Skip to main content
Radar

Five or fewer confirmed AI changes, with original sources, on mornings when something changed.A free source-linked morning brief.

See the free Radar Brief
OpenAI logo
Model A
GPT-5.5

OpenAI

73.27/100

Supported · Public rank #9

90% interval 71.075.6

GPT-5.5 vs GPT-5 mini

Updated September 4, 2026. Public scores include evidence status and uncertainty. They are not guarantees for a specific workload.

OpenAI logo
Model B
GPT-5 mini

OpenAI

46.29/100

Supported · Public rank #163

90% interval 41.750.9

Decision reading

GPT-5.5 has the higher public score, 73.27 versus 46.29, and the 90% score intervals do not overlap.

1 results are shared. Category rows resting on Estimated evidence or different benchmark sets are marked directional and do not name a winner.

Share or export

Share on XLinkedInSocial cardCSVJSON

Which one for your work

Recommendations appear only when a shared evidence basis or an explicit operating constraint supports the call. Secondary and unsupported use cases stay disclosed below the initial list.

  • Long documents

    Prompts that approach the documented context limit

    GPT-5.5

    GPT-5.5 has the larger documented context window.

    Confidence: documented

  • Chat turn cost

    1K fresh input + 500 output tokens

    GPT-5 mini

    GPT-5 mini has the lower estimated token cost for this stated workload. Costs use the listed standard API rates.

    Confidence: listed-rates

Show secondary and unsupported calls
  • Repository review cost

    50K fresh input + 3K output tokens

    GPT-5 mini

    GPT-5 mini has the lower estimated token cost for this stated workload. Costs use the listed standard API rates.

    Confidence: listed-rates

  • Coding work

    Code generation, repair, and software-engineering tasks

    Not enough matched evidence

    GPT-5 mini is scored on Estimated evidence for coding, so the reading is directional rather than like-for-like.

    Confidence: limited

  • Agentic work

    Tool use, computer use, and multi-step task completion

    Not enough matched evidence

    GPT-5 mini is scored on Estimated evidence for agentic, so the reading is directional rather than like-for-like.

    Confidence: limited

  • Cache-heavy agent loop cost

    200K cached + 20K fresh input + 10K output tokens

    Not enough matched evidence

    The page does not recommend a cost winner because at least one model cannot fit the stated workload in one request. GPT-5 mini does not fit this workload in one request. GPT-5 mini has no published cached-input rate, so cached tokens use its listed input rate.

    Confidence: rate-fallback

What is actually comparable

Shared results can support a head-to-head reading. Results present for only one model describe coverage, not superiority.

Shared results
1
GPT-5.5 only
37
GPT-5 mini only
0
Like-for-like categories
0 / 8

2 categories rest on Estimated evidence or different evidence sets. Those rows remain visible for coverage context but do not name a winner.

Category results, on a stated basis

Each row shows the public-lane category score for both models: the BenchAlign lane for agentic, coding, and knowledge, and the weighted public rows elsewhere, with the same rank each model page reports. A row is like-for-like only when both scores rest on Supported evidence or the same weighted set. Directional and not-comparable rows remain visible, but they never receive a winner.

Agentic

Directional only
GPT-5.5
63.9
Supported · #15/151
GPT-5 mini
42.3
Estimated · #114/151
Basis
BenchAlign lane · 13 vs 0 public rows
Reading
Directional only

Coding

Directional only
GPT-5.5
67.7
Supported · #8/183
GPT-5 mini
41.4
Estimated · #133/183
Basis
BenchAlign lane · 9 vs 1 public rows
Reading
Directional only

Reasoning

Not comparable
GPT-5.5
63.5
#15/22
GPT-5 mini
Not ranked
Basis
Provisional lane · 2 vs 0 weighted rows
Reading
Not comparable

Knowledge

Not comparable
GPT-5.5
73.3
Supported · #7/181
GPT-5 mini
Not ranked
Basis
BenchAlign lane · 6 vs 0 public rows
Reading
Not comparable

Math

Not comparable
GPT-5.5
69.6
Unranked · 3 rankable rows
GPT-5 mini
Not ranked
Basis
Provisional lane · 2 vs 0 weighted rows
Reading
Not comparable

Multilingual

Not comparable
GPT-5.5
Not ranked
GPT-5 mini
Not ranked
Basis
Provisional lane · 0 vs 0 weighted rows
Reading
Not comparable

Multimodal

Not comparable
GPT-5.5
71.3
#19/48
GPT-5 mini
Not ranked
Basis
Provisional lane · 2 vs 0 weighted rows
Reading
Not comparable

Instruction following

Not comparable
GPT-5.5
92.9
#7/120
GPT-5 mini
Not ranked
Basis
Provisional lane · 0 vs 0 weighted rows
Reading
Not comparable

Ranks count the models scored in each category’s lane, so the agentic, coding, and knowledge denominators (BenchAlign) differ from the provisional-lane categories. Unranked scores sit on the lane’s scale but never name a winner. Like-for-like rows within 0.5 points read as a practical tie.

