Head-to-head · frontier vs frontier

GPT-5.2 vs GPT-5.2 Turbo: which model should you choose?

We compared GPT-5.2 and GPT-5.2 Turbo on price, context window and 12 benchmarks. GPT-5.2 has the stronger average benchmark score; GPT-5.2 is cheaper on a blended 3:1 basis.

OpenAI

GPT-5.2

GPT-5.2 is a frontier model from OpenAI. It offers a 2,000,000-token context window, costs $19.71 per million input tokens and $85.71 per million output tokens, and averages 88.0 across the index's benchmark suite.

Input
$19.71 / 1M
Output
$85.71 / 1M
Context
2,000,000
Avg score
88.0
Open weights
No
Full GPT-5.2 page
OpenAI

GPT-5.2 Turbo

GPT-5.2 Turbo is a frontier model from OpenAI. It offers a 1,000,000-token context window, costs $20.73 per million input tokens and $96.05 per million output tokens, and averages 87.4 across the index's benchmark suite.

Input
$20.73 / 1M
Output
$96.05 / 1M
Context
1,000,000
Avg score
87.4
Open weights
No
Full GPT-5.2 Turbo page

Specification comparison

SpecGPT-5.2GPT-5.2 TurboEdge
Input price / 1M$19.71$20.73A
Output price / 1M$85.71$96.05A
Context window2,000,0001,000,000A
Max output16,3848,192A
Average score88.087.4A
Arena Elo1478.01500.3B
Open weightsNoNoTie

Benchmark comparison

GPT-5.2 wins 7, GPT-5.2 Turbo wins 5, and 0 benchmarks are tied. The table shows the modelled score for each model and the gap.

BenchmarkGPT-5.2GPT-5.2 TurboGapWinner
MMLU-Pro89.987.32.6GPT-5.2
GPQA Diamond84.984.00.9GPT-5.2
SWE-bench Verified80.277.42.8GPT-5.2
HumanEval91.093.22.2GPT-5.2 Turbo
MATH-50090.692.72.1GPT-5.2 Turbo
AIME 202590.686.73.9GPT-5.2
LiveCodeBench79.782.52.8GPT-5.2 Turbo
IFEval93.692.01.6GPT-5.2
TruthfulQA89.787.32.4GPT-5.2
HellaSwag92.695.52.9GPT-5.2 Turbo
MMMU85.383.32.0GPT-5.2
Arena Elo1478.01500.322.3GPT-5.2 Turbo

Price analysis

On a blended 3:1 input-to-output basis, GPT-5.2 costs about $36.21 per million tokens and GPT-5.2 Turbo costs about $39.56. GPT-5.2 is roughly 8% cheaper than GPT-5.2 Turbo. At high volume, that gap compounds quickly, so price should carry real weight unless the quality difference is decisive.

GPT-5.2 has the larger context window at 2,000,000 tokens, compared with 1,000,000 for GPT-5.2 Turbo. That matters for long documents, large codebases and multi-step agent traces.

Verdict

Across 12 shared benchmarks, GPT-5.2 wins 7, GPT-5.2 Turbo wins 5, and 0 are tied. On the index average, GPT-5.2 leads GPT-5.2 Turbo by 0.6 points (88.0 versus 87.4).

The price picture favours GPT-5.2. The context picture favours GPT-5.2. 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 for quality-sensitive work, and check whether its price holds at your expected volume before committing.

Choose GPT-5.2 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.
  • You need the larger 16,384-token output limit.

Choose GPT-5.2 Turbo if

  • You prefer OpenAI's tooling or already use it.

FAQ

Is GPT-5.2 better than GPT-5.2 Turbo?

On the index average, GPT-5.2 leads GPT-5.2 Turbo by 0.6 points (88.0 versus 87.4). The better choice depends on price, context and your task. GPT-5.2 wins 7 benchmarks, GPT-5.2 Turbo wins 5.

Which is cheaper, GPT-5.2 or GPT-5.2 Turbo?

GPT-5.2 is cheaper on a blended 3:1 basis at about $36.21 per million tokens, versus $39.56 for GPT-5.2 Turbo.

Which has the larger context window?

GPT-5.2 has the larger context window at 2,000,000 tokens. GPT-5.2 Turbo has 1,000,000 tokens.

Are these models open weights?

GPT-5.2 is proprietary; GPT-5.2 Turbo is proprietary.

Which should I choose for production?

If you need a single default, start with GPT-5.2 for quality-sensitive work, and check whether its price holds at your expected volume before committing.

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