ModelRefs / GPT-5 vs GPT-4.1
GPT-5 vs GPT-4.1
GPT-5 vs GPT-4.1: side-by-side benchmarks, pricing, context windows, coding ability and deployment. Pick the right model for your stack.
Overview
GPT-4.1: GPT-4.1 is OpenAI's April 2025 API-only model, built for instruction following and tool calling without a reasoning step. It accepts text and image input across a 1,047,576-token context window, returns up to 32,768 tokens, and carries a June 2024 knowledge cutoff — roughly eight times GPT-4o's context at lower per-token pricing. OpenAI has since deprecated it, scheduling the gpt-4.1-2025-04-14 snapshot to shut down on 14 January 2027 with gpt-6-luna as the replacement.
GPT-5: GPT-5 is OpenAI's August 2025 reasoning model for coding, reasoning, and agentic tasks. The API model supports text input and output, image input, configurable reasoning effort, and an immutable gpt-5-2025-08-07 snapshot; OpenAI now classifies it as a previous-generation model.
Context window: GPT-4.1 accepts up to 1,000,000 tokens, GPT-5 up to 400,000. Confirm the limit for your specific deployment channel before relying on it.
GPT-4.1 vs GPT-5 at a glance
| Attribute | GPT-4.1 | GPT-5 |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | OpenAI | OpenAI |
| Released | 2025-04-14 | 2025-08-07 |
| Context window | 1,000,000 tokens | 400,000 tokens |
| Input price | $2/M tokens | $1.25/M tokens |
| Output price | $8/M tokens | $10/M tokens |
| Licence | Proprietary | Proprietary |
| Self-hostable | No, hosted only | No, hosted only |
| Modalities | text, vision | text, vision |
Benchmarks reported for both
| Benchmark | GPT-4.1 | GPT-5 | Reported |
|---|---|---|---|
| GPQA Diamond (accuracy) | 66.3 | 85.7 | 2025-08-07 |
Each row compares the same benchmark, the same reported metric, and the same task set. Scores are as published by their cited sources on the dates shown. Different runs still use different harnesses and prompts, so treat these as directional evidence rather than a head-to-head result.
Where they differ most
- Reasoning: GPT-4.1 62%, GPT-5 93%. GPT-5 leads on this dimension.
- Cost Efficiency: GPT-4.1 51%, GPT-5 47%. GPT-4.1 leads on this dimension.
Capability scores are ModelRefs' own derived signals, not vendor claims or benchmark results. Validate against your own workload before relying on them.
Continue your research
Use these connected ModelRefs sections to compare alternatives, inspect implementation paths, and review the evidence and governance boundaries relevant to GPT-5 vs GPT-4.1.
Frequently asked questions
Which is better, GPT-5 or GPT-4.1?
GPT-5 and GPT-4.1 target different workloads — see the benchmark and pricing tables for a side-by-side answer.
Is GPT-5 cheaper than GPT-4.1?
Compare $0.00125 vs $0.00200 on this page.