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

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 75.5. The single biggest benchmark swing on the page is OSWorld-Verified, 83 to 74. GPT-5.2 Instant does hit back in multimodal & grounded, so the answer changes if that is the part of the workload you care about most.

GPT-5.3-Codex-Spark is also the more expensive model on tokens at $2.00 input / $8.00 output per 1M tokens, versus $1.50 input / $6.00 output per 1M tokens for GPT-5.2 Instant. GPT-5.3-Codex-Spark gives you the larger context window at 256K, compared with 128K for GPT-5.2 Instant.

Quick Verdict

Pick GPT-5.3-Codex-Spark if you want the stronger benchmark profile. GPT-5.2 Instant only becomes the better choice if multimodal & grounded is the priority or you want the cheaper token bill.

Agentic

GPT-5.3-Codex-Spark

GPT-5.3-Codex-Spark

85.6

GPT-5.2 Instant

79.6

90
Terminal-Bench 2.0
83
82
BrowseComp
82
83
OSWorld-Verified
74

Coding

GPT-5.3-Codex-Spark

GPT-5.3-Codex-Spark

82.3

GPT-5.2 Instant

75.5

91
HumanEval
87
80
SWE-bench Verified
75
80
LiveCodeBench
74
85
SWE-bench Pro
77

Multimodal & Grounded

GPT-5.2 Instant

GPT-5.3-Codex-Spark

88.3

GPT-5.2 Instant

93.1

86
MMMU-Pro
94
91
OfficeQA Pro
92

Reasoning

GPT-5.3-Codex-Spark

GPT-5.3-Codex-Spark

92.7

GPT-5.2 Instant

90.9

94
SimpleQA
95
92
MuSR
93
97
BBH
96
91
LongBench v2
89
92
MRCRv2
84

Knowledge

GPT-5.2 Instant

GPT-5.3-Codex-Spark

78.3

GPT-5.2 Instant

79.8

97
MMLU
98
95
GPQA
97
93
SuperGPQA
95
91
OpenBookQA
93
88
MMLU-Pro
88
42
HLE
43
88
FrontierScience
91

Instruction Following

GPT-5.2 Instant

GPT-5.3-Codex-Spark

92

GPT-5.2 Instant

95

92
IFEval
95

Multilingual

GPT-5.2 Instant

GPT-5.3-Codex-Spark

90.8

GPT-5.2 Instant

94.4

94
MGSM
95
89
MMLU-ProX
94

Mathematics

GPT-5.2 Instant

GPT-5.3-Codex-Spark

96.7

GPT-5.2 Instant

97.2

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
98

Frequently Asked Questions

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

GPT-5.3-Codex-Spark is ahead overall, 87 to 85. The biggest single separator in this matchup is OSWorld-Verified, where the scores are 83 and 74.

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

GPT-5.2 Instant has the edge for knowledge tasks in this comparison, averaging 79.8 versus 78.3. Inside this category, FrontierScience is the benchmark that creates the most daylight between them.

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

GPT-5.3-Codex-Spark has the edge for coding in this comparison, averaging 82.3 versus 75.5. Inside this category, SWE-bench Pro is the benchmark that creates the most daylight between them.

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

GPT-5.2 Instant has the edge for math in this comparison, averaging 97.2 versus 96.7. Inside this category, AIME 2023 is the benchmark that creates the most daylight between them.

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

GPT-5.3-Codex-Spark has the edge for reasoning in this comparison, averaging 92.7 versus 90.9. Inside this category, MRCRv2 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 Instant?

GPT-5.3-Codex-Spark has the edge for agentic tasks in this comparison, averaging 85.6 versus 79.6. Inside this category, OSWorld-Verified 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 Instant?

GPT-5.2 Instant has the edge for multimodal and grounded tasks in this comparison, averaging 93.1 versus 88.3. 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 Instant?

GPT-5.2 Instant has the edge for instruction following in this comparison, averaging 95 versus 92. Inside this category, IFEval is the benchmark that creates the most daylight between them.

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

GPT-5.2 Instant has the edge for multilingual tasks in this comparison, averaging 94.4 versus 90.8. Inside this category, MMLU-ProX is the benchmark that creates the most daylight between them.

Last updated: March 12, 2026

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