GPT-4.1 Max vs GPT-4.1 Reasoning: which model should you choose?
We compared GPT-4.1 Max and GPT-4.1 Reasoning on price, context window and 12 benchmarks. GPT-4.1 Max has the stronger average benchmark score; GPT-4.1 Max is cheaper on a blended 3:1 basis.
GPT-4.1 Max
GPT-4.1 Max is a frontier model from OpenAI. It offers a 400,000-token context window, costs $17.34 per million input tokens and $66.38 per million output tokens, and averages 84.7 across the index's benchmark suite.
- Input
- $17.34 / 1M
- Output
- $66.38 / 1M
- Context
- 400,000
- Avg score
- 84.7
- Open weights
- No
GPT-4.1 Reasoning
GPT-4.1 Reasoning is a frontier model from OpenAI. It offers a 1,000,000-token context window, costs $16.97 per million input tokens and $82.05 per million output tokens, and averages 83.8 across the index's benchmark suite.
- Input
- $16.97 / 1M
- Output
- $82.05 / 1M
- Context
- 1,000,000
- Avg score
- 83.8
- Open weights
- No
Specification comparison
| Spec | GPT-4.1 Max | GPT-4.1 Reasoning | Edge |
|---|---|---|---|
| Input price / 1M | $17.34 | $16.97 | B |
| Output price / 1M | $66.38 | $82.05 | A |
| Context window | 400,000 | 1,000,000 | B |
| Max output | 8,192 | 4,096 | A |
| Average score | 84.7 | 83.8 | A |
| Arena Elo | 1467.6 | 1466.7 | A |
| Open weights | No | No | Tie |
Benchmark comparison
GPT-4.1 Max wins 9, GPT-4.1 Reasoning wins 2, and 1 benchmarks are tied. The table shows the modelled score for each model and the gap.
| Benchmark | GPT-4.1 Max | GPT-4.1 Reasoning | Gap | Winner |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| MMLU-Pro | 87.4 | 87.3 | 0.1 | GPT-4.1 Max |
| GPQA Diamond | 81.2 | 77.8 | 3.4 | GPT-4.1 Max |
| SWE-bench Verified | 74.8 | 73.1 | 1.7 | GPT-4.1 Max |
| HumanEval | 88.8 | 88.8 | 0.0 | Tie |
| MATH-500 | 87.3 | 89.1 | 1.8 | GPT-4.1 Reasoning |
| AIME 2025 | 84.9 | 82.1 | 2.8 | GPT-4.1 Max |
| LiveCodeBench | 78.5 | 80.5 | 2.0 | GPT-4.1 Reasoning |
| IFEval | 92.1 | 91.6 | 0.5 | GPT-4.1 Max |
| TruthfulQA | 85.4 | 84.3 | 1.1 | GPT-4.1 Max |
| HellaSwag | 90.7 | 89.4 | 1.3 | GPT-4.1 Max |
| MMMU | 80.5 | 77.5 | 3.0 | GPT-4.1 Max |
| Arena Elo | 1467.6 | 1466.7 | 0.9 | GPT-4.1 Max |
Price analysis
On a blended 3:1 input-to-output basis, GPT-4.1 Max costs about $29.60 per million tokens and GPT-4.1 Reasoning costs about $33.24. GPT-4.1 Max is roughly 11% cheaper than GPT-4.1 Reasoning. At high volume, that gap compounds quickly, so price should carry real weight unless the quality difference is decisive.
GPT-4.1 Reasoning has the larger context window at 1,000,000 tokens, compared with 400,000 for GPT-4.1 Max. That matters for long documents, large codebases and multi-step agent traces.
Verdict
Across 12 shared benchmarks, GPT-4.1 Max wins 9, GPT-4.1 Reasoning wins 2, and 1 are tied. On the index average, GPT-4.1 Max leads GPT-4.1 Reasoning by 0.9 points (84.7 versus 83.8).
The price picture favours GPT-4.1 Max. The context picture favours GPT-4.1 Reasoning. 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 Max for quality-sensitive work, and check whether its price holds at your expected volume before committing.
Choose GPT-4.1 Max if
- You want the higher average benchmark score in this index.
- Unit cost matters and you want the cheaper blended price.
- You need the larger 8,192-token output limit.
Choose GPT-4.1 Reasoning if
- You need the larger 1,000,000-token context window.
FAQ
Is GPT-4.1 Max better than GPT-4.1 Reasoning?
On the index average, GPT-4.1 Max leads GPT-4.1 Reasoning by 0.9 points (84.7 versus 83.8). The better choice depends on price, context and your task. GPT-4.1 Max wins 9 benchmarks, GPT-4.1 Reasoning wins 2.
Which is cheaper, GPT-4.1 Max or GPT-4.1 Reasoning?
GPT-4.1 Max is cheaper on a blended 3:1 basis at about $29.60 per million tokens, versus $33.24 for GPT-4.1 Reasoning.
Which has the larger context window?
GPT-4.1 Reasoning has the larger context window at 1,000,000 tokens. GPT-4.1 Max has 400,000 tokens.
Are these models open weights?
GPT-4.1 Max is proprietary; GPT-4.1 Reasoning is proprietary.
Which should I choose for production?
If you need a single default, start with GPT-4.1 Max for quality-sensitive work, and check whether its price holds at your expected volume before committing.