GPT-5.2 Pro vs GPT-5.2 Reasoning: which model should you choose?
We compared GPT-5.2 Pro and GPT-5.2 Reasoning on price, context window and 12 benchmarks. GPT-5.2 Pro has the stronger average benchmark score; GPT-5.2 Pro is cheaper on a blended 3:1 basis.
GPT-5.2 Pro
GPT-5.2 Pro is a frontier model from OpenAI. It offers a 2,000,000-token context window, costs $21.32 per million input tokens and $76.33 per million output tokens, and averages 89.6 across the index's benchmark suite.
- Input
- $21.32 / 1M
- Output
- $76.33 / 1M
- Context
- 2,000,000
- Avg score
- 89.6
- Open weights
- No
GPT-5.2 Reasoning
GPT-5.2 Reasoning is a frontier model from OpenAI. It offers a 1,000,000-token context window, costs $20.98 per million input tokens and $102.78 per million output tokens, and averages 87.5 across the index's benchmark suite.
- Input
- $20.98 / 1M
- Output
- $102.78 / 1M
- Context
- 1,000,000
- Avg score
- 87.5
- Open weights
- No
Specification comparison
| Spec | GPT-5.2 Pro | GPT-5.2 Reasoning | Edge |
|---|---|---|---|
| Input price / 1M | $21.32 | $20.98 | B |
| Output price / 1M | $76.33 | $102.78 | A |
| Context window | 2,000,000 | 1,000,000 | A |
| Max output | 32,768 | 65,536 | B |
| Average score | 89.6 | 87.5 | A |
| Arena Elo | 1485.0 | 1500.4 | B |
| Open weights | No | No | Tie |
Benchmark comparison
GPT-5.2 Pro wins 9, GPT-5.2 Reasoning wins 2, and 1 benchmarks are tied. The table shows the modelled score for each model and the gap.
| Benchmark | GPT-5.2 Pro | GPT-5.2 Reasoning | Gap | Winner |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| MMLU-Pro | 91.6 | 87.0 | 4.6 | GPT-5.2 Pro |
| GPQA Diamond | 83.2 | 87.0 | 3.8 | GPT-5.2 Reasoning |
| SWE-bench Verified | 81.7 | 78.2 | 3.5 | GPT-5.2 Pro |
| HumanEval | 96.8 | 92.4 | 4.4 | GPT-5.2 Pro |
| MATH-500 | 91.8 | 91.4 | 0.4 | GPT-5.2 Pro |
| AIME 2025 | 91.0 | 84.9 | 6.1 | GPT-5.2 Pro |
| LiveCodeBench | 84.6 | 84.6 | 0.0 | Tie |
| IFEval | 95.6 | 95.0 | 0.6 | GPT-5.2 Pro |
| TruthfulQA | 90.0 | 88.2 | 1.8 | GPT-5.2 Pro |
| HellaSwag | 95.3 | 92.5 | 2.8 | GPT-5.2 Pro |
| MMMU | 84.4 | 81.5 | 2.9 | GPT-5.2 Pro |
| Arena Elo | 1485.0 | 1500.4 | 15.4 | GPT-5.2 Reasoning |
Price analysis
On a blended 3:1 input-to-output basis, GPT-5.2 Pro costs about $35.07 per million tokens and GPT-5.2 Reasoning costs about $41.43. GPT-5.2 Pro is roughly 15% cheaper than GPT-5.2 Reasoning. At high volume, that gap compounds quickly, so price should carry real weight unless the quality difference is decisive.
GPT-5.2 Pro has the larger context window at 2,000,000 tokens, compared with 1,000,000 for GPT-5.2 Reasoning. That matters for long documents, large codebases and multi-step agent traces.
Verdict
Across 12 shared benchmarks, GPT-5.2 Pro wins 9, GPT-5.2 Reasoning wins 2, and 1 are tied. On the index average, GPT-5.2 Pro leads GPT-5.2 Reasoning by 2.1 points (89.6 versus 87.5).
The price picture favours GPT-5.2 Pro. The context picture favours GPT-5.2 Pro. 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-5.2 Pro for quality-sensitive work, and check whether its price holds at your expected volume before committing.
Choose GPT-5.2 Pro 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 2,000,000-token context window.
Choose GPT-5.2 Reasoning if
- You need the larger 65,536-token output limit.
FAQ
Is GPT-5.2 Pro better than GPT-5.2 Reasoning?
On the index average, GPT-5.2 Pro leads GPT-5.2 Reasoning by 2.1 points (89.6 versus 87.5). The better choice depends on price, context and your task. GPT-5.2 Pro wins 9 benchmarks, GPT-5.2 Reasoning wins 2.
Which is cheaper, GPT-5.2 Pro or GPT-5.2 Reasoning?
GPT-5.2 Pro is cheaper on a blended 3:1 basis at about $35.07 per million tokens, versus $41.43 for GPT-5.2 Reasoning.
Which has the larger context window?
GPT-5.2 Pro has the larger context window at 2,000,000 tokens. GPT-5.2 Reasoning has 1,000,000 tokens.
Are these models open weights?
GPT-5.2 Pro is proprietary; GPT-5.2 Reasoning is proprietary.
Which should I choose for production?
If you need a single default, start with GPT-5.2 Pro for quality-sensitive work, and check whether its price holds at your expected volume before committing.