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Llama 4 405B 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

Llama 4 405B specs · o4-mini specs
Verdict by category
  • Priceo4-mini

    o4-mini publishes pricing ($4.40 / 1M output tokens) while Llama 4 405B does not.

  • Context windowLlama 4 405B

    Llama 4 405B accepts 256K tokens vs 200K, 1.3× 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.

  • ModalitiesTie

    Both handle text, vision.

  • OpennessLlama 4 405B

    Llama 4 405B ships open weights (Llama 4 Community License); o4-mini is API-only.

On balance Llama 4 405B edges ahead, winning 2 of 5 categories against o4-mini's 1. o4-mini publishes pricing ($4.40 / 1M output tokens) while Llama 4 405B does not. Llama 4 405B accepts 256K tokens vs 200K, 1.3× the room for long documents and codebases.

No directly comparable public benchmarks are available for both models, check the spec sheets for individual scores. Both target the same set of modalities (text, vision), so the deciding factors are price, context, and raw quality. Llama 4 405B ships open weights (Llama 4 Community License); o4-mini is API-only.

Both shipped within roughly a month of each other in 2025, so they share the same generation of training data and tooling. Llama 4 405B is usually picked for open source llm and fine tuning 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

SpecLlama 4 405Bo4-mini
ProviderMetaOpenAI
ReleasedApr 2025Apr 2025
Modalitiestext, visiontext, vision
Context window256K tokens200K tokens
Max output,,
Input · 1MPricing not published$1.10 / 1M tokens
Output · 1MPricing not published$4.40 / 1M tokens
Knowledge cutoff2024-122024-06
Open weightsYes (Llama 4 Community License)No
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.

  • Llama 4 405BPricing 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.

Llama 4 405Bo4-mini
  • GPQA,81.4
Pick Llama 4 405B if

Llama 4 405B fits when…

  • Strongest open-weight model at launch
  • Multimodal (text + vision)
  • Wide hosting availability
  • Self-hosting and on-prem requirements, open weights (Llama 4 Community License).
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 Llama 4 70B

Meta's mid-tier Llama 4, the practical workhorse for self-hosted deployments.

See Llama 4 70B specsLlama 4 405B vs Llama 4 70Bo4-mini vs Llama 4 70B

Frequently asked

  • Is Llama 4 405B 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?
    Llama 4 405B accepts 256K tokens vs 200K for o4-mini.
  • Is Llama 4 405B or o4-mini better for coding?
    Both Llama 4 405B 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?
    Llama 4 405B ships open weights (Llama 4 Community License). o4-mini is API-only.
  • When were Llama 4 405B and o4-mini released?
    Llama 4 405B was released by Meta on 2025-04-05. o4-mini was released by OpenAI on 2025-04-16.
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