GPT-5.3 Instant vs Nova Pro

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

GPT-5.3 Instant is clearly ahead on the aggregate, 87 to 38. The gap is large enough that you do not need to squint at the spreadsheet to see the difference.

GPT-5.3 Instant's sharpest advantage is in coding, where it averages 78.7 against 17.2. The single biggest benchmark swing on the page is SWE-bench Pro, 83 to 20.

GPT-5.3 Instant is the reasoning model in the pair, while Nova Pro 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.

Quick Verdict

Pick GPT-5.3 Instant if you want the stronger benchmark profile. Nova Pro only becomes the better choice if you would rather avoid the extra latency and token burn of a reasoning model.

Agentic

GPT-5.3 Instant

GPT-5.3 Instant

82.9

Nova Pro

33.3

86
Terminal-Bench 2.0
31
82
BrowseComp
39
80
OSWorld-Verified
32

Coding

GPT-5.3 Instant

GPT-5.3 Instant

78.7

Nova Pro

17.2

88
HumanEval
33
76
SWE-bench Verified
19
75
LiveCodeBench
14
83
SWE-bench Pro
20

Multimodal & Grounded

GPT-5.3 Instant

GPT-5.3 Instant

95

Nova Pro

41.1

95
MMMU-Pro
37
95
OfficeQA Pro
46

Reasoning

GPT-5.3 Instant

GPT-5.3 Instant

94.2

Nova Pro

46.3

96
SimpleQA
39
94
MuSR
37
97
BBH
63
92
LongBench v2
51
94
MRCRv2
51

Knowledge

GPT-5.3 Instant

GPT-5.3 Instant

80.8

Nova Pro

34.2

99
MMLU
41
98
GPQA
40
96
SuperGPQA
38
94
OpenBookQA
36
89
MMLU-Pro
53
44
HLE
4
92
FrontierScience
41

Instruction Following

GPT-5.3 Instant

GPT-5.3 Instant

96

Nova Pro

66

96
IFEval
66

Multilingual

GPT-5.3 Instant

GPT-5.3 Instant

93.4

Nova Pro

60.4

96
MGSM
61
92
MMLU-ProX
60

Mathematics

GPT-5.3 Instant

GPT-5.3 Instant

97.2

Nova Pro

48.6

99
AIME 2023
41
99
AIME 2024
43
98
AIME 2025
42
95
HMMT Feb 2023
37
97
HMMT Feb 2024
39
96
HMMT Feb 2025
38
96
BRUMO 2025
40
98
MATH-500
59

Frequently Asked Questions

Which is better, GPT-5.3 Instant or Nova Pro?

GPT-5.3 Instant is ahead overall, 87 to 38. The biggest single separator in this matchup is SWE-bench Pro, where the scores are 83 and 20.

Which is better for knowledge tasks, GPT-5.3 Instant or Nova Pro?

GPT-5.3 Instant has the edge for knowledge tasks in this comparison, averaging 80.8 versus 34.2. Inside this category, MMLU is the benchmark that creates the most daylight between them.

Which is better for coding, GPT-5.3 Instant or Nova Pro?

GPT-5.3 Instant has the edge for coding in this comparison, averaging 78.7 versus 17.2. Inside this category, SWE-bench Pro is the benchmark that creates the most daylight between them.

Which is better for math, GPT-5.3 Instant or Nova Pro?

GPT-5.3 Instant has the edge for math in this comparison, averaging 97.2 versus 48.6. Inside this category, AIME 2023 is the benchmark that creates the most daylight between them.

Which is better for reasoning, GPT-5.3 Instant or Nova Pro?

GPT-5.3 Instant has the edge for reasoning in this comparison, averaging 94.2 versus 46.3. Inside this category, SimpleQA is the benchmark that creates the most daylight between them.

Which is better for agentic tasks, GPT-5.3 Instant or Nova Pro?

GPT-5.3 Instant has the edge for agentic tasks in this comparison, averaging 82.9 versus 33.3. 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 Instant or Nova Pro?

GPT-5.3 Instant has the edge for multimodal and grounded tasks in this comparison, averaging 95 versus 41.1. Inside this category, MMMU-Pro is the benchmark that creates the most daylight between them.

Which is better for instruction following, GPT-5.3 Instant or Nova Pro?

GPT-5.3 Instant has the edge for instruction following in this comparison, averaging 96 versus 66. Inside this category, IFEval is the benchmark that creates the most daylight between them.

Which is better for multilingual tasks, GPT-5.3 Instant or Nova Pro?

GPT-5.3 Instant has the edge for multilingual tasks in this comparison, averaging 93.4 versus 60.4. Inside this category, MGSM is the benchmark that creates the most daylight between them.

Last updated: March 12, 2026

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