GPT-4o mini vs GPT-4.1 mini

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

GPT-4o mini is clearly ahead on the aggregate, 43 to 35. The gap is large enough that you do not need to squint at the spreadsheet to see the difference.

GPT-4o mini's sharpest advantage is in coding, where it averages 87.2 against 23.6. The single biggest benchmark swing on the page is MMLU, 82 to 87.5.

GPT-4.1 mini is also the more expensive model on tokens at $0.40 input / $1.60 output per 1M tokens, versus $0.15 input / $0.60 output per 1M tokens for GPT-4o mini. That is roughly 2.7x on output cost alone. GPT-4.1 mini gives you the larger context window at 1M, compared with 128K for GPT-4o mini.

Quick Verdict

Pick GPT-4o mini if you want the stronger benchmark profile. GPT-4.1 mini only becomes the better choice if you need the larger 1M context window.

Knowledge

GPT-4o mini

GPT-4o mini

82

GPT-4.1 mini

75.9

82
MMLU
87.5
-
GPQA
64.2

Coding

GPT-4o mini

GPT-4o mini

87.2

GPT-4.1 mini

23.6

87.2
HumanEval
-
-
SWE-bench Verified
23.6

Mathematics

GPT-4.1 mini
-
AIME 2024
23.1

Reasoning

Tie

Instruction Following

GPT-4.1 mini
-
IFEval
88.5

Multilingual

GPT-4o mini
87
MGSM
-

Frequently Asked Questions

Which is better, GPT-4o mini or GPT-4.1 mini?

GPT-4o mini is ahead overall, 43 to 35. The biggest single separator in this matchup is MMLU, where the scores are 82 and 87.5.

Which is better for knowledge tasks, GPT-4o mini or GPT-4.1 mini?

GPT-4o mini has the edge for knowledge tasks in this comparison, averaging 82 versus 75.9. Inside this category, MMLU is the benchmark that creates the most daylight between them.

Which is better for coding, GPT-4o mini or GPT-4.1 mini?

GPT-4o mini has the edge for coding in this comparison, averaging 87.2 versus 23.6. GPT-4.1 mini stays close enough that the answer can still flip depending on your workload.

Last updated: March 9, 2026

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