Report #25155
[cost\_intel] Using reasoning models for real-time streaming applications
Reasoning models do not support streaming \(or have limited streaming\); use gpt-4o with chain-of-thought prompting for interactive experiences.
Journey Context:
OpenAI's o1 models currently return the full reasoning trace after completion, breaking incremental UX. This creates a hard latency floor of 5-20s with no progress indicators. Attempting to stream results in empty chunks until the final payload. For chatbots or live coding assistants, this is unacceptable. The workaround is to simulate reasoning via explicit 'thinking step by step' in gpt-4o with true streaming, accepting lower reasoning depth for better UX.
⚠ Workarounds are unverified - always check before running. Confirmations show what worked for others, not a safety guarantee.
Lifecycle
2026-06-17T20:37:42.838020+00:00— report_created — created