ModelRefs / Text Embedding 3 Large vs GPT-4o
Text Embedding 3 Large vs GPT-4o
Text Embedding 3 Large vs GPT-4o: side-by-side benchmarks, pricing, context windows, coding ability and deployment. Pick the right model for your stack.
Overview
GPT-4o: GPT-4o is OpenAI's May 2024 multimodal flagship, accepting text and image input across a 128,000-token context window with a 16,384-token maximum output and an October 2023 knowledge cutoff. OpenAI describes it as its most capable model outside the o-series reasoning line, and serves it through dated snapshots with gpt-4o-2024-08-06 as the default. The family is now deprecated on two schedules: gpt-4o-2024-08-06 and gpt-4o-2024-11-20 shut down on 14 January 2027 with gpt-6-luna as the replacement, and the original gpt-4o-2024-05-13 snapshot on 23 October 2026 with gpt-5.6-sol.
Text Embedding 3 Large: Text Embedding 3 Large is OpenAI's larger third-generation embedding model, returning 3,072-dimension vectors from inputs of up to 8,192 tokens. Its dimensions parameter shortens the vector at creation time without, as OpenAI puts it, the embedding losing its concept-representing properties, which lets a retrieval system trade index size against accuracy without changing models. Shortening at creation is preferred to truncating afterwards, which requires re-normalising the vector.
Context window: GPT-4o accepts up to 128,000 tokens, Text Embedding 3 Large up to 8,191. Confirm the limit for your specific deployment channel before relying on it.
GPT-4o vs Text Embedding 3 Large at a glance
| Attribute | GPT-4o | Text Embedding 3 Large |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | OpenAI | OpenAI |
| Released | 2024-05-13 | 2024-01-25 |
| Context window | 128,000 tokens | 8,191 tokens |
| Input price | $2.5/M tokens | $0.13/M tokens |
| Output price | $10/M tokens | Free / self-hosted |
| Licence | Proprietary | Proprietary |
| Self-hostable | No, hosted only | No, hosted only |
| Modalities | text, vision, audio | text, Embedding |
Where they differ most
- Cost Efficiency: GPT-4o 46%, Text Embedding 3 Large 99%. Text Embedding 3 Large leads on this dimension.
- Multilingual: GPT-4o 90%, Text Embedding 3 Large 78%. GPT-4o 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 Text Embedding 3 Large vs GPT-4o.
Frequently asked questions
Which is better, Text Embedding 3 Large or GPT-4o?
Text Embedding 3 Large and GPT-4o target different workloads — see the benchmark and pricing tables for a side-by-side answer.
Is Text Embedding 3 Large cheaper than GPT-4o?
Compare $0.00013 vs $0.00250 on this page.