1-bit Bonsai 1.7B vs GPT-4.1 nano

Side-by-side benchmark comparison across agentic, coding, multimodal, knowledge, reasoning, and math workflows.

Agentic
Coding
Multimodal & Grounded
Reasoning
Knowledge
Instruction Following
Multilingual
Mathematics

1-bit Bonsai 1.7B· GPT-4.1 nano

Quick Verdict

Pick GPT-4.1 nano if you want the stronger benchmark profile. 1-bit Bonsai 1.7B only becomes the better choice if you want the cheaper token bill.

GPT-4.1 nano is clearly ahead on the aggregate, 44 to 39. The gap is large enough that you do not need to squint at the spreadsheet to see the difference.

GPT-4.1 nano's sharpest advantage is in knowledge, where it averages 50.7 against 20.7. The single biggest benchmark swing on the page is GPQA, 20.7% to 50.3%.

GPT-4.1 nano is also the more expensive model on tokens at $0.10 input / $0.40 output per 1M tokens, versus $0.00 input / $0.00 output per 1M tokens for 1-bit Bonsai 1.7B. That is roughly Infinityx on output cost alone. GPT-4.1 nano gives you the larger context window at 1M, compared with 32K for 1-bit Bonsai 1.7B.

Operational tradeoffs

PriceFree*$0.10 / $0.40
SpeedN/A181 t/s
TTFTN/A0.63s
Context32K1M

Decision framing

BenchLM keeps the benchmark table and the operator tradeoffs on the same page so a better score does not hide a materially slower, pricier, or smaller-context model.

Runtime metrics show N/A when BenchLM does not have a sourced snapshot for that exact model. The scoring rules and freshness policy are documented on the methodology page.

Benchmark1-bit Bonsai 1.7BGPT-4.1 nano
Agentic
Terminal-Bench 2.043%
BrowseComp62%
OSWorld-Verified42%
Coding
SWE-bench Pro18%
Multimodal & Grounded
MMMU-Pro53%
OfficeQA Pro67%
ReasoningGPT-4.1 nano wins
MuSR45.1%
LongBench v275%
MRCRv273%
KnowledgeGPT-4.1 nano wins
GPQA20.7%50.3%
MMLU80.1%
FrontierScience51%
Instruction FollowingGPT-4.1 nano wins
IFEval63%83.2%
Multilingual
MMLU-ProX59%
Mathematics
MATH-50034.4%
AIME 20249.8%
Frequently Asked Questions (4)

Which is better, 1-bit Bonsai 1.7B or GPT-4.1 nano?

GPT-4.1 nano is ahead overall, 44 to 39. The biggest single separator in this matchup is GPQA, where the scores are 20.7% and 50.3%.

Which is better for knowledge tasks, 1-bit Bonsai 1.7B or GPT-4.1 nano?

GPT-4.1 nano has the edge for knowledge tasks in this comparison, averaging 50.7 versus 20.7. Inside this category, GPQA is the benchmark that creates the most daylight between them.

Which is better for reasoning, 1-bit Bonsai 1.7B or GPT-4.1 nano?

GPT-4.1 nano has the edge for reasoning in this comparison, averaging 74.1 versus 45.1. 1-bit Bonsai 1.7B stays close enough that the answer can still flip depending on your workload.

Which is better for instruction following, 1-bit Bonsai 1.7B or GPT-4.1 nano?

GPT-4.1 nano has the edge for instruction following in this comparison, averaging 83.2 versus 63. Inside this category, IFEval is the benchmark that creates the most daylight between them.

Last updated: March 31, 2026

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