GPT-3.5 Turbo alternatives
Match · Updated July 2026
The closest alternative to GPT-3.5 Turbo is Claude 3 Haiku — comparable intelligence (3.9 vs 3.6); for a cheaper option, MiniMax M3 runs $0.300/M vs $0.500/M; and the best open-weight substitute is Kimi K3.
Closest match
Cheaper alternatives
minimax-m3
$0.300/M input · 44.4 intel
minimax-m3:batch
$0.150/M input · 44.4 intel
deepseek-v4-pro
$0.435/M input · 44.3 intel
mimo-v2.5-pro
$0.435/M input · 42.2 intel
hy3
$0.132/M input · 41.2 intel
nex-n2-pro
$0.250/M input · 41.0 intel
Smarter alternatives
Open-source alternatives
kimi-k3
57.1 intel · open weights · 1.0M ctx
glm-5.2
51.1 intel · open weights · 1.0M ctx
minimax-m3
44.4 intel · open weights · 1.0M ctx
minimax-m3:batch
44.4 intel · open weights · 524K ctx
deepseek-v4-pro
44.3 intel · open weights · 1.0M ctx
kimi-k2.6
44.2 intel · open weights · 262K ctx
Frequently asked
What is the best alternative to GPT-3.5 Turbo?
Claude 3 Haiku is the closest alternative to GPT-3.5 Turbo, with an Intelligence Index of 3.9 (GPT-3.5 Turbo scores 3.6) at $0.250 per million input tokens.
Is there a cheaper alternative to GPT-3.5 Turbo?
Yes — MiniMax M3 costs $0.300 per million input tokens versus $0.500 for GPT-3.5 Turbo, while staying within ~8 points of its Intelligence Index.
Is there an open-source alternative to GPT-3.5 Turbo?
Kimi K3 is the strongest open-weight alternative to GPT-3.5 Turbo — downloadable from Hugging Face and self-hostable, scoring 57.1 on intelligence.