As of Feb 2026, OpenAI remains the default choice for 90% of developers, but the strategy has shifted. You should be building on **o3-mini** for logic/code (it's cheaper and smarter than GPT-4o) and **GPT-5** for general context. Avoid the **o1-pro** model unless you are solving novel physics problems or enjoy burning venture capital—it costs 100x more than standard models. The 'Batch API' is a hidden gem for non-urgent workloads, offering 50% off.
