ERNIE 4.5 Max vs GPT-4.1 Vision: which model should you choose?
We compared ERNIE 4.5 Max and GPT-4.1 Vision on price, context window and 12 benchmarks. GPT-4.1 Vision has the stronger average benchmark score; ERNIE 4.5 Max is cheaper on a blended 3:1 basis.
ERNIE 4.5 Max
ERNIE 4.5 Max is a multimodal model from Baidu. It offers a 128,000-token context window, costs $14.41 per million input tokens and $53.71 per million output tokens, and averages 80.6 across the index's benchmark suite.
- Input
- $14.41 / 1M
- Output
- $53.71 / 1M
- Context
- 128,000
- Avg score
- 80.6
- Open weights
- No
GPT-4.1 Vision
GPT-4.1 Vision is a multimodal model from OpenAI. It offers a 1,000,000-token context window, costs $14.88 per million input tokens and $81.24 per million output tokens, and averages 82.0 across the index's benchmark suite.
- Input
- $14.88 / 1M
- Output
- $81.24 / 1M
- Context
- 1,000,000
- Avg score
- 82.0
- Open weights
- No
Specification comparison
| Spec | ERNIE 4.5 Max | GPT-4.1 Vision | Edge |
|---|---|---|---|
| Input price / 1M | $14.41 | $14.88 | A |
| Output price / 1M | $53.71 | $81.24 | A |
| Context window | 128,000 | 1,000,000 | B |
| Max output | 65,536 | 8,192 | A |
| Average score | 80.6 | 82.0 | B |
| Arena Elo | 1423.7 | 1451.8 | B |
| Open weights | No | No | Tie |
Benchmark comparison
ERNIE 4.5 Max wins 3, GPT-4.1 Vision wins 9, and 0 benchmarks are tied. The table shows the modelled score for each model and the gap.
| Benchmark | ERNIE 4.5 Max | GPT-4.1 Vision | Gap | Winner |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| MMLU-Pro | 80.8 | 84.0 | 3.2 | GPT-4.1 Vision |
| GPQA Diamond | 76.4 | 79.3 | 2.9 | GPT-4.1 Vision |
| SWE-bench Verified | 68.9 | 72.4 | 3.5 | GPT-4.1 Vision |
| HumanEval | 87.7 | 86.8 | 0.9 | ERNIE 4.5 Max |
| MATH-500 | 84.2 | 87.5 | 3.3 | GPT-4.1 Vision |
| AIME 2025 | 79.5 | 77.2 | 2.3 | ERNIE 4.5 Max |
| LiveCodeBench | 73.0 | 74.3 | 1.3 | GPT-4.1 Vision |
| IFEval | 87.1 | 88.7 | 1.6 | GPT-4.1 Vision |
| TruthfulQA | 83.6 | 84.4 | 0.8 | GPT-4.1 Vision |
| HellaSwag | 87.7 | 89.7 | 2.0 | GPT-4.1 Vision |
| MMMU | 78.1 | 77.5 | 0.6 | ERNIE 4.5 Max |
| Arena Elo | 1423.7 | 1451.8 | 28.1 | GPT-4.1 Vision |
Price analysis
On a blended 3:1 input-to-output basis, ERNIE 4.5 Max costs about $24.23 per million tokens and GPT-4.1 Vision costs about $31.47. ERNIE 4.5 Max is roughly 23% cheaper than GPT-4.1 Vision. At high volume, that gap compounds quickly, so price should carry real weight unless the quality difference is decisive.
GPT-4.1 Vision has the larger context window at 1,000,000 tokens, compared with 128,000 for ERNIE 4.5 Max. That matters for long documents, large codebases and multi-step agent traces.
Verdict
Across 12 shared benchmarks, ERNIE 4.5 Max wins 3, GPT-4.1 Vision wins 9, and 0 are tied. On the index average, GPT-4.1 Vision leads ERNIE 4.5 Max by 1.4 points (82.0 versus 80.6).
The price picture favours ERNIE 4.5 Max. The context picture favours GPT-4.1 Vision. Those two dimensions often matter more than a few benchmark points once a model is good enough for the task.
If you need a single default, start with GPT-4.1 Vision for quality-sensitive work and ERNIE 4.5 Max for high-volume, well-scoped tasks. Run both on a sample of your own traffic before locking in a choice.
Choose ERNIE 4.5 Max if
- Unit cost matters and you want the cheaper blended price.
- You need the larger 65,536-token output limit.
Choose GPT-4.1 Vision if
- You want the higher average benchmark score in this index.
- You need the larger 1,000,000-token context window.
FAQ
Is ERNIE 4.5 Max better than GPT-4.1 Vision?
On the index average, GPT-4.1 Vision leads ERNIE 4.5 Max by 1.4 points (82.0 versus 80.6). The better choice depends on price, context and your task. ERNIE 4.5 Max wins 3 benchmarks, GPT-4.1 Vision wins 9.
Which is cheaper, ERNIE 4.5 Max or GPT-4.1 Vision?
ERNIE 4.5 Max is cheaper on a blended 3:1 basis at about $24.23 per million tokens, versus $31.47 for GPT-4.1 Vision.
Which has the larger context window?
GPT-4.1 Vision has the larger context window at 1,000,000 tokens. ERNIE 4.5 Max has 128,000 tokens.
Are these models open weights?
ERNIE 4.5 Max is proprietary; GPT-4.1 Vision is proprietary.
Which should I choose for production?
If you need a single default, start with GPT-4.1 Vision for quality-sensitive work and ERNIE 4.5 Max for high-volume, well-scoped tasks. Run both on a sample of your own traffic before locking in a choice.