GPT-4o vs GPT-4o Mini: Pricing, Benchmarks & Verdict (2026)

Pricing verified Apr 20, 2026By LLMversusUpdated June 14, 2026View methodology

⚡ Quick Answer

GPT-4o Mini is significantly cheaper at $0.15/$0.60 per million tokens vs $2.50/$10.00. GPT-4o is stronger for coding with a coding ELO of 1265 vs 1200. GPT-4o ranks higher overall with an Arena ELO of 1260 vs 1220.

Updated: April 20, 2026 · ✓ Pricing verified

Side-by-Side Comparison

FeatureGPT-4oGPT-4o Mini
ProviderOpenAIOpenAI
Input Price / 1M tokens$2.50$0.150
Output Price / 1M tokens$10.00$0.600
Context Window
128K
128K
Max Output Tokens
16,384
16,384
Arena ELO
1,260
1,220
Coding ELO
1,265
1,200
TTFT (ms)
230
180
Tokens/sec
95
120
MultimodalYesYes
JSON ModeYesYes
Function CallingYesYes
VisionYesYes
When to Use GPT-4o

Choose GPT-4o when you need: fast response times, strong multimodal capabilities, code execution support. It excels at general-purpose, multimodal, function-calling tasks.

Strengths:

  • Fast response times
  • Strong multimodal capabilities
  • Code execution support

Best for:

general-purposemultimodalfunction-calling
When to Use GPT-4o Mini

Choose GPT-4o Mini when you need: extremely affordable pricing, fast response times, strong for its price tier, good multimodal support. It excels at chatbots, lightweight-tasks, cost-sensitive tasks. It is also the more cost-effective option between the two.

Strengths:

  • Extremely affordable pricing
  • Fast response times
  • Strong for its price tier
  • Good multimodal support

Best for:

chatbotslightweight-taskscost-sensitive

Frequently Asked Questions

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