GPT-4.1 vs o1
Side-by-side comparison of GPT-4.1 (OpenAI) and o1 (OpenAI). Exact API pricing per million tokens, context windows, output speed, and total cost on real-world prompts.
Specifications
| Spec | GPT-4.1 | o1 |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | OpenAI | OpenAI |
| Model id | gpt-4.1 | o1 |
| Input price (per 1M tokens) | $2.00 | $15.00 |
| Output price (per 1M tokens) | $8.00 | $60.00 |
| Context window | 1,047,576 | 200,000 |
| Output speed (tokens/sec) | ~120 | ~30 |
| Tokenizer encoding | o200k_base | o200k_base |
Cost on real prompts
Total cost = (input tokens × input price) + (output tokens × output price). Numbers below use the exact pricing tables published by each provider.
| Scenario | Input | Output | GPT-4.1 | o1 | Cheaper |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Short question + answer | 50 | 150 | $0.001300 | $0.009750 | GPT-4.1 |
| Code review on one file | 500 | 1,500 | $0.013000 | $0.097500 | GPT-4.1 |
| Long document summary | 5,000 | 500 | $0.014000 | $0.105000 | GPT-4.1 |
| Heavy reasoning task | 2,000 | 8,000 | $0.068000 | $0.510000 | GPT-4.1 |
| Full codebase analysis | 50,000 | 10,000 | $0.180000 | $1.35 | GPT-4.1 |
Want the exact cost for your prompt instead of these examples? Open the cost calculator pre-loaded with both models →
When to pick which
Heuristics derived from the spec table above. Always validate on your own prompts before committing — these are starting points, not verdicts.
Pick GPT-4.1 for
- •output-heavy workloads (long-form generation, code, summaries) — gpt-4.1 is meaningfully cheaper per output token
- •input-heavy workloads (long context, RAG, document QA) — gpt-4.1 is cheaper per input token
- •tasks needing a larger context window — gpt-4.1 fits 5x more tokens than o1
- •latency-sensitive UX (chat, autocompletion) — gpt-4.1 streams faster (~120 vs ~30 tok/s)
Pick o1 for
- •complex multi-step reasoning — o1 uses chain-of-thought internally
Switching between them
For most use cases, switching providers means updating the model id and the request shape if the providers differ. Within the same provider, it's usually a single-line change.
From GPT-4.1 to o1
# Before
model = "gpt-4.1"
# After
model = "o1"If the providers differ (OpenAI vs OpenAI), you'll also need to swap the SDK / endpoint URL. Cross-provider migrations usually take 30 minutes to a few hours depending on how many features (streaming, function calling, tool use) you depend on.
Calculate cost on your own prompt
The examples above use generic input/output ratios. For an exact comparison, paste your real prompt into the calculator — it counts tokens with the right tokenizer for each model and shows side-by-side cost.
Open the calculator with both models →