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Vendor: OpenAI Model ID: gpt-5-5 Capability: 128K context · tool use · vision · streaming · structured output · reasoning_effort Pricing: per-token, flagship tier (live rate) GPT-5.5 is the current OpenAI flagship — the default for any new project on the platform. It’s the model that put native reasoning into the standard chat completions shape: same request body, same response shape, with reasoning_effort as an optional dial. For most production work the default "medium" setting is right; lift to "high" only on hard problems where Sonnet or 5.4-pro have left quality on the table.

Request

Body parameters

Response

reasoning_tokens billed at input-token rate.

Code examples

Reasoning effort

Pass "web_search": {} to give the model a built-in web search tool. The tool is billed per use (see pricing for current rate). Useful for fact-grounded tasks where the model would otherwise hallucinate or cite stale information.

Streaming + caching

"stream": true for SSE. With reasoning enabled, expect a longer TTFB. Automatic prompt caching on stable prefixes — the highest-leverage cost optimisation on this tier.

Errors

When to use

  • Default starting point for any new project on OpenAI.
  • Code generation in an existing codebase, schema / API design.
  • Multi-step plans, structured output where mid-tier models drift.
  • For mid-tier cost / latency, see GPT-5.4.

Limits