Model Comparison
OpenAI's GPT-4.1 beats Anthropic's Claude 3.5 Sonnet on both price and benchmarks — here's the full breakdown.
Data last updated March 4, 2026
GPT-4.1 is the clear winner — cheaper and higher-scoring than Claude 3.5 Sonnet. Claude 3.5 Sonnet costs $0.03 per request vs $0.018 for GPT-4.1 (at 5K input / 1K output tokens). GPT-4.1 scores proportionally higher on mathematical reasoning (AIME: 0.44), while Claude 3.5 Sonnet's scores skew toward general knowledge (MMLU-Pro: 0.77). Claude 3.5 Sonnet's only edge might be vendor-specific features or API ecosystem.
| Metric | Claude 3.5 Sonnet | GPT-4.1 |
|---|---|---|
| Intelligence IndexComposite score from MMLU-Pro, GPQA, and AIME. Higher is better. | 15.9 | 26.3 |
| MMLU-ProGeneral knowledge and reasoning. Higher is better. | 0.8 | 0.8 |
| GPQAGraduate-level science questions. Higher is better. | 0.6 | 0.7 |
| AIMEMathematical problem solving. Higher is better. | 0.2 | 0.4 |
| Context windowMax tokens per request. Larger handles more text. | 200,000 | 1,047,576 |
List prices as published by the provider. Not adjusted for token efficiency.
| Metric | Claude 3.5 Sonnet | GPT-4.1 |
|---|---|---|
| Input price / 1M tokens | $3.00 | $2.00 |
| Output price / 1M tokens | $15.00 | $8.00 |
| Cache hit price / 1M tokens | $0.30 | $0.50 |
Cost per IQ point based on a typical request of 5,000 input and 1,000 output tokens.
Cheaper (list price)
GPT-4.1
Higher Benchmarks
GPT-4.1
Better Value ($/IQ point)
GPT-4.1
Claude 3.5 Sonnet
$0.0019 / IQ point
GPT-4.1
$0.0007 / IQ point
GPT-4.1 is 67% cheaper per request than Claude 3.5 Sonnet. GPT-4.1 is cheaper on both input ($2.0/M vs $3.0/M) and output ($8.0/M vs $15.0/M). The 67% price gap matters at scale but is less significant for low-volume use cases. This comparison assumes a typical request of 5,000 input and 1,000 output tokens (5:1 ratio). Actual ratios vary by workload — chat and completion tasks typically run 2:1, code review around 3:1, document analysis and summarization 10:1 to 50:1, and embedding workloads are pure input with no output tokens.
GPT-4.1 scores higher overall (26.3 vs 15.9). GPT-4.1 leads on GPQA (0.67 vs 0.6) and AIME (0.44 vs 0.16), with both within 5% on MMLU-Pro. GPT-4.1 scores proportionally higher on AIME (mathematical reasoning) relative to its MMLU-Pro, while Claude 3.5 Sonnet's scores are more weighted toward general knowledge. If mathematical reasoning matters, GPT-4.1's AIME score of 0.44 gives it an edge.
GPT-4.1 has a much larger context window — 1,047,576 tokens vs Claude 3.5 Sonnet at 200,000 tokens. That's roughly 1,396 vs 266 pages of text. GPT-4.1's window can handle entire codebases or book-length documents; Claude 3.5 Sonnet works better for shorter inputs.
GPT-4.1 offers 176% better value at $0.0007 per intelligence point compared to Claude 3.5 Sonnet at $0.0019. GPT-4.1 is both cheaper and higher-scoring, making it the clear value pick. You don't sacrifice quality to save money with GPT-4.1.
With prompt caching, GPT-4.1 is 57% cheaper per request than Claude 3.5 Sonnet. Caching saves 45% on Claude 3.5 Sonnet and 42% on GPT-4.1 compared to standard input prices. Both models benefit from caching at similar rates, so the uncached price comparison holds.
Pricing verified against official vendor documentation. Updated daily. See our methodology.
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