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Model comparison

Claude Opus 4.5 vs GPT-4.1 mini

Data verified

Head-to-head evidence from 17 shared benchmark results across 7 categories. Overall scores shown here use the public BenchAlign v5 ranking lane.

64.22/100
Margin
20.0pts
← winning
44.19/100
2 category wins2 category wins

Public leaderboard positions: Claude Opus 4.5 #34 (Supported); GPT-4.1 mini #152 (Estimated). Intervals and evidence labels describe ranking uncertainty, not a guarantee for a specific workload.

Evidence parity. Claude Opus 4.5 and GPT-4.1 mini share 17 comparable benchmark results. 4 of 8 categories are comparable. 42 results are unique to Claude Opus 4.5; 5 to GPT-4.1 mini.

Updated July 24, 2026
Shared results
17
Claude Opus 4.5 only
42
GPT-4.1 mini only
5
Comparable categories
4 / 8

Pick Claude Opus 4.5 if you want the stronger benchmark profile. GPT-4.1 mini only becomes the better choice if instruction following is the priority or you want the cheaper token bill.

Confidence note. This is a partial-evidence comparison with 17 shared benchmark results across 7 evidence categories; 4 of 8 categories currently have scoreable aggregates for both models. Treat the verdict as directional until coverage is more balanced.

Why this result

Claude Opus 4.5 is clearly ahead on the BenchAlign aggregate, 64.22 to 44.19. The gap is large enough that you do not need to squint at the spreadsheet to see the difference.

Claude Opus 4.5's sharpest advantage is in mathematics, where it averages 57.5 against 4.5. The single biggest benchmark swing on the page is SWE-bench Verified, 80.9% to 23.6%. GPT-4.1 mini does hit back in instruction following, so the answer changes if that is the part of the workload you care about most.

Claude Opus 4.5 is also the more expensive model on tokens at $5.00 input / $25.00 output per 1M tokens, versus $0.40 input / $1.60 output per 1M tokens for GPT-4.1 mini. That is roughly 15.6x on output cost alone. GPT-4.1 mini gives you the larger context window at 1M, compared with 200K for Claude Opus 4.5.

Category breakdown

Exact category averages are shown below. Not measured means BenchLM does not have enough sourced public coverage for that model and category.

Category scores and score margins for Claude Opus 4.5 and GPT-4.1 mini
CategoryClaude Opus 4.5ΔGPT-4.1 mini
MathClaude Opus 4.557.5Margin← 53.0GPT-4.1 mini4.5
CodingClaude Opus 4.571.7Margin← 48.1GPT-4.1 mini23.6
Inst. FollowingClaude Opus 4.569.5Margin→ 19.0GPT-4.1 mini88.5
KnowledgeClaude Opus 4.558.1Margin→ 6.1GPT-4.1 mini64.2
AgenticClaude Opus 4.562.6MarginNo overlapGPT-4.1 miniNot measured
ReasoningClaude Opus 4.564.4MarginNo overlapGPT-4.1 miniNot measured
MultilingualClaude Opus 4.585.7MarginNo overlapGPT-4.1 miniNot measured
MultimodalClaude Opus 4.569.9MarginNo overlapGPT-4.1 miniNot measured

Decisive benchmark drivers

The largest measured benchmark gaps in this matchup, with exact reported values.

More
A · Claude Opus 4.5B · GPT-4.1 mini

  1. SWE-bench Verified

    Coding
    Source ↗
    A 80.9%B 23.6%
    Winner: Claude Opus 4.5Δ 57.3
    SWE-bench Verified: Claude Opus 4.5 scored 80.9%; GPT-4.1 mini scored 23.6%. Claude Opus 4.5 wins this benchmark.

  2. GPQA

    Knowledge
    Source ↗
    A 87%B 64.2%
    Winner: Claude Opus 4.5Δ 22.8
    GPQA: Claude Opus 4.5 scored 87%; GPT-4.1 mini scored 64.2%. Claude Opus 4.5 wins this benchmark.

