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GPT-5.5 vs o4-mini

A complete head-to-head: pricing, context window, benchmarks, modality coverage, and openness, with a programmatic verdict synthesized from the underlying data.

Updated

GPT-5.5 specs · o4-mini specs
Verdict by category
  • Priceo4-mini

    o4-mini publishes pricing ($4.40 / 1M output tokens) while GPT-5.5 does not.

  • Context windowGPT-5.5

    GPT-5.5 accepts 400K tokens vs 200K, 2.0× the room for long documents and codebases.

  • BenchmarksTie

    No directly comparable public benchmarks are available for both models, check the spec sheets for individual scores.

  • ModalitiesGPT-5.5

    GPT-5.5 supports 3 modalities (text, vision, audio) vs 2 for o4-mini.

  • OpennessTie

    Both are closed-weight, API-only.

On balance GPT-5.5 edges ahead, winning 2 of 5 categories against o4-mini's 1. o4-mini publishes pricing ($4.40 / 1M output tokens) while GPT-5.5 does not. GPT-5.5 accepts 400K tokens vs 200K, 2.0× the room for long documents and codebases.

No directly comparable public benchmarks are available for both models, check the spec sheets for individual scores. They differ in modality coverage, GPT-5.5 handles text, vision, audio while o4-mini handles text, vision, which can be the deciding factor before you even look at benchmarks. Both are closed-weight, API-only.

GPT-5.5 is the newer of the two, released 11 months after o4-mini, which usually means a more recent knowledge cutoff and updated safety post-training. GPT-5.5 is usually picked for agents and tool use workloads, while o4-mini sees more deployments in reasoning and math. If pricing matters more than every last benchmark point, run the numbers in the calculator below before committing.

Side-by-side specs

SpecGPT-5.5o4-mini
ProviderOpenAIOpenAI
ReleasedMar 2026Apr 2025
Modalitiestext, vision, audiotext, vision
Context window400K tokens200K tokens
Max output,,
Input · 1MPricing not published$1.10 / 1M tokens
Output · 1MPricing not published$4.40 / 1M tokens
Knowledge cutoff,2024-06
Open weightsNoNo
API availableYesYes

Pricing at scale

What you'd actually pay at typical workloads. Numbers come from each model's published per-million-token rates.

  • Light usage, 100k in / 50k out per day, vs $9.90
  • Heavy usage, 1M in / 500k out per day, vs $99.00
  • RAG workload, 5M in / 200k out per day, vs $191

Light usage, 100k in / 50k out per day: pricing not directly comparable (one or both models are missing public per-token rates). Heavy usage, 1M in / 500k out per day: pricing not directly comparable (one or both models are missing public per-token rates). RAG workload, 5M in / 200k out per day: pricing not directly comparable (one or both models are missing public per-token rates).

Price calculator

Estimated spend for the listed models at your usage. Numbers are derived from each model's published per-million-token rates.

  • GPT-5.5Pricing unavailable
  • o4-mini$0.330

Benchmarks compared

Only sourced numbers. Where a benchmark is missing for one model we show the available value rather than fabricating the other.

GPT-5.5o4-mini
  • GPQA,81.4
Pick GPT-5.5 if

GPT-5.5 fits when…

  • Industry-leading tool-use and function-calling reliability
  • Strong end-to-end agent performance across SWE-bench and GAIA
  • Wide ecosystem support, ChatGPT, Realtime API, Responses API
  • Long-context tasks, handles 400K tokens vs 200K for o4-mini.
  • Multimodal needs covering audio.
Pick o4-mini if

o4-mini fits when…

  • Strong reasoning at mid-tier price
  • Fast for a thinking model
  • Solid tool-use
Don't want either?

Consider GPT-5

OpenAI's unified flagship combining GPT-line breadth with built-in reasoning, replacing both GPT-4o and the o-series for most users.

See GPT-5 specsGPT-5.5 vs GPT-5o4-mini vs GPT-5

Frequently asked

  • Is GPT-5.5 or o4-mini cheaper?
    Per-token pricing isn't published for at least one of these models, check each model's spec page for current rates.
  • Which has the larger context window?
    GPT-5.5 accepts 400K tokens vs 200K for o4-mini.
  • Is GPT-5.5 or o4-mini better for coding?
    Both GPT-5.5 and o4-mini are competitive on coding benchmarks. See each model's individual spec page for HumanEval and SWE-bench scores where published. For an opinionated pick, consult our Best LLM for Coding ranking.
  • Are either of these models open source?
    Neither model ships open weights, both are accessible only via their respective providers' APIs.
  • When were GPT-5.5 and o4-mini released?
    GPT-5.5 was released by OpenAI on 2026-03-01. o4-mini was released by OpenAI on 2025-04-16.
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