GPT-4.1 Max vs o3 Max: which model should you choose?
We compared GPT-4.1 Max and o3 Max on price, context window and 12 benchmarks. o3 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
o3 Max
o3 Max is a frontier model from OpenAI. It offers a 2,000,000-token context window, costs $17.82 per million input tokens and $90.55 per million output tokens, and averages 84.8 across the index's benchmark suite.
- Input
- $17.82 / 1M
- Output
- $90.55 / 1M
- Context
- 2,000,000
- Avg score
- 84.8
- Open weights
- No
Specification comparison
| Spec | GPT-4.1 Max | o3 Max | Edge |
|---|---|---|---|
| Input price / 1M | $17.34 | $17.82 | A |
| Output price / 1M | $66.38 | $90.55 | A |
| Context window | 400,000 | 2,000,000 | B |
| Max output | 8,192 | 128,000 | B |
| Average score | 84.7 | 84.8 | B |
| Arena Elo | 1467.6 | 1465.2 | A |
| Open weights | No | No | Tie |
Benchmark comparison
GPT-4.1 Max wins 5, o3 Max wins 7, and 0 benchmarks are tied. The table shows the modelled score for each model and the gap.
| Benchmark | GPT-4.1 Max | o3 Max | Gap | Winner |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| MMLU-Pro | 87.4 | 84.9 | 2.5 | GPT-4.1 Max |
| GPQA Diamond | 81.2 | 82.7 | 1.5 | o3 Max |
| SWE-bench Verified | 74.8 | 71.8 | 3.0 | GPT-4.1 Max |
| HumanEval | 88.8 | 89.8 | 1.0 | o3 Max |
| MATH-500 | 87.3 | 87.0 | 0.3 | GPT-4.1 Max |
| AIME 2025 | 84.9 | 86.2 | 1.3 | o3 Max |
| LiveCodeBench | 78.5 | 76.4 | 2.1 | GPT-4.1 Max |
| IFEval | 92.1 | 92.5 | 0.4 | o3 Max |
| TruthfulQA | 85.4 | 87.3 | 1.9 | o3 Max |
| HellaSwag | 90.7 | 93.4 | 2.7 | o3 Max |
| MMMU | 80.5 | 80.8 | 0.3 | o3 Max |
| Arena Elo | 1467.6 | 1465.2 | 2.4 | 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 o3 Max costs about $36.00. GPT-4.1 Max is roughly 18% cheaper than o3 Max. At high volume, that gap compounds quickly, so price should carry real weight unless the quality difference is decisive.
o3 Max has the larger context window at 2,000,000 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 5, o3 Max wins 7, and 0 are tied. On the index average, o3 Max leads GPT-4.1 Max by 0.1 points (84.8 versus 84.7).
The price picture favours GPT-4.1 Max. The context picture favours o3 Max. 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 o3 Max for quality-sensitive work and GPT-4.1 Max for high-volume, well-scoped tasks. Run both on a sample of your own traffic before locking in a choice.
Choose GPT-4.1 Max if
- Unit cost matters and you want the cheaper blended price.
Choose o3 Max if
- You want the higher average benchmark score in this index.
- You need the larger 2,000,000-token context window.
- You need the larger 128,000-token output limit.
FAQ
Is GPT-4.1 Max better than o3 Max?
On the index average, o3 Max leads GPT-4.1 Max by 0.1 points (84.8 versus 84.7). The better choice depends on price, context and your task. GPT-4.1 Max wins 5 benchmarks, o3 Max wins 7.
Which is cheaper, GPT-4.1 Max or o3 Max?
GPT-4.1 Max is cheaper on a blended 3:1 basis at about $29.60 per million tokens, versus $36.00 for o3 Max.
Which has the larger context window?
o3 Max has the larger context window at 2,000,000 tokens. GPT-4.1 Max has 400,000 tokens.
Are these models open weights?
GPT-4.1 Max is proprietary; o3 Max is proprietary.
Which should I choose for production?
If you need a single default, start with o3 Max for quality-sensitive work and GPT-4.1 Max for high-volume, well-scoped tasks. Run both on a sample of your own traffic before locking in a choice.