GPT-4 vs. GPT-4o vs. GPT-4o Mini: What’s the Difference?

With the May 2024 release of GPT-4o to accompany GPT-4, you’re probably wondering what the difference between these AI models is—and which ChatGPT model you should actually use.

Although OpenAI’s GPT-4 models start from the same foundation, they have some considerable differences that mean they’re better suited to some tasks than others, not to mention the cost associated with accessing them.

So, what’s the difference between OpenAI’s GPT-4 models?

GPT-4 vs. GPT-4o vs. GPT-4o mini

OpenAI’s GPT-4 models include several variants, each designed to meet different needs. Here’s an overview of the differences between GPT-4, GPT-4o (Omni), and GPT-4o mini.

GPT-4

GPT-4 is the foundational model. It understands and generates complex sentences and is useful for a broad range of applications, such as creative writing, data analysis, language translation, and code generation. With GPT-4’s 23,000-25,000 word context window, you can also attach multiple long documents and have them answer any queries about your uploaded files. Since this is the base model for the series, you’ll also be able to access all of GPT -4’s useful features on both GPT-4 Turbo and GPT-4o.

GPT-4o mini

GPT-4o mini is a small language model (SLM) that competes well with many large language models (LLMs). Even though it’s trained on smaller and more specific datasets, GPT-4o mini outperforms GPT-4 in some key areas, such as response speed and free user access.

However, while GPT-4o mini is designed to be a multimodal model, its current ChatGPT version only supports text, without the ability to use vision or audio. Additionally, unlike GPT-4 and GPT-4o, ChatGPT does not allow GPT-4o mini to attach files. It is still unclear whether ChatGPT will allow multimodal capabilities in GPT-4o mini in the future.

GPT-4o

GPT-4o (“o” for “omni”) is the latest addition to the GPT-4 series of models and is the default model selected for both ChatGPT Free and Plus users. This model is smarter and four times faster than GPT-4, making it ideal for real-time applications. GPT-4o was the first multimodal model in the series, capable of analyzing all kinds of file formats such as text, audio, image, and video, and can generate text and images all within ChatGPT.

Additionally, OpenAI has allowed free tier users limited GPT-4o access, at 16 messages every 3 hours. After that, ChatGPT will revert to using GPT-3.5.

Here’s a breakdown of each GPT-4 model:

In addition to costs, response times, and context window, I’ve also added the accuracy benchmark for each model to help compare accuracy in various tasks. The benchmark tests include MMLU for testing academic knowledge, GPQA for assessing general knowledge, HumanEval for assessing the models’ ability to code, and MATH for solving math problems. In each, a higher score is better.

Which GPT-4 Model Should You Use?

Choosing the right model depends on your specific needs and the nature of the tasks you intend to perform.

GPT-4o is the most powerful model in the lineup. It has the highest accuracy scores in all benchmarked tests and will likely perform best in any interaction. However, the number of messages you can send GPT-4o is limited, especially for free-tier users. This limitation is a key reason why you should still upgrade to ChatGPT Plus.

Still, it is best to reserve the use of GPT-4o for interactions that require multimodal inputs and outputs or when the utmost accuracy is needed. Since GPT-4o mini performs better than GPT-4 in terms of mathematics, academic knowledge, coding, and general knowledge, this model should be used for text-based queries where higher accuracy is needed. Use the GPT-4 model for instances where attaching files such as documents, PDFs, and audio is required.