Is GPT-4.1 better than O3 Mini for coding?

GPT-4.1 scores 80 overall vs O3 Mini's 80. GPT-4.1 has stronger benchmark performance, but pricing also matters — GPT-4.1 costs $2.00/M input vs $1.10/M for O3 Mini.

Which is cheaper: GPT-4.1 or O3 Mini?

O3 Mini is cheaper per million input tokens at $1.10/M vs $2.00/M.

What is the price-performance ratio of GPT-4.1 vs O3 Mini?

Based on benchmark scores, GPT-4.1 costs $0.063 per score point while O3 Mini costs $0.014 per score point. O3 Mini offers better value.

GPT-4.1 vs O3 Mini

Performance benchmarks + pricing comparison — updated April 2026

GPT-4.1

OpenAI

Updated GPT-4 generation with improved instruction following and reduced hallucination. Better coding accuracy than GPT-4o.

Input	$2.00/M
Output	$8.00/M
Context	128K tokens
Best For	Production coding, API development, complex instructions
Benchmark	80/100

O3 Mini

OpenAI

OpenAI's reasoning model at lower cost. Strong at math, coding, and science tasks.

Input	$1.10/M
Output	$4.40/M
Context	200K tokens
Best For	Math, science, coding tasks requiring deep reasoning
Benchmark	80/100

Benchmark Performance Comparison

Third-party benchmark scores — higher is better. Data sourced from SWE-bench, LiveCodeBench, HumanEval, and BigCodeBench.

Benchmark	GPT-4.1	O3 Mini	Leader
Overall Score	80	80	GPT-4.1 leads by 0pts
SWE-bench Verified	76	76	GPT-4.1 leads by 0pts
LiveCodeBench	82	85	o3-mini leads by 3pts
HumanEval	94	94	GPT-4.1 leads by 0pts
BigCodeBench	68	65	GPT-4.1 leads by 3pts

Cost Comparison by Scenario

Estimated cost per project with 30% cache hit rate. Actual costs may vary based on usage patterns.

Scenario	GPT-4.1	O3 Mini	Savings
Small Script (1K lines)	$0.31	$0.17	O3 Mini saves $0.14 (45%)
Medium Feature (10K lines)	$2.30	$1.27	O3 Mini saves $1.03 (45%)
Large Project (50K lines)	$11.50	$6.33	O3 Mini saves $5.17 (45%)
Code Review (5K lines)	$0.55	$0.30	O3 Mini saves $0.25 (45%)

Value Analysis (Price per Benchmark Score Point)

Lower is better — how much you pay for each point of benchmark performance.

Model	Overall Score	Price per Score Point	Verdict
GPT-4.1	80	$0.063/pt	Higher cost per point
O3 Mini	80	$0.014/pt	Better value

O3 Mini delivers the best value at $0.014 per score point.

Strengths & Weaknesses

GPT-4.1

+ Latest GPT model
+ Strong across all benchmarks
- Premium pricing

O3 Mini

+ Excellent at competitive programming
+ Strong algorithmic reasoning
- Optimized for reasoning, not chat

Verdict

O3 Mini is cheaper at $1.10/M, but GPT-4.1 scores higher on benchmarks (80 vs 80).

Choose O3 Mini for cost-sensitive projects, GPT-4.1 when performance matters most.

Compare with Other Models

Claude Sonnet 4

Anthropic

Anthropic's balanced model for coding and general tasks. Best price-performance ratio in the Claude family.

$3.00/M input $15.00/M output ~$4.66 per medium feature

Claude Opus 4

Anthropic

Anthropic's most powerful model. Best for complex reasoning and challenging coding tasks.

$15.00/M input $75.00/M output ~$23.29 per medium feature

Claude 3.5 Sonnet

Anthropic

Previous generation Sonnet. Still excellent for coding tasks at the same price point.

$3.00/M input $15.00/M output ~$4.66 per medium feature

Claude 3.5 Haiku

Anthropic

Fast, cost-effective model for high-volume tasks. Great for code review and simple queries.

$0.800/M input $4.00/M output ~$1.24 per medium feature

Claude 3 Opus

Anthropic

First generation Opus. Highest reasoning capability in the Claude 3 family.

$15.00/M input $75.00/M output ~$20.25 per medium feature

Claude 3 Sonnet

Anthropic

First generation Sonnet. Balanced performance for general tasks.

$3.00/M input $15.00/M output ~$4.05 per medium feature