GPT-5.3-Codex-Spark vs GPT-5.2-Codex

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

GPT-5.3-Codex-Spark has the cleaner overall profile here, landing at 87 versus 85. It is a real lead, but still close enough that category-level strengths matter more than the headline number.

GPT-5.3-Codex-Spark's sharpest advantage is in coding, where it averages 82.3 against 76. The single biggest benchmark swing on the page is HLE, 42 to 26. GPT-5.2-Codex does hit back in agentic, so the answer changes if that is the part of the workload you care about most.

GPT-5.2-Codex gives you the larger context window at 400K, compared with 256K for GPT-5.3-Codex-Spark.

Quick Verdict

Pick GPT-5.3-Codex-Spark if you want the stronger benchmark profile. GPT-5.2-Codex only becomes the better choice if agentic is the priority or you need the larger 400K context window.

Agentic

GPT-5.2-Codex

GPT-5.3-Codex-Spark

85.6

GPT-5.2-Codex

87

90
Terminal-Bench 2.0
90
82
BrowseComp
85
83
OSWorld-Verified
85

Coding

GPT-5.3-Codex-Spark

GPT-5.3-Codex-Spark

82.3

GPT-5.2-Codex

76

91
HumanEval
95
80
SWE-bench Verified
76
80
LiveCodeBench
66
85
SWE-bench Pro
86

Multimodal & Grounded

GPT-5.3-Codex-Spark

GPT-5.3-Codex-Spark

88.3

GPT-5.2-Codex

87.6

86
MMMU-Pro
84
91
OfficeQA Pro
92

Reasoning

GPT-5.3-Codex-Spark

GPT-5.3-Codex-Spark

92.7

GPT-5.2-Codex

92

94
SimpleQA
95
92
MuSR
93
97
BBH
90
91
LongBench v2
90
92
MRCRv2
91

Knowledge

GPT-5.3-Codex-Spark

GPT-5.3-Codex-Spark

78.3

GPT-5.2-Codex

72.5

97
MMLU
99
95
GPQA
97
93
SuperGPQA
95
91
OpenBookQA
93
88
MMLU-Pro
80
42
HLE
26
88
FrontierScience
86

Instruction Following

Tie

GPT-5.3-Codex-Spark

92

GPT-5.2-Codex

92

92
IFEval
92

Multilingual

GPT-5.3-Codex-Spark

GPT-5.3-Codex-Spark

90.8

GPT-5.2-Codex

88.4

94
MGSM
91
89
MMLU-ProX
87

Mathematics

GPT-5.3-Codex-Spark

GPT-5.3-Codex-Spark

96.7

GPT-5.2-Codex

95.4

98
AIME 2023
99
98
AIME 2024
99
97
AIME 2025
98
94
HMMT Feb 2023
95
96
HMMT Feb 2024
97
95
HMMT Feb 2025
96
95
BRUMO 2025
96
98
MATH-500
94

Frequently Asked Questions

Which is better, GPT-5.3-Codex-Spark or GPT-5.2-Codex?

GPT-5.3-Codex-Spark is ahead overall, 87 to 85. The biggest single separator in this matchup is HLE, where the scores are 42 and 26.

Which is better for knowledge tasks, GPT-5.3-Codex-Spark or GPT-5.2-Codex?

GPT-5.3-Codex-Spark has the edge for knowledge tasks in this comparison, averaging 78.3 versus 72.5. Inside this category, HLE is the benchmark that creates the most daylight between them.

Which is better for coding, GPT-5.3-Codex-Spark or GPT-5.2-Codex?

GPT-5.3-Codex-Spark has the edge for coding in this comparison, averaging 82.3 versus 76. Inside this category, LiveCodeBench is the benchmark that creates the most daylight between them.

Which is better for math, GPT-5.3-Codex-Spark or GPT-5.2-Codex?

GPT-5.3-Codex-Spark has the edge for math in this comparison, averaging 96.7 versus 95.4. Inside this category, MATH-500 is the benchmark that creates the most daylight between them.

Which is better for reasoning, GPT-5.3-Codex-Spark or GPT-5.2-Codex?

GPT-5.3-Codex-Spark has the edge for reasoning in this comparison, averaging 92.7 versus 92. Inside this category, BBH is the benchmark that creates the most daylight between them.

Which is better for agentic tasks, GPT-5.3-Codex-Spark or GPT-5.2-Codex?

GPT-5.2-Codex has the edge for agentic tasks in this comparison, averaging 87 versus 85.6. Inside this category, BrowseComp is the benchmark that creates the most daylight between them.

Which is better for multimodal and grounded tasks, GPT-5.3-Codex-Spark or GPT-5.2-Codex?

GPT-5.3-Codex-Spark has the edge for multimodal and grounded tasks in this comparison, averaging 88.3 versus 87.6. Inside this category, MMMU-Pro is the benchmark that creates the most daylight between them.

Which is better for instruction following, GPT-5.3-Codex-Spark or GPT-5.2-Codex?

GPT-5.3-Codex-Spark and GPT-5.2-Codex are effectively tied for instruction following here, both landing at 92 on average.

Which is better for multilingual tasks, GPT-5.3-Codex-Spark or GPT-5.2-Codex?

GPT-5.3-Codex-Spark has the edge for multilingual tasks in this comparison, averaging 90.8 versus 88.4. Inside this category, MGSM is the benchmark that creates the most daylight between them.

Last updated: March 12, 2026

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