Is OpenAI o3 better than GPT-4.1 for coding?

OpenAI o3 scores 85 overall vs GPT-4.1's 80. OpenAI o3 has stronger benchmark performance, but pricing also matters — OpenAI o3 costs $10.00/M input vs $2.00/M for GPT-4.1.

Which is cheaper: OpenAI o3 or GPT-4.1?

GPT-4.1 is cheaper per million input tokens at $2.00/M vs $10.00/M.

What is the price-performance ratio of OpenAI o3 vs GPT-4.1?

Based on benchmark scores, OpenAI o3 costs $0.167 per score point while GPT-4.1 costs $0.063 per score point. GPT-4.1 offers better value.

OpenAI o3 vs GPT-4.1

Performance benchmarks + pricing comparison — updated April 2026

OpenAI o3

OpenAI

Next generation reasoning model. Improved coding and math over o1.

Input	$10.00/M
Output	$40.00/M
Context	200K tokens
Best For	Advanced coding, complex problem-solving
Benchmark	85/100

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

Benchmark Performance Comparison

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

Benchmark	OpenAI o3	GPT-4.1	Leader
Overall Score	85	80	o3 leads by 5pts
SWE-bench Verified	82	76	o3 leads by 6pts
LiveCodeBench	88	82	o3 leads by 6pts
HumanEval	96	94	o3 leads by 2pts
BigCodeBench	74	68	o3 leads by 6pts

Cost Comparison by Scenario

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

Scenario	OpenAI o3	GPT-4.1	Savings
Small Script (1K lines)	$1.55	$0.31	GPT-4.1 saves $1.24 (80%)
Medium Feature (10K lines)	$11.50	$2.30	GPT-4.1 saves $9.20 (80%)
Large Project (50K lines)	$57.50	$11.50	GPT-4.1 saves $46.00 (80%)
Code Review (5K lines)	$2.75	$0.55	GPT-4.1 saves $2.20 (80%)

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
OpenAI o3	85	$0.167/pt	Higher cost per point
GPT-4.1	80	$0.063/pt	Better value

GPT-4.1 delivers the best value at $0.063 per score point.

Strengths & Weaknesses

OpenAI o3

+ Latest reasoning model
+ Top-tier across all benchmarks
- Very expensive
- Slow

GPT-4.1

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

Verdict

GPT-4.1 is cheaper at $2.00/M, but OpenAI o3 scores higher on benchmarks (85 vs 80).

Choose GPT-4.1 for cost-sensitive projects, OpenAI o3 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