Head-to-head comparison across 1benchmark categories. Overall scores shown here use BenchLM's provisional ranking lane.
Claude Sonnet 5
94
GPT-4.1 nano
26
Pick Claude Sonnet 5 if you want the stronger benchmark profile. GPT-4.1 nano only becomes the better choice if you want the cheaper token bill or you would rather avoid the extra latency and token burn of a reasoning model.
Knowledge
+7.1 difference
Claude Sonnet 5
GPT-4.1 nano
$3 / $15
$0.1 / $0.4
N/A
181 t/s
N/A
0.63s
1M
1M
Pick Claude Sonnet 5 if you want the stronger benchmark profile. GPT-4.1 nano only becomes the better choice if you want the cheaper token bill or you would rather avoid the extra latency and token burn of a reasoning model.
Claude Sonnet 5 is clearly ahead on the provisional aggregate, 94 to 26. The gap is large enough that you do not need to squint at the spreadsheet to see the difference.
Claude Sonnet 5's sharpest advantage is in knowledge, where it averages 57.4 against 50.3.
Claude Sonnet 5 is also the more expensive model on tokens at $3.00 input / $15.00 output per 1M tokens, versus $0.10 input / $0.40 output per 1M tokens for GPT-4.1 nano. That is roughly 37.5x on output cost alone. Claude Sonnet 5 is the reasoning model in the pair, while GPT-4.1 nano is not. That usually helps on harder chain-of-thought-heavy tests, but it can also mean more latency and more token spend in real use.
Claude Sonnet 5 is ahead on BenchLM's provisional leaderboard, 94 to 26.
Claude Sonnet 5 has the edge for knowledge tasks in this comparison, averaging 57.4 versus 50.3. GPT-4.1 nano stays close enough that the answer can still flip depending on your workload.
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