Shape of the matched evidence

Only shared public evidence is shown. Sparse evidence stays a ruled list rather than being closed into a radar shape.

A shared-evidence shape is not available.

BenchLM does not draw a radar or infer missing axes when the matched evidence is too sparse.

What each workload costs

Three fixed token mixes turn per-token rates into comparable decisions. Each scenario states context fit and whether cached input had to fall back to the published list-input rate.

Chat turn

1K fresh input + 500 output tokens

GPT-5.5
$0.02
Fits in one request
GPT-5 mini
$0.00125
Fits in one request

GPT-5 mini has the lower modeled cost

Costs use the listed standard API rates.

Repository review

50K fresh input + 3K output tokens

GPT-5.5
$0.34
Fits in one request
GPT-5 mini
$0.0185
Fits in one request

GPT-5 mini has the lower modeled cost

Costs use the listed standard API rates.

Cache-heavy agent loop

200K cached + 20K fresh input + 10K output tokens

GPT-5.5
$0.5
Fits in one request
GPT-5 mini
$0.075
Does not fit in one request
Cached input priced at the published list-input rate

GPT-5 mini does not fit this workload in one request. GPT-5 mini has no published cached-input rate, so cached tokens use its listed input rate.

Specification differences

Sourced differences are shown directly. Missing facts stay explicit instead of being inferred from a model name or family.

Context window

Maximum documented context; output-token limits may be lower.

GPT-5 mini

128K

Cached-input rate

A missing cached-input rate falls back to the listed input rate only in the stated workload estimate.

GPT-5.5

$0.5 per 1M cached input tokens

OpenAI pricing

GPT-5 mini

Not published

Documented inputs

GPT-5.5

Not sourced

GPT-5 mini

Not sourced

Documented outputs

GPT-5.5

Not sourced

GPT-5 mini

Not sourced

Provider availability

GPT-5.5

Not sourced

GPT-5 mini

Not sourced

Reasoning profile

GPT-5.5

Reasoning

GPT-5 mini

Reasoning

Weight access

GPT-5.5

Proprietary

GPT-5 mini

Proprietary

License

GPT-5.5

Proprietary

GPT-5 mini

Proprietary

Release date

GPT-5.5

2026-04-23

GPT-5 mini

2025-08-07

If you already use one of these models
Deployment change
Both entries list OpenAI as the provider. Confirm endpoint, model ID, limits, and feature support before switching.
Quality signal
GPT-5.5 has the higher public score, 73.27 versus 46.29, and the 90% score intervals do not overlap.
Workload cost
Repository review: $0.34 vs $0.0185. Cache-heavy agent loop: $0.5 vs $0.075.
Context tradeoff
GPT-5.5 has the larger documented window (1M).

Run the same representative tasks against both endpoints before changing production traffic.

Benchmark evidence

The full public result ledger is available for audit without forcing a wide desktop table onto a phone.

Browse raw public benchmark evidence38 rows

Agentic

  • Terminal-Bench 2.0

    GPT-5.582%
    Source
    GPT-5 mini

    Not directly comparable

  • CyberGym

    GPT-5.581.8%
    Source
    GPT-5 mini

    Not directly comparable

  • BrowseComp

    GPT-5.584.4%
    Source
    GPT-5 mini

    Not directly comparable

  • OSWorld-Verified

    GPT-5.578.7%
    Source
    GPT-5 mini

    Not directly comparable

  • MCP Atlas

    GPT-5.575.3%
    Source
    GPT-5 mini

    Not directly comparable

  • Toolathlon

    GPT-5.555.6%
    Source
    GPT-5 mini

    Not directly comparable

  • τ²-bench results

    GPT-5.598%
    Source
    GPT-5 mini

    Not directly comparable

  • Gert Labs

    GPT-5.572.93%
    Source
    GPT-5 mini

    Not directly comparable

  • ResearchClawBench

    GPT-5.517.0%
    Source
    GPT-5 mini

    Not directly comparable

  • OSWorld 2.0

    GPT-5.513.0%
    Source
    GPT-5 mini

    Not directly comparable

  • JobBench

    GPT-5.542.7%
    Source
    GPT-5 mini

    Not directly comparable

  • ExploitGym

    GPT-5.513.4%
    Source
    GPT-5 mini

    Not directly comparable

  • Terminal-Bench 2.1 (Vals)

