GPT-4.1 Paid vs GPT-4o-mini Paid
GPT-4.1 vs GPT-4o-mini compared — price per token, context window, multimodality, openness and which to choose. Full 2026 breakdown.
GPT-4.1 — full profile › · GPT-4o-mini — full profile ›
Prices & specs refreshed from live data · olud.ai
Open-model prices = cheapest provider via OpenRouter; official maker rates may be higher.
$8 /M outputManaged API (no infra to run)
$0.6 /M outputManaged API (no infra to run)
GPT-4.1 vs GPT-4o-mini specs
| Spec | GPT-4.1 | GPT-4o-mini | Winner |
|---|---|---|---|
| Maker | OpenAI | OpenAI | – |
| Type | Proprietary | Proprietary | – |
| Context window | 1M tokens | 128K tokens | |
| Input price | $2/M | $0.15/M | |
| Output price | $8/M | $0.6/M | |
| Vision / multimodal | Yes | Yes | = Tie |
| Tool / function calling | Yes | Yes | = Tie |
| Self-hostable | No (API only) | No (API only) | – |
| License | Proprietary | Proprietary | – |
Price gap & when to choose each
GPT-4o-mini is ~13× cheaper than GPT-4.1 on output tokens ($0.6 vs $8 per M tokens).
- You want frontier performance through a managed API
- You need the longer 1M context window
- You value reliability & ecosystem
- You don't want to manage infrastructure
- You want frontier performance through a managed API
- You want the lower output price
- You value reliability & ecosystem
- You don't want to manage infrastructure
Feature comparison
| Capability | GPT-4.1 | GPT-4o-mini |
|---|---|---|
| Open weights (downloadable) | ✗ | ✗ |
| Self-hostable | ✗ | ✗ |
| Runs fully offline | ✗ | ✗ |
| Vision / multimodal | ✓ | ✓ |
| Tool / function calling | ✓ | ✓ |
| 1M+ context window | ✓ | ✗ |
Benchmarks: GPT-4.1 vs GPT-4o-mini
Independent benchmark scores measured by Artificial Analysis. Higher is better (except latency).
Benchmark data by Artificial Analysis.
How GPT-4.1 and GPT-4o-mini score
| Criterion | GPT-4.1 | GPT-4o-mini |
|---|---|---|
| Cost-efficiency | 3.5 | 5.0 |
| Context window | 5.0 | 3.5 |
| Openness | 1.5 | 1.5 |
| Self-hosting | 1.0 | 1.0 |
| Multimodality | 5.0 | 5.0 |
Scores come from live data — output price (cost), context length, open vs closed weights (openness & self-hosting) and vision/tool support (multimodality). Raw task quality isn't scored here; it depends on your benchmark — see the verdict.
What each model is
GPT-4.1 Paid
GPT-4.1 is a flagship large language model optimized for advanced instruction following, real-world software engineering, and long-context reasoning. It supports a 1 million token context window and outperforms GPT-4o and...
GPT-4o-mini Paid
GPT-4o mini is OpenAI's newest model after [GPT-4 Omni](/models/openai/gpt-4o), supporting both text and image inputs with text outputs. As their most advanced small model, it is many multiples more affordable...
Other models in these families
These variants are tracked but not compared here — one page per family keeps the comparison readable.
Frequently asked questions
GPT-4.1 vs GPT-4o-mini — which is cheaper?
GPT-4o-mini is cheaper on output ($0.6/M vs $8/M).
Which has the larger context window?
GPT-4.1 offers the larger context window (1M tokens).
GPT-4.1 vs GPT-4o-mini — which should I pick in 2026?
Choose GPT-4o-mini for the lower output price ($0.6/M vs $8/M). Choose GPT-4.1 if you need the larger 1M context window.
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