GPT-4.1 Reasoning vs o4 Vision: which model should you choose?
We compared GPT-4.1 Reasoning and o4 Vision on price, context window and 12 benchmarks. o4 Vision has the stronger average benchmark score; GPT-4.1 Reasoning is cheaper on a blended 3:1 basis.
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
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 Reasoning | o4 Vision | Edge |
|---|---|---|---|
| Input price / 1M | $16.97 | $17.01 | A |
| Output price / 1M | $82.05 | $90.05 | A |
| Context window | 1,000,000 | 200,000 | A |
| Max output | 4,096 | 4,096 | Tie |
| Average score | 83.8 | 84.5 | B |
| Arena Elo | 1466.7 | 1473.2 | B |
| Open weights | No | No | Tie |
Benchmark comparison
GPT-4.1 Reasoning wins 3, o4 Vision wins 9, and 0 benchmarks are tied. The table shows the modelled score for each model and the gap.
| Benchmark | GPT-4.1 Reasoning | o4 Vision | Gap | Winner |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| MMLU-Pro | 87.3 | 84.2 | 3.1 | GPT-4.1 Reasoning |
| GPQA Diamond | 77.8 | 80.9 | 3.1 | o4 Vision |
| SWE-bench Verified | 73.1 | 75.6 | 2.5 | o4 Vision |
| HumanEval | 88.8 | 88.9 | 0.1 | o4 Vision |
| MATH-500 | 89.1 | 91.7 | 2.6 | o4 Vision |
| AIME 2025 | 82.1 | 80.4 | 1.7 | GPT-4.1 Reasoning |
| LiveCodeBench | 80.5 | 81.3 | 0.8 | o4 Vision |
| IFEval | 91.6 | 89.1 | 2.5 | GPT-4.1 Reasoning |
| TruthfulQA | 84.3 | 85.3 | 1.0 | o4 Vision |
| HellaSwag | 89.4 | 91.2 | 1.8 | o4 Vision |
| MMMU | 77.5 | 80.7 | 3.2 | o4 Vision |
| Arena Elo | 1466.7 | 1473.2 | 6.5 | o4 Vision |
Price analysis
On a blended 3:1 input-to-output basis, GPT-4.1 Reasoning costs about $33.24 per million tokens and o4 Vision costs about $35.27. GPT-4.1 Reasoning is roughly 6% 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 Reasoning has the larger context window at 1,000,000 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 Reasoning wins 3, o4 Vision wins 9, and 0 are tied. On the index average, o4 Vision leads GPT-4.1 Reasoning by 0.7 points (84.5 versus 83.8).
The price picture favours GPT-4.1 Reasoning. 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 o4 Vision for quality-sensitive work and GPT-4.1 Reasoning for high-volume, well-scoped tasks. Run both on a sample of your own traffic before locking in a choice.
Choose GPT-4.1 Reasoning if
- Unit cost matters and you want the cheaper blended price.
- You need the larger 1,000,000-token context window.
Choose o4 Vision if
- You want the higher average benchmark score in this index.
FAQ
Is GPT-4.1 Reasoning better than o4 Vision?
On the index average, o4 Vision leads GPT-4.1 Reasoning by 0.7 points (84.5 versus 83.8). The better choice depends on price, context and your task. GPT-4.1 Reasoning wins 3 benchmarks, o4 Vision wins 9.
Which is cheaper, GPT-4.1 Reasoning or o4 Vision?
GPT-4.1 Reasoning is cheaper on a blended 3:1 basis at about $33.24 per million tokens, versus $35.27 for o4 Vision.
Which has the larger context window?
GPT-4.1 Reasoning has the larger context window at 1,000,000 tokens. o4 Vision has 200,000 tokens.
Are these models open weights?
GPT-4.1 Reasoning is proprietary; o4 Vision is proprietary.
Which should I choose for production?
If you need a single default, start with o4 Vision for quality-sensitive work and GPT-4.1 Reasoning for high-volume, well-scoped tasks. Run both on a sample of your own traffic before locking in a choice.