OpenAI just dropped GPT‑4.1—and it’s not just a tweak. It’s faster, cheaper, and way more powerful than GPT‑4o.
There are three new models:
GPT‑4.1 (the flagship),
GPT‑4.1 mini (small but mighty), and
GPT‑4.1 nano (blazing fast and super cheap).
If you care about coding, instruction following, long documents, or building real-world AI tools—this update changes everything.
Let’s break it down.
ALSO READ: What ChatGPT Model Is Worth Using
OpenAI didn’t just drop one model—they launched a full stack built for different needs.
GPT‑4.1
The top performer. Best for complex tasks like coding, reasoning, long documents, and agentic workflows.
Massive context window (1M tokens) and top benchmark scores.
GPT‑4.1 mini
Faster and 83% cheaper than GPT‑4o—yet smarter in most tasks.
Great for apps needing speed and intelligence without breaking the bank.
GPT‑4.1 nano
Tiny, fast, and shockingly capable. Ideal for autocomplete, classification, or anything needing sub-5s response time at rock-bottom cost.
Bottom line:
You pick the model based on performance, latency, and budget. Same smart core, different speeds and sizes.
GPT‑4.1 is way better at doing exactly what you ask—especially when the instructions are tricky.
What’s improved:
• Follows format rules (like Markdown, YAML, XML)
• Handles negative prompts (“Don’t do this…”)
• Keeps steps in order for multi-part tasks
• Includes required info without going off-script
• Knows when to say “I don’t know” instead of guessing
It also beats GPT‑4o and GPT‑4.5 on instruction evals like MultiChallenge and IFEval—especially on hard prompts and long conversations.
Why it matters:
If you’re building agents, workflows, or structured outputs—this model listens better and messes up less.
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GPT‑4.1 crushes it on real coding tasks.
Key wins:
• 54.6% on SWE-bench Verified (up from 33.2% with GPT‑4o)
• Beats GPT‑4.5 in code accuracy and reliability
• Handles code diffs better—less fluff, more clean patches
• Fewer mistakes and smoother formatting in tools like Aider
• Frontend output is cleaner, and testers prefer it 80% of the time
Why it matters:
If you’re building tools that touch code—AI agents, assistants, IDE features—GPT‑4.1 writes better code and gets in your way less.
1 million tokens. That’s over 700,000 words.
What that means:
• Handle huge codebases, PDFs, legal docs, or multiple files
• Fewer “lost in the middle” errors
• Better at connecting ideas across long inputs
• More accurate in multi-turn conversations with deep history
It outperforms GPT‑4o on OpenAI-MRCR and Graphwalks—meaning it can pull the right info from any position in massive inputs.
Why it matters:
Great for legal, finance, research, and dev teams working with complex, layered info.
Mini Beats GPT‑4o, Cuts Cost by 83%
Don’t let “mini” fool you—GPT‑4.1 mini is a beast.
Highlights:
• Matches or beats GPT‑4o in many benchmarks
• Latency is 2× faster
• Costs 83% less than GPT‑4o
• Ideal for chatbots, support tools, content gen, and lightweight agents
Why it matters:
You get serious power for a fraction of the price—perfect for startups and scale-ups.
Nano = Speed Demon for Light Tasks
GPT‑4.1 nano is built for speed.
Best for:
• Autocomplete
• Classification
• Short Q&A
• Instant lookups
It’s the fastest and cheapest model OpenAI has ever released—responds in under 5 seconds for big prompts and still pulls off strong accuracy on tasks like MMLU and GPQA.
Why it matters:
Great for micro-agents, background tools, or anything needing instant answers at scale.
It’s not just benchmarks—real teams are seeing real gains.
Use cases:
• Windsurf: 60% better patch acceptance rate
• Qodo: 55% better code review suggestions
• Fewer unnecessary edits, better tool use, and more consistent logic
Why it matters:
4.1 is getting code approved faster and helping teams ship more with less back-and-forth.
Better Instruction Eval Scores (MultiChallenge, IFEval)
GPT‑4.1 doesn’t just follow instructions—it understands them.
Scoring highlights:
• +10.5% on MultiChallenge (multi-turn tasks)
• 87.4% on IFEval, up from 81% with GPT‑4o
• Big jumps on hard prompts with multiple constraints
Why it matters:
If you’ve ever said “That’s not what I meant” to your model—this fixes it.
Frontend Builders Rejoice: Better UI + UX Code
Building UIs? 4.1’s output just looks better.
Real results:
• Cleaner HTML/CSS
• Functional React code
• 80% of human graders preferred GPT‑4.1’s UI output over GPT‑4o’s
• Better layout logic and smoother animations
Why it matters:
Frontend devs can ship faster, with less cleanup and fewer weird bugs.
Smarter Vision + Multimodal Skills
GPT‑4.1 isn’t just about text—it sees better too.
What’s improved:
• Higher scores on image + video benchmarks like MMMU, MathVista, and Video-MME
• Better at reading charts, diagrams, screenshots, and frames from long videos
• GPT‑4.1 mini even beats GPT‑4o on some vision tasks
Why it matters:
Perfect for devs building document parsers, visual agents, or multimodal search tools.
Legal + Finance Use Cases (Thomson Reuters, Carlyle)
GPT‑4.1 shines in high-stakes, detail-heavy workflows.
Real-world wins:
• Thomson Reuters: 17% more accurate on legal multi-doc reviews
• Carlyle: 50% better at extracting data from long, dense financial files
Why it matters:
Long docs, cross-referencing, and high-context decisions—4.1 handles them all.
Speed + Latency Upgrades Across All Models
Speed matters. GPT‑4.1 delivers.
The numbers:
• Faster time-to-first-token vs GPT‑4o
• GPT‑4.1 nano: sub-5s responses for 128K-token prompts
• New prompt caching discounts = faster and cheaper repeat queries
Why it matters:
Better user experience, especially for live apps and agent systems.
GPT‑4.1 models are faster and more affordable.
Per 1M tokens:
• GPT‑4.1: $2 input / $8 output
• GPT‑4.1 mini: $0.40 input / $1.60 output
• GPT‑4.1 nano: $0.10 input / $0.40 output
• Prompt caching: now 75% off input cost
Why it matters:
More power, less spend—great for teams scaling usage or building always-on tools.
GPT‑4.1 isn’t just an upgrade. It’s the new baseline.
Faster, cheaper, and more capable—across code, instructions, long docs, and images.
Whether you’re building AI tools, smart agents, or high-volume apps, this model family is ready for production.
Time to level up.
