Side-by-side benchmark comparison across knowledge, coding, math, and reasoning.
GPT-5 mini is clearly ahead on the aggregate, 74 to 56. The gap is large enough that you do not need to squint at the spreadsheet to see the difference.
GPT-5 mini's sharpest advantage is in coding, where it averages 52.7 against 49.3. The single biggest benchmark swing on the page is IFEval, 82 to 93.9. o3-mini does hit back in instruction following, so the answer changes if that is the part of the workload you care about most.
o3-mini gives you the larger context window at 200K, compared with 128K for GPT-5 mini.
Pick GPT-5 mini if you want the stronger benchmark profile. o3-mini only becomes the better choice if instruction following is the priority or you need the larger 200K context window.
GPT-5 mini
71.5
o3-mini
82.1
GPT-5 mini
52.7
o3-mini
49.3
GPT-5 mini
88.5
o3-mini
87.3
GPT-5 mini
82
o3-mini
93.9
GPT-5 mini is ahead overall, 74 to 56. The biggest single separator in this matchup is IFEval, where the scores are 82 and 93.9.
o3-mini has the edge for knowledge tasks in this comparison, averaging 82.1 versus 71.5. Inside this category, GPQA is the benchmark that creates the most daylight between them.
GPT-5 mini has the edge for coding in this comparison, averaging 52.7 versus 49.3. Inside this category, SWE-bench Verified is the benchmark that creates the most daylight between them.
GPT-5 mini has the edge for math in this comparison, averaging 88.5 versus 87.3. Inside this category, AIME 2024 is the benchmark that creates the most daylight between them.
o3-mini has the edge for instruction following in this comparison, averaging 93.9 versus 82. Inside this category, IFEval is the benchmark that creates the most daylight between them.
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