpenAI is a frontier lab, founded in 2015. Parasail is a inference api, founded in 2023. OpenAI as a frontier lab trains and serves its own proprietary models. Parasail as an inference API provider hosts open-weight models — typically offering lower prices for equivalent capability tiers but without access to proprietary frontier models.

How to choose between them

Choose OpenAI if you need wide api surface: text, image, voice, realtime, transcription, translation, web search, code execution. Choose Parasail if you need broad open-weight model catalog: kimi k3, glm-5.3, minimax m3, deepseek v4, qwen3.5, llama 4. For high-volume production workloads, run a cost comparison using the token pricing table above with your actual prompt/completion token ratio — the cheapest provider depends heavily on your input-to-output token ratio.