GPT-4o vs GPT-4.1

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

GPT-4o is clearly ahead on the aggregate, 60 to 43. The gap is large enough that you do not need to squint at the spreadsheet to see the difference.

GPT-4o's sharpest advantage is in mathematics, where it averages 66.9 against 26.4. The single biggest benchmark swing on the page is AIME 2024, 68 to 26.4. GPT-4.1 does hit back in knowledge, so the answer changes if that is the part of the workload you care about most.

GPT-4o is also the more expensive model on tokens at $2.50 input / $10.00 output per 1M tokens, versus $2.00 input / $8.00 output per 1M tokens for GPT-4.1. GPT-4.1 gives you the larger context window at 1M, compared with 128K for GPT-4o.

Quick Verdict

Pick GPT-4o if you want the stronger benchmark profile. GPT-4.1 only becomes the better choice if knowledge is the priority or you want the cheaper token bill.

Knowledge

GPT-4.1

GPT-4o

53.8

GPT-4.1

78.3

66
MMLU
90.2
66
GPQA
66.3
64
SuperGPQA
-
62
OpenBookQA
-
64
MMLU-Pro
-
1
HLE
-

Coding

GPT-4.1

GPT-4o

38.7

GPT-4.1

54.6

58
HumanEval
-
20
SWE-bench Verified
54.6
38
LiveCodeBench
-

Mathematics

GPT-4o

GPT-4o

66.9

GPT-4.1

26.4

66
AIME 2023
-
68
AIME 2024
26.4
67
AIME 2025
-
62
HMMT Feb 2023
-
64
HMMT Feb 2024
-
63
HMMT Feb 2025
-
65
BRUMO 2025
-
80
MATH-500
-

Reasoning

GPT-4o
64
SimpleQA
-
62
MuSR
-
82
BBH
-

Instruction Following

GPT-4.1

GPT-4o

82

GPT-4.1

87.4

82
IFEval
87.4

Multilingual

GPT-4o
82
MGSM
-

Frequently Asked Questions

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

GPT-4o is ahead overall, 60 to 43. The biggest single separator in this matchup is AIME 2024, where the scores are 68 and 26.4.

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

GPT-4.1 has the edge for knowledge tasks in this comparison, averaging 78.3 versus 53.8. Inside this category, MMLU is the benchmark that creates the most daylight between them.

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

GPT-4.1 has the edge for coding in this comparison, averaging 54.6 versus 38.7. Inside this category, SWE-bench Verified is the benchmark that creates the most daylight between them.

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

GPT-4o has the edge for math in this comparison, averaging 66.9 versus 26.4. Inside this category, AIME 2024 is the benchmark that creates the most daylight between them.

Which is better for instruction following, GPT-4o or GPT-4.1?

GPT-4.1 has the edge for instruction following in this comparison, averaging 87.4 versus 82. Inside this category, IFEval is the benchmark that creates the most daylight between them.

Last updated: March 9, 2026

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