GPT-5.2 Vision vs o4 Max: which model should you choose?
We compared GPT-5.2 Vision and o4 Max on price, context window and 12 benchmarks. GPT-5.2 Vision has the stronger average benchmark score; GPT-5.2 Vision is cheaper on a blended 3:1 basis.
GPT-5.2 Vision
GPT-5.2 Vision is a frontier model from OpenAI. It offers a 1,000,000-token context window, costs $19.03 per million input tokens and $85.72 per million output tokens, and averages 87.4 across the index's benchmark suite.
- Input
- $19.03 / 1M
- Output
- $85.72 / 1M
- Context
- 1,000,000
- Avg score
- 87.4
- Open weights
- No
o4 Max
o4 Max is a frontier model from OpenAI. It offers a 2,000,000-token context window, costs $19.51 per million input tokens and $93.98 per million output tokens, and averages 86.2 across the index's benchmark suite.
- Input
- $19.51 / 1M
- Output
- $93.98 / 1M
- Context
- 2,000,000
- Avg score
- 86.2
- Open weights
- No
Specification comparison
| Spec | GPT-5.2 Vision | o4 Max | Edge |
|---|---|---|---|
| Input price / 1M | $19.03 | $19.51 | A |
| Output price / 1M | $85.72 | $93.98 | A |
| Context window | 1,000,000 | 2,000,000 | B |
| Max output | 16,384 | 65,536 | B |
| Average score | 87.4 | 86.2 | A |
| Arena Elo | 1484.3 | 1486.0 | B |
| Open weights | No | No | Tie |
Benchmark comparison
GPT-5.2 Vision wins 8, o4 Max wins 4, and 0 benchmarks are tied. The table shows the modelled score for each model and the gap.
| Benchmark | GPT-5.2 Vision | o4 Max | Gap | Winner |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| MMLU-Pro | 89.5 | 86.3 | 3.2 | GPT-5.2 Vision |
| GPQA Diamond | 82.1 | 80.1 | 2.0 | GPT-5.2 Vision |
| SWE-bench Verified | 78.8 | 79.8 | 1.0 | o4 Max |
| HumanEval | 91.2 | 94.6 | 3.4 | o4 Max |
| MATH-500 | 92.9 | 90.6 | 2.3 | GPT-5.2 Vision |
| AIME 2025 | 85.7 | 84.8 | 0.9 | GPT-5.2 Vision |
| LiveCodeBench | 83.4 | 80.6 | 2.8 | GPT-5.2 Vision |
| IFEval | 93.9 | 91.1 | 2.8 | GPT-5.2 Vision |
| TruthfulQA | 85.3 | 87.1 | 1.8 | o4 Max |
| HellaSwag | 94.6 | 91.7 | 2.9 | GPT-5.2 Vision |
| MMMU | 84.4 | 81.9 | 2.5 | GPT-5.2 Vision |
| Arena Elo | 1484.3 | 1486.0 | 1.7 | o4 Max |
Price analysis
On a blended 3:1 input-to-output basis, GPT-5.2 Vision costs about $35.70 per million tokens and o4 Max costs about $38.13. GPT-5.2 Vision is roughly 6% cheaper than o4 Max. At high volume, that gap compounds quickly, so price should carry real weight unless the quality difference is decisive.
o4 Max has the larger context window at 2,000,000 tokens, compared with 1,000,000 for GPT-5.2 Vision. That matters for long documents, large codebases and multi-step agent traces.
Verdict
Across 12 shared benchmarks, GPT-5.2 Vision wins 8, o4 Max wins 4, and 0 are tied. On the index average, GPT-5.2 Vision leads o4 Max by 1.2 points (87.4 versus 86.2).
The price picture favours GPT-5.2 Vision. The context picture favours o4 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-5.2 Vision for quality-sensitive work, and check whether its price holds at your expected volume before committing.
Choose GPT-5.2 Vision if
- You want the higher average benchmark score in this index.
- Unit cost matters and you want the cheaper blended price.
Choose o4 Max if
- You need the larger 2,000,000-token context window.
- You need the larger 65,536-token output limit.
FAQ
Is GPT-5.2 Vision better than o4 Max?
On the index average, GPT-5.2 Vision leads o4 Max by 1.2 points (87.4 versus 86.2). The better choice depends on price, context and your task. GPT-5.2 Vision wins 8 benchmarks, o4 Max wins 4.
Which is cheaper, GPT-5.2 Vision or o4 Max?
GPT-5.2 Vision is cheaper on a blended 3:1 basis at about $35.70 per million tokens, versus $38.13 for o4 Max.
Which has the larger context window?
o4 Max has the larger context window at 2,000,000 tokens. GPT-5.2 Vision has 1,000,000 tokens.
Are these models open weights?
GPT-5.2 Vision is proprietary; o4 Max is proprietary.
Which should I choose for production?
If you need a single default, start with GPT-5.2 Vision for quality-sensitive work, and check whether its price holds at your expected volume before committing.