    GPT-5.576.4%
    Source
    GPT-5 mini

    Not directly comparable

Coding

  • SWE-bench Pro

    GPT-5.558.6%
    Source
    GPT-5 mini

    Not directly comparable

  • Terminal-Bench 2.0

    GPT-5.582.0%
    Source
    GPT-5 mini

    Not directly comparable

  • Vibe Code Bench

    Shared source
    GPT-5.569.85%
    GPT-5 mini14.17%

    GPT-5.5 leads this result

  • React Native Evals

    GPT-5.584.7%
    Source
    GPT-5 mini

    Not directly comparable

  • cursorBench31

    GPT-5.559.2%
    Source
    GPT-5 mini

    Not directly comparable

  • cursorBench32

    GPT-5.558.4%
    Source
    GPT-5 mini

    Not directly comparable

  • FrontierCode 1.1 Main

    GPT-5.543.0%
    Source
    GPT-5 mini

    Not directly comparable

  • LiveCodeBench (Vals)

    GPT-5.585.3%
    Source
    GPT-5 mini

    Not directly comparable

  • SWE-bench (Vals)

    GPT-5.582.6%
    Source
    GPT-5 mini

    Not directly comparable

Reasoning

  • MRCR v2 64K-128K

    GPT-5.583.1%
    Source
    GPT-5 mini

    Not directly comparable

  • MRCR v2 128K-256K

    GPT-5.587.5%
    Source
    GPT-5 mini

    Not directly comparable

  • ARC-AGI-2

    GPT-5.585%
    Source
    GPT-5 mini

    Not directly comparable

  • ARC-AGI-3

    GPT-5.50.4%
    Source
    GPT-5 mini

    Not directly comparable

Knowledge

  • GPQA

    GPT-5.593.6%
    Source
    GPT-5 mini

    Not directly comparable

  • GPQA-D

    GPT-5.593.6%
    Source
    GPT-5 mini

    Not directly comparable

  • HLE

    GPT-5.552.2%
    Source
    GPT-5 mini

    Not directly comparable

  • HLE w/o tools

    GPT-5.541.4%
    Source
    GPT-5 mini

    Not directly comparable

  • GPQA Diamond (Vals)

    GPT-5.593.2%
    Source
    GPT-5 mini

    Not directly comparable

  • MMLU-Pro (Vals)

    GPT-5.588.1%
    Source
    GPT-5 mini

    Not directly comparable

Math

  • FrontierMath (legacy)

    GPT-5.551.7%
    Source
    GPT-5 mini

    Not directly comparable

  • FrontierMath v2 (Tiers 1-3)

    GPT-5.551.700%
    Source
    GPT-5 mini

    Not directly comparable

  • FrontierMath v2 (Tier 4)

    GPT-5.535.400%
    Source
    GPT-5 mini

    Not directly comparable

Multimodal

  • MMMU-Pro

    GPT-5.581.2%
    Source
    GPT-5 mini

    Not directly comparable

  • MMMU-Pro w/ Python

    GPT-5.583.2%
    Source
    GPT-5 mini

    Not directly comparable

  • OfficeQA Pro

    GPT-5.554.1%
    Source
    GPT-5 mini

    Not directly comparable

Frequently asked questions

Which is better, GPT-5.5 or GPT-5 mini?

GPT-5.5 has the higher public score, 73.27 versus 46.29, and the 90% score intervals do not overlap. That is the clearest overall quality signal in the current public data.

Which is better for coding, GPT-5.5 or GPT-5 mini?

GPT-5.5 scores higher for coding on the public lane, 67.7 to 41.4. GPT-5 mini is scored on Estimated evidence for coding, so the reading is directional rather than like-for-like. BenchLM does not name a winner for coding from a directional reading; read the shared benchmark rows directly and test the models on the same task set.

Which is better for agentic tasks, GPT-5.5 or GPT-5 mini?

GPT-5.5 scores higher for agentic tasks on the public lane, 63.9 to 42.3. GPT-5 mini is scored on Estimated evidence for agentic tasks, so the reading is directional rather than like-for-like. BenchLM does not name a winner for agentic tasks from a directional reading; read the shared benchmark rows directly and test the models on the same task set.

Which costs less, GPT-5.5 or GPT-5 mini?

For the stated presets, chat costs $0.02 on GPT-5.5 and $0.00125 on GPT-5 mini; repository review costs $0.34 and $0.0185; the cache-heavy agent loop costs $0.5 and $0.075. GPT-5 mini does not fit this workload in one request. GPT-5 mini has no published cached-input rate, so cached tokens use its listed input rate.

Which has the larger context window, GPT-5.5 or GPT-5 mini?

GPT-5.5 has the larger documented context window: 1M, compared with 128K.

Related comparisons

Last updated September 4, 2026

Watch GPT-5.5 vs GPT-5 mini

One weekly email when material rank, price, or benchmark evidence changes make this matchup worth revisiting.

Read a sample issue

Join 2,000+ readers.