  3. FrontierMath v2 (Tiers 1-3)

    Math
    Source ↗
    A 20.690%B 4.483%
    Winner: Claude Opus 4.5Δ 16.2
    FrontierMath v2 (Tiers 1-3): Claude Opus 4.5 scored 20.690%; GPT-4.1 mini scored 4.483%. Claude Opus 4.5 wins this benchmark.

  4. IFEval

    Inst. Following
    Source ↗
    A 90.9%B 88.5%
    Winner: Claude Opus 4.5Δ 2.4
    IFEval: Claude Opus 4.5 scored 90.9%; GPT-4.1 mini scored 88.5%. Claude Opus 4.5 wins this benchmark.

Operational comparison

Runtime and commercial metrics are compared only when both models have a complete sourced value.

MetricClaude Opus 4.5GPT-4.1 miniComparison
Input / output priceUSD per 1M tokensClaude Opus 4.5$5 input / $25 outputGPT-4.1 mini$0.4 input / $1.6 outputGPT-4.1 mini has the lower combined listed price.
Generation speedtokens per secondClaude Opus 4.546 tok/sGPT-4.1 mini80 tok/sGPT-4.1 mini has the higher measured throughput.
First-answer latencyseconds to first tokenClaude Opus 4.51.01 sGPT-4.1 mini0.76 sGPT-4.1 mini reaches the first token sooner.
Context windowmaximum listed tokensClaude Opus 4.5200KGPT-4.1 mini1MGPT-4.1 mini lists the larger context window.

