GPT-4.1 vs Nova Pro

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

GPT-4.1 has the cleaner overall profile here, landing at 43 versus 40. It is a real lead, but still close enough that category-level strengths matter more than the headline number.

GPT-4.1's sharpest advantage is in knowledge, where it averages 78.3 against 35.3. The single biggest benchmark swing on the page is MMLU, 90.2 to 41. Nova Pro does hit back in mathematics, so the answer changes if that is the part of the workload you care about most.

GPT-4.1 gives you the larger context window at 1M, compared with 128K for Nova Pro.

Quick Verdict

Pick GPT-4.1 if you want the stronger benchmark profile. Nova Pro only becomes the better choice if mathematics is the priority.

Knowledge

GPT-4.1

GPT-4.1

78.3

Nova Pro

35.3

90.2
MMLU
41
66.3
GPQA
40
-
SuperGPQA
38
-
OpenBookQA
36
-
MMLU-Pro
53
-
HLE
4

Coding

GPT-4.1

GPT-4.1

54.6

Nova Pro

22

54.6
SWE-bench Verified
19
-
HumanEval
33
-
LiveCodeBench
14

Mathematics

Nova Pro

GPT-4.1

26.4

Nova Pro

42.4

26.4
AIME 2024
43
-
AIME 2023
41
-
AIME 2025
42
-
HMMT Feb 2023
37
-
HMMT Feb 2024
39
-
HMMT Feb 2025
38
-
BRUMO 2025
40
-
MATH-500
59

Reasoning

Nova Pro
-
SimpleQA
39
-
MuSR
37
-
BBH
63

Instruction Following

GPT-4.1

GPT-4.1

87.4

Nova Pro

66

87.4
IFEval
66

Multilingual

Nova Pro
-
MGSM
61

Frequently Asked Questions

Which is better, GPT-4.1 or Nova Pro?

GPT-4.1 is ahead overall, 43 to 40. The biggest single separator in this matchup is MMLU, where the scores are 90.2 and 41.

Which is better for knowledge tasks, GPT-4.1 or Nova Pro?

GPT-4.1 has the edge for knowledge tasks in this comparison, averaging 78.3 versus 35.3. Inside this category, MMLU is the benchmark that creates the most daylight between them.

Which is better for coding, GPT-4.1 or Nova Pro?

GPT-4.1 has the edge for coding in this comparison, averaging 54.6 versus 22. Inside this category, SWE-bench Verified is the benchmark that creates the most daylight between them.

Which is better for math, GPT-4.1 or Nova Pro?

Nova Pro has the edge for math in this comparison, averaging 42.4 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-4.1 or Nova Pro?

GPT-4.1 has the edge for instruction following in this comparison, averaging 87.4 versus 66. Inside this category, IFEval is the benchmark that creates the most daylight between them.

Last updated: March 9, 2026

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