# GPT-4o mini

8 Hacker News commenters recommended GPT-4o mini and 2 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 5 of 13 months.

**Verdict:** Fast, cheap and capable for API work and simple conversation tasks, though critics find its writing generic and its answers sometimes wrong.

## Why people recommend it

- Cheap and fast for API use (3 comments): "The 4o-mini is super cheap and useful for a bunch of things I do" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46818063)) "It is a very capable model and very very fast and dirt cheap" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49450396)) "it's fast and accurate for API usage" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46821831))
- Better at repeated processing tasks (2 comments): "Give gpt-4o-mini the first pass context file and a section of the subtitles in a loop" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46131599)) "I have things running where 4o-mini does it considerably better repeatably." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48444421))
- Capable and useful across many tasks (2 comments): "The 4o-mini is super cheap and useful for a bunch of things I do" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46818063)) "It is a very capable model and very very fast and dirt cheap" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49450396))

## What people warn about

- Generic writing that misses humour (1 comments): "still felt rather generic, and certainly failed at twists and humour" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46808409))
- Gives wrong answers sometimes (1 comments): "ChatGPT 4o-mini, 5 mini and OSS 120B gave me wrong answers." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45915532))
- Overly cooperative in hostile settings (1 comments): "OpenAI's models remained highly cooperative, a trait that proved catastrophic in hostile environments" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49365795))

## Alternatives hackers recommend

- [Claude Opus](https://hackerapproved.com/p/claude-opus.md): 3331 recommend
- [OpenAI GPT](https://hackerapproved.com/p/gpt-5-5.md): 1205 recommend
- [Claude Sonnet](https://hackerapproved.com/p/claude-sonnet.md): 854 recommend
- [DeepSeek V4 Flash](https://hackerapproved.com/p/deepseek-v4-flash.md): 828 recommend
- [Fable](https://hackerapproved.com/p/fable.md): 823 recommend

## Where to get it

- [Visit the official site](https://developers.openai.com/api/docs/models/gpt-4o-mini)

## Cite as

Hacker Approved, "GPT-4o mini", https://hackerapproved.com/p/gpt-4o-mini/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).