Model comparison

Claude Sonnet 5 vs GPT-4.1 mini

Claude Sonnet 5 is the stronger model overall, scoring 54.6 to 33.6 on the Noometry Index. GPT-4.1 mini costs 5.7× less per token, which makes it the better buy when Claude Sonnet 5's lead doesn't matter for your workload.

Last verified . 31 shared benchmarks.

Claude Sonnet 5 Anthropic

54.6

Rank #29 Confirmed

GPT-4.1 mini OpenAI

33.6

Rank #240 Confirmed

Summary

  • They share 31 benchmarks with published results for both. Claude Sonnet 5 scores higher in 10 categories and GPT-4.1 mini in 0 categories; 10 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
  • The widest gap is in math, where Claude Sonnet 5 leads 66.2 to 24.1.
  • The biggest single-benchmark swing is FrontierMath (Tiers 1-3): 65.6% for Claude Sonnet 5 and 6.7% for GPT-4.1 mini.
  • GPT-4.1 mini is cheaper at $0.40 / $1.60 per million input/output tokens, against $2 / $10 for Claude Sonnet 5.
  • GPT-4.1 mini accepts more context: 1.05M tokens versus 1M.

Side by side

Claude Sonnet 5 and GPT-4.1 mini specifications
Claude Sonnet 5GPT-4.1 mini
ProviderAnthropicOpenAI
Noometry Index54.633.6
Released2026-06-292025-04-14
WeightsProprietaryProprietary
Context window1M1.05M
Max output128K33K
Input $ / M tokens$2$0.40
Output $ / M tokens$10$1.60
Results tracked5147

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Category by category

Coding Claude Sonnet 5 leads

Claude Sonnet 5: 55.5 (#26), GPT-4.1 mini: 30.6 (#293)

Coding benchmarks
BenchmarkClaude Sonnet 5GPT-4.1 mini
SciCode54.3%40.4%
WeirdML68.8%37.6%
LMArena Coding14831367
DeepSWE53.8%—
FrontierCode42.7%—
SWE-bench Verified (bash only)—23.9%
Aider Polyglot—32.4%
CursorBench34.1%—
LMArena WebDev1541—
GSO37.3%—
BigCodeBench Instruct—48.9%
CadEval—16%
ALE-Bench1,463—

Agentic & Tool Use Claude Sonnet 5 leads

Claude Sonnet 5: 42.8 (#18), GPT-4.1 mini: 33.3 (#55)

Agentic & Tool Use benchmarks
BenchmarkClaude Sonnet 5GPT-4.1 mini
APEX-Agents54.5%—
Berkeley Function Calling Leaderboard—50.5%
GBAEval65.3%—
LMArena Search1194—
Vending-Bench 26,378—

Reasoning Claude Sonnet 5 leads

Claude Sonnet 5: 49.1 (#39), GPT-4.1 mini: 10.8 (#340)

Reasoning benchmarks
BenchmarkClaude Sonnet 5GPT-4.1 mini
CritPt16.9%0%
Chess Puzzles35%7%
LMArena Hard Prompts14611349
Mystery Game Puzzles35%7%
DTBench92.5%68.8%
LMCA50%21.1%
Epoch Capabilities Index156.21135.01
ARC-AGI-2—0%
SimpleBench60.6%—
Kagi LLM Benchmark—48.6%
NYT Connections (extended)75.1%—
ARC-AGI-1—3.5%
Surface Evolver Bench60%—
Bench to the Future 30.14—
ForecastBench61.1—

Math Claude Sonnet 5 leads

Claude Sonnet 5: 66.2 (#27), GPT-4.1 mini: 24.1 (#270)

Math benchmarks
BenchmarkClaude Sonnet 5GPT-4.1 mini
FrontierMath (Tiers 1-3)65.6%6.7%
OTIS Mock AIME 2024-202594.7%44.7%
LMArena Math14671343
FrontierMath Tier 429.3%—
ProofBench77%—
Omni-MATH—49.1%
MATH Level 5—87.3%
FrontierMath (Feb 2025 set)—4.5%

Knowledge Claude Sonnet 5 leads

Claude Sonnet 5: 55.6 (#47), GPT-4.1 mini: 34.7 (#194)

Knowledge benchmarks
BenchmarkClaude Sonnet 5GPT-4.1 mini
GPQA Diamond90.5%65.8%
SimpleQA Verified33.7%12.7%
LMArena Expert14901338
MMLU-Pro—78.3%
GPQA (HELM)—61.4%

Multimodal Claude Sonnet 5 leads

Claude Sonnet 5: 42.4 (#31), GPT-4.1 mini: 35.8 (#82)

Multimodal benchmarks
BenchmarkClaude Sonnet 5GPT-4.1 mini
LMArena Vision12741181
Blueprint-Bench 224.9%—
LMArena Document1466—

Multilingual Claude Sonnet 5 leads

Claude Sonnet 5: 53.8 (#55), GPT-4.1 mini: 45.7 (#166)

Multilingual benchmarks
BenchmarkClaude Sonnet 5GPT-4.1 mini
LMArena Non-English14311318
LMArena Chinese14771329
LMArena French14601358
LMArena German14401351
LMArena Japanese14221290
LMArena Korean14111298
LMArena Russian14511324
LMArena Spanish14371319

Instruction Following Claude Sonnet 5 leads

Claude Sonnet 5: 76.3 (#41), GPT-4.1 mini: 73.7 (#118)

Instruction Following benchmarks
BenchmarkClaude Sonnet 5GPT-4.1 mini
LMArena Instruction Following14521333
IFEval—90.4%

Long Context Claude Sonnet 5 leads

Claude Sonnet 5: 44.8 (#55), GPT-4.1 mini: 31.8 (#275)

Long Context benchmarks
BenchmarkClaude Sonnet 5GPT-4.1 mini
LMArena Longer Query14631344
Fiction.LiveBench—44.4%

Writing & Preference Claude Sonnet 5 leads

Claude Sonnet 5: 69.2 (#25), GPT-4.1 mini: 48.6 (#199)

Writing & Preference benchmarks
BenchmarkClaude Sonnet 5GPT-4.1 mini
LMArena Text14421340
LMArena Creative Writing14161300
EQ-Bench Creative Writing17941147
LMArena Multi-Turn14541354
WildBench—83.8%
EQ-Bench 41236—

Frequently asked questions

Is Claude Sonnet 5 better than GPT-4.1 mini?

Claude Sonnet 5 is the stronger model overall, scoring 54.6 to 33.6 on the Noometry Index. GPT-4.1 mini costs 5.7× less per token, which makes it the better buy when Claude Sonnet 5's lead doesn't matter for your workload.

Which is cheaper, Claude Sonnet 5 or GPT-4.1 mini?

GPT-4.1 mini is cheaper. It lists at $0.40 per million input tokens and $1.60 per million output tokens; Claude Sonnet 5 lists at $2 and $10.

Is Claude Sonnet 5 or GPT-4.1 mini better for coding?

Claude Sonnet 5 scores higher on coding benchmarks: 55.5 versus 30.6 in the Noometry coding category.

Which has the bigger context window?

GPT-4.1 mini does, with 1.05M tokens against 1M.

How many benchmarks do Claude Sonnet 5 and GPT-4.1 mini share?

31 benchmarks have published results for both models. Claude Sonnet 5 has 51 scored results on Noometry and GPT-4.1 mini has 47.

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