GPT-5.1-Codex-Max vs GPT-4o mini

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

GPT-5.1-Codex-Max is clearly ahead on the aggregate, 87 to 43. The gap is large enough that you do not need to squint at the spreadsheet to see the difference.

GPT-5.1-Codex-Max's sharpest advantage is in multilingual, where it averages 89 against 87. The single biggest benchmark swing on the page is MMLU, 98 to 82. GPT-4o mini does hit back in coding, so the answer changes if that is the part of the workload you care about most.

GPT-5.1-Codex-Max is also the more expensive model on tokens at $2.00 input / $8.00 output per 1M tokens, versus $0.15 input / $0.60 output per 1M tokens for GPT-4o mini. That is roughly 13.3x on output cost alone. GPT-5.1-Codex-Max is the reasoning model in the pair, while GPT-4o 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-5.1-Codex-Max gives you the larger context window at 400K, compared with 128K for GPT-4o mini.

Quick Verdict

Pick GPT-5.1-Codex-Max if you want the stronger benchmark profile. GPT-4o mini only becomes the better choice if coding is the priority or you want the cheaper token bill.

Knowledge

GPT-4o mini

GPT-5.1-Codex-Max

81.5

GPT-4o mini

82

98
MMLU
82
96
GPQA
-
94
SuperGPQA
-
92
OpenBookQA
-
82
MMLU-Pro
-
27
HLE
-

Coding

GPT-4o mini

GPT-5.1-Codex-Max

78.7

GPT-4o mini

87.2

94
HumanEval
87.2
75
SWE-bench Verified
-
67
LiveCodeBench
-

Mathematics

GPT-5.1-Codex-Max
99
AIME 2023
-
99
AIME 2024
-
98
AIME 2025
-
95
HMMT Feb 2023
-
97
HMMT Feb 2024
-
96
HMMT Feb 2025
-
96
BRUMO 2025
-
93
MATH-500
-

Reasoning

GPT-5.1-Codex-Max
94
SimpleQA
-
92
MuSR
-
92
BBH
-

Instruction Following

GPT-5.1-Codex-Max
91
IFEval
-

Multilingual

GPT-5.1-Codex-Max

GPT-5.1-Codex-Max

89

GPT-4o mini

87

89
MGSM
87

Frequently Asked Questions

Which is better, GPT-5.1-Codex-Max or GPT-4o mini?

GPT-5.1-Codex-Max is ahead overall, 87 to 43. The biggest single separator in this matchup is MMLU, where the scores are 98 and 82.

Which is better for knowledge tasks, GPT-5.1-Codex-Max or GPT-4o mini?

GPT-4o mini has the edge for knowledge tasks in this comparison, averaging 82 versus 81.5. Inside this category, MMLU is the benchmark that creates the most daylight between them.

Which is better for coding, GPT-5.1-Codex-Max or GPT-4o mini?

GPT-4o mini has the edge for coding in this comparison, averaging 87.2 versus 78.7. Inside this category, HumanEval is the benchmark that creates the most daylight between them.

Which is better for multilingual tasks, GPT-5.1-Codex-Max or GPT-4o mini?

GPT-5.1-Codex-Max has the edge for multilingual tasks in this comparison, averaging 89 versus 87. Inside this category, MGSM is the benchmark that creates the most daylight between them.

Last updated: March 9, 2026

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