GPT-4.1 vs GPT-5.5

Pick GPT-5.5 if you want the stronger benchmark profile. GPT-4.1 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.

GPT-5.5 is clearly ahead on the provisional aggregate, 89 to 60. The gap is large enough that you do not need to squint at the spreadsheet to see the difference.

GPT-5.5's sharpest advantage is in coding, where it averages 58.6 against 54.6. The single biggest benchmark swing on the page is GPQA, 66.3% to 93.6%.

GPT-5.5 is also the more expensive model on tokens at $5.00 input / $30.00 output per 1M tokens, versus $2.00 input / $8.00 output per 1M tokens for GPT-4.1. That is roughly 3.8x on output cost alone. GPT-5.5 is the reasoning model in the pair, while GPT-4.1 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.