Best AI Model for Customer Support Chatbot
Automated customer service, FAQ answering, ticket routing. Needs low latency, low cost, and reliable instruction following.
Our Verdict
GPT-4o Mini at $0.15/$0.60 is the default pick — fast, cheap, handles 90% of support queries. If you need tool-use (order lookups, account actions), Claude Haiku 4.5 at $0.80/$4 is the cheapest model with reliable tool calling. For premium support bots where quality matters more than cost, Claude Sonnet 4.6 is the best all-rounder. Don't use flagship models for support — you're burning money on capabilities you don't need.
Top Picks
Cheapest capable model with tool-use, fast responses
Best for: High-volume support at lowest cost
Input
$0.15/1M
Output
$0.6/1M
Context
128K
Max Output
16K
Reliable tool-use at budget pricing for order/account lookups
Best for: Support with API integrations
Input
$0.8/1M
Output
$4/1M
Context
200K
Max Output
8K
Premium quality for complex support interactions
Best for: High-touch customer experience
Input
$3/1M
Output
$15/1M
Context
200K
Max Output
16K
What Matters for Customer Support
Key Factors
- •Cost per query
- •Speed/latency
- •Instruction following
- •Tool-use
Tips
- ✓Budget models handle most support queries just fine
- ✓Cost per query matters — high volume means even $0.10 differences add up
- ✓Tool-use is critical for looking up orders, accounts, etc.
Full Ranking (All Compatible Models)
| Rank | Model | Input | Output | Avg Bench | Score |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| #1 | GPT-4o MiniOpenAI | $0.15 | $0.60 | 77.6% | 120 |
| #2 | Gemini 2.5 FlashGoogle | $0.15 | $0.60 | 82.8% | 112 |
| #3 | Claude Haiku 4.5Anthropic | $0.80 | $4.00 | 78.8% | 107 |
| #4 | Gemini 3 FlashGoogle | $0.50 | $3.00 | 84.0% | 104 |
| #5 | o3OpenAI | $0.40 | $1.60 | 86.9% | 100 |
| #6 | Claude Sonnet 4.6Anthropic | $3.00 | $15.00 | 83.3% | 97 |
| #7 | Gemini 2.5 ProGoogle | $1.25 | $10.00 | 85.7% | 94 |
| #8 | o4-miniOpenAI | $1.10 | $4.40 | 84.8% | 92 |
| #9 | Mistral Medium 3Mistral | $0.40 | $2.00 | 81.5% | 91 |
| #10 | GLM-5Zhipu AI | $1.00 | $3.20 | 77.8% | 91 |
| #11 | Gemini 3.1 ProGoogle | $2.00 | $12.00 | 93.4% | 82 |
| #12 | Gemini 3 ProGoogle | $2.00 | $12.00 | 86.9% | 82 |
| #13 | GPT-5.2 CodexOpenAI | $1.75 | $14.00 | 86.8% | 80 |
| #14 | GPT-5.3 CodexOpenAI | $2.00 | $16.00 | 88.2% | 78 |
| #15 | GPT-4oOpenAI | $2.50 | $10.00 | 78.6% | 76 |
| #16 | Mistral Large 3Mistral | $2.00 | $5.00 | 87.0% | 74 |
| #17 | Claude Sonnet 4.5Anthropic | $3.00 | $15.00 | 81.9% | 71 |
| #18 | GPT-5OpenAI | $1.25 | $10.00 | 85.7% | 70 |
| #19 | Grok 4xAI | $3.00 | $15.00 | 83.7% | 62 |
| #20 | Claude Opus 4.6Anthropic | $5.00 | $25.00 | 86.7% | 57 |