# GPT-4.1 nano vs GPT-5 Mini

> GPT-5 Mini is the stronger model overall, scoring 41.8 to 27.9 on the Noometry Index. GPT-4.1 nano costs 3.9× less per token, which makes it the better buy when GPT-5 Mini's lead doesn't matter for your workload.

- Canonical page: https://noometry.com/compare/gpt-4-1-nano-vs-gpt-5-mini
- Last updated: 2026-10-12
- Shared benchmarks: 37

## Summary

- They share 37 benchmarks with published results for both. GPT-4.1 nano scores higher in 0 categories and GPT-5 Mini in 10 categories; 10 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
- The widest gap is in knowledge, where GPT-5 Mini leads 45.6 to 21.8.
- The biggest single-benchmark swing is OTIS Mock AIME 2024-2025: 28.9% for GPT-4.1 nano and 86.7% for GPT-5 Mini.
- GPT-4.1 nano is cheaper at $0.10 / $0.40 per million input/output tokens, against $0.25 / $2 for GPT-5 Mini.
- GPT-4.1 nano accepts more context: 1.05M tokens versus 400K.

## Snapshot

| | GPT-4.1 nano | GPT-5 Mini |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | OpenAI | OpenAI |
| Noometry Index | 27.9 | 41.8 |
| Rank | 327 | 128 |
| Context | 1.05M | 400K |
| Input $/M | $0.10 | $0.25 |
| Output $/M | $0.40 | $2 |
| Weights | Proprietary | Proprietary |

## Coding

- GPT-4.1 nano: 24.1 (#330)
- GPT-5 Mini: 40.1 (#146)

| Benchmark | GPT-4.1 nano | GPT-5 Mini |
|---|---|---|
| SciCode | 25.9% | 39.2% |
| WeirdML | 19% | 52.7% |
| LMArena Coding | 1306 | 1406 |
| SWE-bench Verified | — | 64.7% |
| SWE-bench Verified (bash only) | — | 59.8% |
| Aider Polyglot | 8.9% | — |
| SWE-bench Multilingual | — | 39.7% |
| ALE-Bench | — | 799.77 |
| AlgoTune | — | 1.38 |

## Agentic & Tool Use

- GPT-4.1 nano: 26.5 (#104)
- GPT-5 Mini: 31.1 (#70)

| Benchmark | GPT-4.1 nano | GPT-5 Mini |
|---|---|---|
| Berkeley Function Calling Leaderboard | 33% | 55.5% |
| Terminal-Bench | — | 34.8% |
| Vending-Bench 2 | — | -31.18 |

## Reasoning

- GPT-4.1 nano: 8.5 (#349)
- GPT-5 Mini: 23.9 (#168)

| Benchmark | GPT-4.1 nano | GPT-5 Mini |
|---|---|---|
| ARC-AGI-2 | 0% | 4.4% |
| Kagi LLM Benchmark | 33.3% | 70.3% |
| ARC-AGI-1 | 0% | 54.3% |
| CritPt | 0% | 0% |
| LMArena Hard Prompts | 1286 | 1380 |
| DTBench | 52.5% | 80.5% |
| LMCA | 5.5% | 34.2% |
| Epoch Capabilities Index | 129.62 | 145.52 |
| Chess Puzzles | — | 30% |
| EnigmaEval | — | 8.2% |
| Mystery Game Puzzles | — | 10% |
| ForecastBench | — | 61 |

## Math

- GPT-4.1 nano: 26.9 (#252)
- GPT-5 Mini: 46.7 (#69)

| Benchmark | GPT-4.1 nano | GPT-5 Mini |
|---|---|---|
| OTIS Mock AIME 2024-2025 | 28.9% | 86.7% |
| Omni-MATH | 36.7% | 72.2% |
| LMArena Math | 1274 | 1378 |
| MATH Level 5 | 70% | 97.8% |
| FrontierMath (Feb 2025 set) | 1% | 27.2% |
| FrontierMath (Tiers 1-3) | — | 46.7% |
| FrontierMath Tier 4 | — | 12.2% |
| ProofBench | — | 9% |
| FrontierMath Tier 4 (v1) | — | 6.3% |

