Seed 1.6 vs GPT-4.1 nano

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 49. 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 9.8. The single biggest benchmark swing on the page is AIME 2024, 74 to 9.8.

Seed 1.6 is also the more expensive model on tokens at $0.25 input / $2.00 output per 1M tokens, versus $0.10 input / $0.40 output per 1M tokens for GPT-4.1 nano. That is roughly 5.0x on output cost alone. Seed 1.6 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. GPT-4.1 nano 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 nano only becomes the better choice if you want the cheaper token bill or you need the larger 1M context window.

Agentic

Seed 1.6

Seed 1.6

62.3

GPT-4.1 nano

47.4

63
Terminal-Bench 2.0
43
67
BrowseComp
62
58
OSWorld-Verified
42

Coding

Seed 1.6

Seed 1.6

42.4

GPT-4.1 nano

18

64
HumanEval
Coming soon
46
SWE-bench Verified
Coming soon
38
LiveCodeBench
Coming soon
46
SWE-bench Pro
18

Multimodal & Grounded

Seed 1.6

Seed 1.6

79.6

GPT-4.1 nano

59.3

80
MMMU-Pro
53
79
OfficeQA Pro
67

Reasoning

Seed 1.6

Seed 1.6

74.5

GPT-4.1 nano

74.1

69
SimpleQA
Coming soon
69
MuSR
Coming soon
86
BBH
Coming soon
77
LongBench v2
75
78
MRCRv2
73

Knowledge

Seed 1.6

Seed 1.6

56.4

GPT-4.1 nano

50.7

73
MMLU
80.1
72
GPQA
50.3
70
SuperGPQA
Coming soon
68
OpenBookQA
Coming soon
75
MMLU-Pro
Coming soon
11
HLE
Coming soon
68
FrontierScience
51

Instruction Following

Seed 1.6

Seed 1.6

87

GPT-4.1 nano

83.2

87
IFEval
83.2

Multilingual

Seed 1.6

Seed 1.6

83.4

GPT-4.1 nano

59

88
MGSM
Coming soon
81
MMLU-ProX
59

Mathematics

Seed 1.6

Seed 1.6

75.9

GPT-4.1 nano

9.8

72
AIME 2023
Coming soon
74
AIME 2024
9.8
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 nano?

Seed 1.6 is ahead overall, 65 to 49. The biggest single separator in this matchup is AIME 2024, where the scores are 74 and 9.8.

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

Seed 1.6 has the edge for knowledge tasks in this comparison, averaging 56.4 versus 50.7. Inside this category, GPQA is the benchmark that creates the most daylight between them.

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

Seed 1.6 has the edge for coding in this comparison, averaging 42.4 versus 18. Inside this category, SWE-bench Pro is the benchmark that creates the most daylight between them.

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

Seed 1.6 has the edge for math in this comparison, averaging 75.9 versus 9.8. 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 nano?

Seed 1.6 has the edge for reasoning in this comparison, averaging 74.5 versus 74.1. 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 nano?

Seed 1.6 has the edge for agentic tasks in this comparison, averaging 62.3 versus 47.4. 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 nano?

Seed 1.6 has the edge for multimodal and grounded tasks in this comparison, averaging 79.6 versus 59.3. 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 nano?

Seed 1.6 has the edge for instruction following in this comparison, averaging 87 versus 83.2. 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 nano?

Seed 1.6 has the edge for multilingual tasks in this comparison, averaging 83.4 versus 59. Inside this category, MMLU-ProX is the benchmark that creates the most daylight between them.

Last updated: March 12, 2026

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