Benchmark Deep Dive

Agentic
BenchmarkClaude Opus 4.5GPT-4.1 miniResult
Terminal-Bench 2.0Source 59.3%—Not comparable
OSWorld-VerifiedSource 66.3%—Not comparable
OSWorldSource 66.3%—Not comparable
Claw-EvalSource 59.6%—Not comparable
QwenClawBenchSource 52.3%—Not comparable
τ³-bench resultsSource 70.2%—Not comparable
VITA-BenchSource 23.3%—Not comparable
DeepPlanningSource 26.4%—Not comparable
ToolathlonSource 43.5%—Not comparable
MCP AtlasSource 42.3%—Not comparable
MCP-TasksSource 71.8%—Not comparable
WideResearchSource 76.4%—Not comparable
CyberGymSource 50.6%—Not comparable
τ²-bench resultsSource 86.3%52.9%Claude Opus 4.5 leads
Gert LabsSource 64.23%—Not comparable
JobBenchSource 32.3%—Not comparable
AA Agentic IndexSource —1.7%Not comparable
GDPval-AASource —0.1%Not comparable
GDPval-AASource —503Not comparable
CodingClaude Opus 4.5 wins
BenchmarkClaude Opus 4.5GPT-4.1 miniResult
SWE-bench VerifiedSource 80.9%23.6%Claude Opus 4.5 leads
LiveCodeBench v6Source 84.8%—Not comparable
SWE-bench ProSource 57.1%—Not comparable
SWE MultilingualSource 77.5%—Not comparable
NL2RepoSource 43.2%—Not comparable
AA-SciCodeSource 47.0%40.4%Claude Opus 4.5 leads
AA Coding IndexSource —20.2%Not comparable
Reasoning
BenchmarkClaude Opus 4.5GPT-4.1 miniResult
LongBench v2Source 64.4%—Not comparable
AI-NeedleSource 74%—Not comparable
AA-LCRSource 65.3%42.3%Claude Opus 4.5 leads
CritPtSource 0.3%0.0%Claude Opus 4.5 leads
KnowledgeGPT-4.1 mini wins
BenchmarkClaude Opus 4.5GPT-4.1 miniResult
GPQASource 87%64.2%Claude Opus 4.5 leads
SuperGPQASource 70.6%—Not comparable
MMLU-ProSource 89.5%—Not comparable
MMLU-ReduxSource 96.6%—Not comparable
C-EvalSource 92.2%—Not comparable
HLESource 30.8%—Not comparable
Artificial Analysis Intelligence IndexSource 34.7%14.8%Claude Opus 4.5 leads
AA-GPQA DiamondSource 81.0%66.4%Claude Opus 4.5 leads
AA-HLESource 12.9%4.6%Claude Opus 4.5 leads
AA-Omniscience IndexSource -3.9%-50.1%Claude Opus 4.5 leads
AA-Omniscience AccuracySource 40.7%17.5%Claude Opus 4.5 leads
AA-Omniscience Hallucination RateSource 75.4%82.0%Claude Opus 4.5 leads
AA MMLU-ProSource 88.9%—Not comparable
MMLUSource —87.5%Not comparable
MathClaude Opus 4.5 wins
BenchmarkClaude Opus 4.5GPT-4.1 miniResult
AIME26Source 95.1%—Not comparable
HMMT Feb 2025Source 92.9%—Not comparable
HMMT Nov 2025Source 93.3%—Not comparable
HMMT Feb 2026Source 85.3%—Not comparable
MMAnswerBenchSource 84.0%—Not comparable
FrontierMath v2 (Tiers 1-3)Source 20.690%4.483%Claude Opus 4.5 leads
FrontierMath v2 (Tier 4)Source 4.167%—Not comparable
Multilingual
BenchmarkClaude Opus 4.5GPT-4.1 miniResult
MMLU-ProXSource 85.7%—Not comparable
NOVA-63Source 56.7%—Not comparable
Multimodal
BenchmarkClaude Opus 4.5GPT-4.1 miniResult
MMMU-ProSource 70.6%—Not comparable
MathVisionSource 74.3%—Not comparable
CharXivSource 68.5%—Not comparable
VideoMMMUSource 84.4%—Not comparable
ScreenSpot ProSource 45.7%—Not comparable
V*Source 67.0%—Not comparable
AA-MMMU-ProSource 71.2%58.7%Claude Opus 4.5 leads
Design Arena WebsiteSource 12771027Claude Opus 4.5 leads
Inst. FollowingGPT-4.1 mini wins
BenchmarkClaude Opus 4.5GPT-4.1 miniResult
IFEvalSource 90.9%88.5%Claude Opus 4.5 leads
IFBenchSource 58%—Not comparable
AA-IFBenchSource 43.0%38.3%Claude Opus 4.5 leads
Frequently Asked Questions (5)

Which is better, Claude Opus 4.5 or GPT-4.1 mini?

Claude Opus 4.5 is ahead on BenchLM's BenchAlign leaderboard, 64.22 to 44.19. The biggest single separator in this matchup is SWE-bench Verified, where the scores are 80.9% and 23.6%.

Which is better for knowledge tasks, Claude Opus 4.5 or GPT-4.1 mini?

GPT-4.1 mini has the edge for knowledge tasks in this comparison, averaging 64.2 versus 58.1. Inside this category, AA-Omniscience Index is the benchmark that creates the most daylight between them.

Which is better for coding, Claude Opus 4.5 or GPT-4.1 mini?

Claude Opus 4.5 has the edge for coding in this comparison, averaging 71.7 versus 23.6. Inside this category, SWE-bench Verified is the benchmark that creates the most daylight between them.

Which is better for math, Claude Opus 4.5 or GPT-4.1 mini?

Claude Opus 4.5 has the edge for math in this comparison, averaging 57.5 versus 4.5. Inside this category, FrontierMath v2 (Tiers 1-3) is the benchmark that creates the most daylight between them.

Which is better for instruction following, Claude Opus 4.5 or GPT-4.1 mini?

GPT-4.1 mini has the edge for instruction following in this comparison, averaging 88.5 versus 69.5. Inside this category, AA-IFBench is the benchmark that creates the most daylight between them.

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