Is GPT-4o better than GPT-4o mini for coding?

GPT-4o scores 75 overall vs GPT-4o mini's 58. GPT-4o has stronger benchmark performance, but pricing also matters — GPT-4o costs $2.50/M input vs $0.150/M for GPT-4o mini.

Which is cheaper: GPT-4o or GPT-4o mini?

GPT-4o mini is cheaper per million input tokens at $0.15/M vs $2.50/M.

What is the price-performance ratio of GPT-4o vs GPT-4o mini?

Based on benchmark scores, GPT-4o costs $0.033 per score point while GPT-4o mini costs $0.003 per score point. GPT-4o mini offers better value.

GPT-4o vs GPT-4o mini

Performance benchmarks + pricing comparison — updated April 2026

GPT-4o

OpenAI

OpenAI's flagship multimodal model. Strong coding and reasoning at competitive pricing.

Input	$2.50/M
Output	$10.00/M
Context	128K tokens
Best For	General coding, multimodal tasks, chatbots
Benchmark	75/100

GPT-4o mini

OpenAI

Affordable small model. Fast and cost-effective for high-volume coding tasks.

Input	$0.150/M
Output	$0.600/M
Context	128K tokens
Best For	High-volume tasks, simple coding, cost-sensitive projects
Benchmark	58/100

Benchmark Performance Comparison

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

Benchmark	GPT-4o	GPT-4o mini	Leader
Overall Score	75	58	GPT-4o leads by 17pts
SWE-bench Verified	70	50	GPT-4o leads by 20pts
LiveCodeBench	78	60	GPT-4o leads by 18pts
HumanEval	90	78	GPT-4o leads by 12pts
BigCodeBench	62	44	GPT-4o leads by 18pts

Cost Comparison by Scenario

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

Scenario	GPT-4o	GPT-4o mini	Savings
Small Script (1K lines)	$0.41	$0.02	GPT-4o mini saves $0.38 (94%)
Medium Feature (10K lines)	$3.06	$0.18	GPT-4o mini saves $2.88 (94%)
Large Project (50K lines)	$15.31	$0.92	GPT-4o mini saves $14.39 (94%)
Code Review (5K lines)	$0.78	$0.05	GPT-4o mini saves $0.73 (94%)

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-4o	75	$0.033/pt	Higher cost per point
GPT-4o mini	58	$0.003/pt	Better value

GPT-4o mini delivers the best value at $0.003 per score point.

Strengths & Weaknesses

GPT-4o

+ Strong general-purpose
+ Good multimodal
- Less consistent on coding than Claude

GPT-4o mini

+ Very cheap
+ Fast responses
- Struggles with multi-step reasoning

Verdict

GPT-4o mini is cheaper at $0.150/M, but GPT-4o scores higher on benchmarks (75 vs 58).

Choose GPT-4o mini for cost-sensitive projects, GPT-4o 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