## Knowledge

- GPT-4.1 nano: 21.8 (#273)
- GPT-5 Mini: 45.6 (#86)

| Benchmark | GPT-4.1 nano | GPT-5 Mini |
|---|---|---|
| GPQA Diamond | 48.9% | 75% |
| SimpleQA Verified | 6% | 21.6% |
| MMLU-Pro | 55% | 83.5% |
| GPQA (HELM) | 50.7% | 75.6% |
| LMArena Expert | 1272 | 1379 |
| Humanity's Last Exam | — | 19.4% |
| Confabulations | — | 13.3% |
| Vectara Hallucination Rate | — | 12.9% |

## Multimodal

- GPT-4.1 nano: 29.2 (#113)
- GPT-5 Mini: 35.6 (#85)

| Benchmark | GPT-4.1 nano | GPT-5 Mini |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Vision | 1063 | 1202 |
| VPCT | — | 40.2% |

## Multilingual

- GPT-4.1 nano: 41.6 (#205)
- GPT-5 Mini: 48.9 (#137)

| Benchmark | GPT-4.1 nano | GPT-5 Mini |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Non-English | 1260 | 1363 |
| LMArena Chinese | 1270 | 1385 |
| LMArena German | 1288 | 1366 |
| LMArena Japanese | 1198 | 1341 |
| LMArena Russian | 1261 | 1362 |
| LMArena French | — | 1386 |
| LMArena Korean | — | 1308 |
| LMArena Spanish | — | 1355 |

## Instruction Following

- GPT-4.1 nano: 67.8 (#193)
- GPT-5 Mini: 76.2 (#46)

| Benchmark | GPT-4.1 nano | GPT-5 Mini |
|---|---|---|
| IFEval | 84.3% | 92.7% |
| LMArena Instruction Following | 1267 | 1357 |

## Long Context

- GPT-4.1 nano: 23.7 (#296)
- GPT-5 Mini: 41.9 (#132)

| Benchmark | GPT-4.1 nano | GPT-5 Mini |
|---|---|---|
| Fiction.LiveBench | 25% | 69.4% |
| LMArena Longer Query | 1283 | 1355 |

## Writing & Preference

- GPT-4.1 nano: 40.5 (#243)
- GPT-5 Mini: 55.2 (#148)

| Benchmark | GPT-4.1 nano | GPT-5 Mini |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Text | 1285 | 1373 |
| LMArena Creative Writing | 1260 | 1325 |
| EQ-Bench Creative Writing | 946 | 1313 |
| WildBench | 81.2% | 85.5% |
| LMArena Multi-Turn | 1277 | 1363 |
| Short-Story Creative Writing | — | 83.1% |

## FAQ

### Is GPT-4.1 nano better than GPT-5 Mini?

GPT-5 Mini is the stronger model overall, scoring 41.8 to 27.9 on the Noometry Index. GPT-4.1 nano costs 3.9× less per token, which makes it the better buy when GPT-5 Mini's lead doesn't matter for your workload.

### Which is cheaper, GPT-4.1 nano or GPT-5 Mini?

GPT-4.1 nano is cheaper. It lists at $0.10 per million input tokens and $0.40 per million output tokens; GPT-5 Mini lists at $0.25 and $2.

### Is GPT-4.1 nano or GPT-5 Mini better for coding?

GPT-5 Mini scores higher on coding benchmarks: 40.1 versus 24.1 in the Noometry coding category.

### Which has the bigger context window?

GPT-4.1 nano does, with 1.05M tokens against 400K.

### How many benchmarks do GPT-4.1 nano and GPT-5 Mini share?

37 benchmarks have published results for both models. GPT-4.1 nano has 38 scored results on Noometry and GPT-5 Mini has 60.