GPT-5.3-Codex-Spark vs o3-mini

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

GPT-5.3-Codex-Spark is clearly ahead on the aggregate, 87 to 71. The gap is large enough that you do not need to squint at the spreadsheet to see the difference.

GPT-5.3-Codex-Spark's sharpest advantage is in coding, where it averages 82.3 against 55.6. The single biggest benchmark swing on the page is SWE-bench Verified, 80 to 49.3. o3-mini does hit back in instruction following, 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 $1.10 input / $4.40 output per 1M tokens for o3-mini. GPT-5.3-Codex-Spark gives you the larger context window at 256K, compared with 200K for o3-mini.

Quick Verdict

Pick GPT-5.3-Codex-Spark if you want the stronger benchmark profile. o3-mini only becomes the better choice if instruction following is the priority or you want the cheaper token bill.

Agentic

GPT-5.3-Codex-Spark

GPT-5.3-Codex-Spark

85.6

o3-mini

66.6

90
Terminal-Bench 2.0
67
82
BrowseComp
74
83
OSWorld-Verified
61

Coding

GPT-5.3-Codex-Spark

GPT-5.3-Codex-Spark

82.3

o3-mini

55.6

91
HumanEval
Coming soon
80
SWE-bench Verified
49.3
80
LiveCodeBench
Coming soon
85
SWE-bench Pro
57

Multimodal & Grounded

GPT-5.3-Codex-Spark

GPT-5.3-Codex-Spark

88.3

o3-mini

74.4

86
MMMU-Pro
73
91
OfficeQA Pro
76

Reasoning

GPT-5.3-Codex-Spark

GPT-5.3-Codex-Spark

92.7

o3-mini

81.1

94
SimpleQA
Coming soon
92
MuSR
Coming soon
97
BBH
Coming soon
91
LongBench v2
82
92
MRCRv2
80

Knowledge

GPT-5.3-Codex-Spark

GPT-5.3-Codex-Spark

78.3

o3-mini

70.8

97
MMLU
86.9
95
GPQA
77.2
93
SuperGPQA
Coming soon
91
OpenBookQA
Coming soon
88
MMLU-Pro
Coming soon
42
HLE
Coming soon
88
FrontierScience
66

Instruction Following

o3-mini

GPT-5.3-Codex-Spark

92

o3-mini

93.9

92
IFEval
93.9

Multilingual

GPT-5.3-Codex-Spark

GPT-5.3-Codex-Spark

90.8

o3-mini

73

94
MGSM
Coming soon
89
MMLU-ProX
73

Mathematics

GPT-5.3-Codex-Spark

GPT-5.3-Codex-Spark

96.7

o3-mini

87.3

98
AIME 2023
Coming soon
98
AIME 2024
87.3
97
AIME 2025
Coming soon
94
HMMT Feb 2023
Coming soon
96
HMMT Feb 2024
Coming soon
95
HMMT Feb 2025
Coming soon
95
BRUMO 2025
Coming soon
98
MATH-500
Coming soon

Frequently Asked Questions

Which is better, GPT-5.3-Codex-Spark or o3-mini?

GPT-5.3-Codex-Spark is ahead overall, 87 to 71. The biggest single separator in this matchup is SWE-bench Verified, where the scores are 80 and 49.3.

Which is better for knowledge tasks, GPT-5.3-Codex-Spark or o3-mini?

GPT-5.3-Codex-Spark has the edge for knowledge tasks in this comparison, averaging 78.3 versus 70.8. 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 o3-mini?

GPT-5.3-Codex-Spark has the edge for coding in this comparison, averaging 82.3 versus 55.6. Inside this category, SWE-bench Verified is the benchmark that creates the most daylight between them.

Which is better for math, GPT-5.3-Codex-Spark or o3-mini?

GPT-5.3-Codex-Spark has the edge for math in this comparison, averaging 96.7 versus 87.3. Inside this category, AIME 2024 is the benchmark that creates the most daylight between them.

Which is better for reasoning, GPT-5.3-Codex-Spark or o3-mini?

GPT-5.3-Codex-Spark has the edge for reasoning in this comparison, averaging 92.7 versus 81.1. 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 o3-mini?

GPT-5.3-Codex-Spark has the edge for agentic tasks in this comparison, averaging 85.6 versus 66.6. Inside this category, Terminal-Bench 2.0 is the benchmark that creates the most daylight between them.

Which is better for multimodal and grounded tasks, GPT-5.3-Codex-Spark or o3-mini?

GPT-5.3-Codex-Spark has the edge for multimodal and grounded tasks in this comparison, averaging 88.3 versus 74.4. Inside this category, OfficeQA Pro is the benchmark that creates the most daylight between them.

Which is better for instruction following, GPT-5.3-Codex-Spark or o3-mini?

o3-mini has the edge for instruction following in this comparison, averaging 93.9 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 o3-mini?

GPT-5.3-Codex-Spark has the edge for multilingual tasks in this comparison, averaging 90.8 versus 73. Inside this category, MMLU-ProX is the benchmark that creates the most daylight between them.

Last updated: March 12, 2026

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