GPT-4.1 Max vs o4 Vision: which model should you choose?
We compared GPT-4.1 Max and o4 Vision 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
o4 Vision
o4 Vision is a frontier model from OpenAI. It offers a 200,000-token context window, costs $17.01 per million input tokens and $90.05 per million output tokens, and averages 84.5 across the index's benchmark suite.
- Input
- $17.01 / 1M
- Output
- $90.05 / 1M
- Context
- 200,000
- Avg score
- 84.5
- Open weights
- No
Specification comparison
| Spec | GPT-4.1 Max | o4 Vision | Edge |
|---|---|---|---|
| Input price / 1M | $17.34 | $17.01 | B |
| Output price / 1M | $66.38 | $90.05 | A |
| Context window | 400,000 | 200,000 | A |
| Max output | 8,192 | 4,096 | A |
| Average score | 84.7 | 84.5 | A |
| Arena Elo | 1467.6 | 1473.2 | B |
| Open weights | No | No | Tie |
Benchmark comparison
GPT-4.1 Max wins 5, o4 Vision wins 7, and 0 benchmarks are tied. The table shows the modelled score for each model and the gap.
| Benchmark | GPT-4.1 Max | o4 Vision | Gap | Winner |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| MMLU-Pro | 87.4 | 84.2 | 3.2 | GPT-4.1 Max |
| GPQA Diamond | 81.2 | 80.9 | 0.3 | GPT-4.1 Max |
| SWE-bench Verified | 74.8 | 75.6 | 0.8 | o4 Vision |
| HumanEval | 88.8 | 88.9 | 0.1 | o4 Vision |
| MATH-500 | 87.3 | 91.7 | 4.4 | o4 Vision |
| AIME 2025 | 84.9 | 80.4 | 4.5 | GPT-4.1 Max |
| LiveCodeBench | 78.5 | 81.3 | 2.8 | o4 Vision |
| IFEval | 92.1 | 89.1 | 3.0 | GPT-4.1 Max |
| TruthfulQA | 85.4 | 85.3 | 0.1 | GPT-4.1 Max |
| HellaSwag | 90.7 | 91.2 | 0.5 | o4 Vision |
| MMMU | 80.5 | 80.7 | 0.2 | o4 Vision |
| Arena Elo | 1467.6 | 1473.2 | 5.6 | o4 Vision |
Price analysis
On a blended 3:1 input-to-output basis, GPT-4.1 Max costs about $29.60 per million tokens and o4 Vision costs about $35.27. GPT-4.1 Max is roughly 16% cheaper than o4 Vision. At high volume, that gap compounds quickly, so price should carry real weight unless the quality difference is decisive.
GPT-4.1 Max has the larger context window at 400,000 tokens, compared with 200,000 for o4 Vision. That matters for long documents, large codebases and multi-step agent traces.
Verdict
Across 12 shared benchmarks, GPT-4.1 Max wins 5, o4 Vision wins 7, and 0 are tied. On the index average, GPT-4.1 Max leads o4 Vision by 0.2 points (84.7 versus 84.5).
The price picture favours GPT-4.1 Max. The context picture favours GPT-4.1 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 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 400,000-token context window.
- You need the larger 8,192-token output limit.
Choose o4 Vision if
- You prefer OpenAI's tooling or already use it.
FAQ
Is GPT-4.1 Max better than o4 Vision?
On the index average, GPT-4.1 Max leads o4 Vision by 0.2 points (84.7 versus 84.5). The better choice depends on price, context and your task. GPT-4.1 Max wins 5 benchmarks, o4 Vision wins 7.
Which is cheaper, GPT-4.1 Max or o4 Vision?
GPT-4.1 Max is cheaper on a blended 3:1 basis at about $29.60 per million tokens, versus $35.27 for o4 Vision.
Which has the larger context window?
GPT-4.1 Max has the larger context window at 400,000 tokens. o4 Vision has 200,000 tokens.
Are these models open weights?
GPT-4.1 Max is proprietary; o4 Vision 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.