Side-by-side benchmark comparison across knowledge, coding, math, and reasoning.
GPT-5 mini is clearly ahead on the aggregate, 74 to 43. The gap is large enough that you do not need to squint at the spreadsheet to see the difference.
GPT-5 mini 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.
Pick GPT-5 mini if you want the stronger benchmark profile. GPT-4o mini only becomes the better choice if coding is the priority or you would rather avoid the extra latency and token burn of a reasoning model.
GPT-5 mini
71.5
GPT-4o mini
82
GPT-5 mini
52.7
GPT-4o mini
87.2
GPT-5 mini
82
GPT-4o mini
87
GPT-5 mini is ahead overall, 74 to 43. The biggest single separator in this matchup is HumanEval, where the scores are 80 and 87.2.
GPT-4o mini has the edge for knowledge tasks in this comparison, averaging 82 versus 71.5. Inside this category, MMLU is the benchmark that creates the most daylight between them.
GPT-4o mini has the edge for coding in this comparison, averaging 87.2 versus 52.7. Inside this category, HumanEval is the benchmark that creates the most daylight between them.
GPT-4o mini has the edge for multilingual tasks in this comparison, averaging 87 versus 82. Inside this category, MGSM is the benchmark that creates the most daylight between them.
Get notified when new models drop, benchmark scores change, or the leaderboard shifts. One email per week.
Free. No spam. Unsubscribe anytime. We only store derived location metadata for consent routing.