OpenAI: GPT-3.5 Turbo Instruct
Analysis Summary
GPT-3.5 Turbo Instruct is an older completion-focused model with a 4K context window and no listed tool use, function calling, or vision support. It can produce short-form text and follow simple completion patterns, but the available data provides no benchmark evidence of advanced reasoning, coding, or agentic performance.
Its practical use is limited to legacy prompts, basic rewriting, and small-scale text transformation where integration already exists. The short context also restricts document handling and multi-step instructions. For a new client workflow, a current low-cost model with structured outputs, tools, or a larger context window would be a more suitable default.
Assessed September 7, 2026
Editorial notes
GPT-3.5 Turbo Instruct supports basic text completion at a moderate price, but its short context window, lack of listed tool support, and limited reasoning make it a poor choice for new production workflows.
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DFO Verdict
GPT-3.5 Turbo Instruct supports basic text completion at a moderate price, but its short context window, lack of listed tool support, and limited reasoning make it a poor choice for new production workflows.
How OpenAI: GPT-3.5 Turbo Instruct compares
Its 4K-token context window is larger than 16% of the models we list. At $1.50 per million input tokens it is cheaper than 20% of comparable models.
Dark bar = input · light bar = output, scaled to the priciest peer.
1M tokens ≈ 8 full-length novels or ~2,500 pages of business documents in a single request.
Strongest on value. The pulled-in technical corner is the trade-off, and if the shape matters more than the price, this is your model.
Compare shapes side-by-side →Pricing
| Token Type | Cost per 1M tokens | Cost per 1K tokens |
|---|---|---|
| Input | $1.50 | $0.001500 |
| Output | $2.00 | $0.002000 |
What would OpenAI: GPT-3.5 Turbo Instruct cost your business?
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A website chatbot handling around 100 customer conversations a day, a few short messages each.
Full calculator with 779 models → Price Calculator
These numbers get smaller with the right architecture.
We route routine calls to cheap models and save OpenAI: GPT-3.5 Turbo Instruct for the hard ones. Most clients cut their estimate by 60-80%.
Talk to our teamAbout OpenAI: GPT-3.5 Turbo Instruct
This model is a variant of GPT-3.5 Turbo tuned for instructional prompts and omitting chat-related optimizations. Training data: up to Sep 2021.
Frequently asked questions about OpenAI: GPT-3.5 Turbo Instruct
How much does OpenAI: GPT-3.5 Turbo Instruct cost?
OpenAI: GPT-3.5 Turbo Instruct costs $1.50 per million input tokens and $2.00 per million output tokens.
What is the context window of OpenAI: GPT-3.5 Turbo Instruct?
OpenAI: GPT-3.5 Turbo Instruct has a context window of 4,095 tokens (4K).
Who created OpenAI: GPT-3.5 Turbo Instruct?
OpenAI: GPT-3.5 Turbo Instruct is developed by OpenAI and was released on September 28, 2023.