Seed 1.6 vs GPT-4.1 mini

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

Seed 1.6 is clearly ahead on the aggregate, 65 to 58. The gap is large enough that you do not need to squint at the spreadsheet to see the difference.

Seed 1.6's sharpest advantage is in mathematics, where it averages 75.9 against 23.1. The single biggest benchmark swing on the page is AIME 2024, 74 to 23.1. GPT-4.1 mini does hit back in reasoning, so the answer changes if that is the part of the workload you care about most.

Seed 1.6 is also the more expensive model on tokens at $0.25 input / $2.00 output per 1M tokens, versus $0.40 input / $1.60 output per 1M tokens for GPT-4.1 mini. Seed 1.6 is the reasoning model in the pair, while GPT-4.1 mini 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. GPT-4.1 mini gives you the larger context window at 1M, compared with 256K for Seed 1.6.

Quick Verdict

Pick Seed 1.6 if you want the stronger benchmark profile. GPT-4.1 mini only becomes the better choice if reasoning is the priority or you want the cheaper token bill.

Agentic

Seed 1.6

Seed 1.6

62.3

GPT-4.1 mini

56.5

63
Terminal-Bench 2.0
54
67
BrowseComp
71
58
OSWorld-Verified
49

Coding

Seed 1.6

Seed 1.6

42.4

GPT-4.1 mini

28.8

64
HumanEval
Coming soon
46
SWE-bench Verified
23.6
38
LiveCodeBench
Coming soon
46
SWE-bench Pro
30

Multimodal & Grounded

Seed 1.6

Seed 1.6

79.6

GPT-4.1 mini

69.6

80
MMMU-Pro
66
79
OfficeQA Pro
74

Reasoning

GPT-4.1 mini

Seed 1.6

74.5

GPT-4.1 mini

80.9

69
SimpleQA
Coming soon
69
MuSR
Coming soon
86
BBH
Coming soon
77
LongBench v2
80
78
MRCRv2
82

Knowledge

GPT-4.1 mini

Seed 1.6

56.4

GPT-4.1 mini

62.4

73
MMLU
87.5
72
GPQA
64.2
70
SuperGPQA
Coming soon
68
OpenBookQA
Coming soon
75
MMLU-Pro
Coming soon
11
HLE
Coming soon
68
FrontierScience
61

Instruction Following

GPT-4.1 mini

Seed 1.6

87

GPT-4.1 mini

88.5

87
IFEval
88.5

Multilingual

Seed 1.6

Seed 1.6

83.4

GPT-4.1 mini

72

88
MGSM
Coming soon
81
MMLU-ProX
72

Mathematics

Seed 1.6

Seed 1.6

75.9

GPT-4.1 mini

23.1

72
AIME 2023
Coming soon
74
AIME 2024
23.1
73
AIME 2025
Coming soon
68
HMMT Feb 2023
Coming soon
70
HMMT Feb 2024
Coming soon
69
HMMT Feb 2025
Coming soon
71
BRUMO 2025
Coming soon
82
MATH-500
Coming soon

Frequently Asked Questions

Which is better, Seed 1.6 or GPT-4.1 mini?

Seed 1.6 is ahead overall, 65 to 58. The biggest single separator in this matchup is AIME 2024, where the scores are 74 and 23.1.

Which is better for knowledge tasks, Seed 1.6 or GPT-4.1 mini?

GPT-4.1 mini has the edge for knowledge tasks in this comparison, averaging 62.4 versus 56.4. Inside this category, MMLU is the benchmark that creates the most daylight between them.

Which is better for coding, Seed 1.6 or GPT-4.1 mini?

Seed 1.6 has the edge for coding in this comparison, averaging 42.4 versus 28.8. Inside this category, SWE-bench Verified is the benchmark that creates the most daylight between them.

Which is better for math, Seed 1.6 or GPT-4.1 mini?

Seed 1.6 has the edge for math in this comparison, averaging 75.9 versus 23.1. Inside this category, AIME 2024 is the benchmark that creates the most daylight between them.

Which is better for reasoning, Seed 1.6 or GPT-4.1 mini?

GPT-4.1 mini has the edge for reasoning in this comparison, averaging 80.9 versus 74.5. Inside this category, MRCRv2 is the benchmark that creates the most daylight between them.

Which is better for agentic tasks, Seed 1.6 or GPT-4.1 mini?

Seed 1.6 has the edge for agentic tasks in this comparison, averaging 62.3 versus 56.5. Inside this category, Terminal-Bench 2.0 is the benchmark that creates the most daylight between them.

Which is better for multimodal and grounded tasks, Seed 1.6 or GPT-4.1 mini?

Seed 1.6 has the edge for multimodal and grounded tasks in this comparison, averaging 79.6 versus 69.6. Inside this category, MMMU-Pro is the benchmark that creates the most daylight between them.

Which is better for instruction following, Seed 1.6 or GPT-4.1 mini?

GPT-4.1 mini has the edge for instruction following in this comparison, averaging 88.5 versus 87. Inside this category, IFEval is the benchmark that creates the most daylight between them.

Which is better for multilingual tasks, Seed 1.6 or GPT-4.1 mini?

Seed 1.6 has the edge for multilingual tasks in this comparison, averaging 83.4 versus 72. Inside this category, MMLU-ProX is the benchmark that creates the most daylight between them.

Last updated: March 12, 2026

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