GPT-4.1 Mini vs GPT-4.1 Nano: Pricing, Benchmarks & Verdict (2026)

Verdict

GPT-4.1 Nano is significantly cheaper at $0.10/$0.40 per million tokens vs $0.40/$1.60. GPT-4.1 Mini is stronger for coding with a coding ELO of 1230 vs 1150. GPT-4.1 Nano is faster at 150 tokens/sec vs 115 tokens/sec. GPT-4.1 Mini ranks higher overall with an Arena ELO of 1240 vs 1180.

Side-by-Side Comparison

FeatureGPT-4.1 MiniGPT-4.1 Nano
ProviderOpenAIOpenAI
Input Price / 1M tokens$0.400$0.100
Output Price / 1M tokens$1.60$0.400
Context Window1.047576M1.047576M
Max Output Tokens32,76832,768
Arena ELO1,2401,180
Coding ELO1,2301,150
TTFT (ms)190130
Tokens/sec115150
MultimodalYesYes
JSON ModeYesYes
Function CallingYesYes
VisionYesYes
When to Use GPT-4.1 Mini

Choose GPT-4.1 Mini when you need: 1m token context window at low cost, great balance of speed and quality, strong coding for a mini model, affordable for high-volume use. It excels at chatbots, long-context, cost-sensitive tasks.

Strengths:

  • 1M token context window at low cost
  • Great balance of speed and quality
  • Strong coding for a mini model
  • Affordable for high-volume use

Best for:

chatbotslong-contextcost-sensitive
When to Use GPT-4.1 Nano

Choose GPT-4.1 Nano when you need: ultra-low pricing, 1m context window, very fast inference, ideal for simple tasks at scale. It excels at chatbots, classification, cost-sensitive, high-volume tasks. It is also the more cost-effective option between the two.

Strengths:

  • Ultra-low pricing
  • 1M context window
  • Very fast inference
  • Ideal for simple tasks at scale

Best for:

chatbotsclassificationcost-sensitivehigh-volume

Frequently Asked Questions

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