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GPT-4.1 Mini vs Sonar

Updated October 21, 2026. 5 benchmarks have a result for both. Coding is ranked on the Vibe Coding Index; every other board is shown as published.

Replace GPT-4.1 Mini Replace Sonar
GPT-4.1 MiniOpenAI
Coding
No data
Overall
10.2
Output $/M
$1.60
5
SonarPerplexity
Coding
No data
Overall
7.7
Output $/M
$1.00
0
vs boards won of 5 shared

Decision reading

Neither model has a coding score yet, so the two cannot be ranked on coding.

GPT-4.1 Mini has the edge where the context window is larger, 1.05M against 127K tokens.

Model AGPT-4.1 MiniOpenAINot benchmarkedNo coding benchmark$1.818 per solved taskModel BSonarPerplexityNot benchmarkedNo coding benchmarkNo cost per solved task
Shared results
5
GPT-4.1 Mini only
79
Sonar only
0
Like-for-like categories
4 of 9

Shared results can support a head-to-head reading. Results only one model has describe coverage, not superiority.

Which one for your work

Each card is decided by one number both models carry. Where only one has it, the card says so and makes no call.

At a glance

Coding index
GPT-4.1 Mini not benchmarked, Sonar not benchmarked.
Widest category
Coding, 18.8 points apart on average over 1 shared benchmark.
Widest single gap
GPQA Diamond (Artificial Analysis run): GPT-4.1 Mini 66.4% against Sonar 47.1%, 19.3 points apart on a 0 to 100 scale.
Output price
GPT-4.1 Mini $1.60 against Sonar $1.00 per million output tokens, 1.6x apart.
Context window
GPT-4.1 Mini takes 1.05M tokens, Sonar 127K.

Benchmark by benchmark

First the score: boards each model leads, per category, where both have a result. Then every board, a category to a fold; bars are each result on a 0 to 100 scale, so compare the two in a row, not one row with another.

Boards won, where both have a result
CategoryGPT-4.1 MiniBarsSonarTies
Coding10
Intelligence10
Reasoning20
Knowledge10
All shared boards50
CodingLike-for-likeSix of these boards feed the Vibe Coding Index10
Coding benchmarks for GPT-4.1 Mini and Sonar
BenchmarkGPT-4.1 MiniSonarLeader
Aider polyglot32.4%Not measuredOnly GPT-4.1 Mini measured
SWE-bench Verified23.9%Not measuredOnly GPT-4.1 Mini measured
AA Coding Index20.2Not measuredOnly GPT-4.1 Mini measured
LiveCodeBench (Vals AI)58.2%Not measuredOnly GPT-4.1 Mini measured
LiveCodeBench (Artificial Analysis run)48.3%29.5%GPT-4.1 Mini
Terminal-Bench Hard (Artificial Analysis run)7.6%Not measuredOnly GPT-4.1 Mini measured
WeirdML37.6%Not measuredOnly GPT-4.1 Mini measured
LMArena Text: coding1367Not measuredOnly GPT-4.1 Mini measured
LMArena Text: software and IT1360Not measuredOnly GPT-4.1 Mini measured
Neither model has a result on the other 29 boards here
IntelligenceLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index10
Intelligence benchmarks for GPT-4.1 Mini and Sonar
BenchmarkGPT-4.1 MiniSonarLeader
AA Intelligence Index10.27.7GPT-4.1 Mini
Epoch Capabilities Index134.9Not measuredOnly GPT-4.1 Mini measured
Agentic workDirectional onlyPublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index1 board, none shared
Agentic work benchmarks for GPT-4.1 Mini and Sonar
BenchmarkGPT-4.1 MiniSonarLeader
τ²-Bench Telecom52.9%Not measuredOnly GPT-4.1 Mini measured
Neither model has a result on the other 38 boards here
ReasoningLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index20
Reasoning benchmarks for GPT-4.1 Mini and Sonar
BenchmarkGPT-4.1 MiniSonarLeader
GPQA Diamond67.9%Not measuredOnly GPT-4.1 Mini measured
MMMU Pro (Vals AI)70.5%Not measuredOnly GPT-4.1 Mini measured
GPQA Diamond (Artificial Analysis run)66.4%47.1%GPT-4.1 Mini
Humanity's Last Exam (Artificial Analysis run)5.0%4.9%GPT-4.1 Mini
GPQA Diamond (Epoch AI run)65.8%Not measuredOnly GPT-4.1 Mini measured
ARC-AGI3.5%Not measuredOnly GPT-4.1 Mini measured
ARC-AGI-20.0%Not measuredOnly GPT-4.1 Mini measured
Chess puzzles1.0%Not measuredOnly GPT-4.1 Mini measured
Mystery game puzzles7.0%Not measuredOnly GPT-4.1 Mini measured
LMArena Text: hard prompts1349Not measuredOnly GPT-4.1 Mini measured
LMArena Text: expert1338Not measuredOnly GPT-4.1 Mini measured
LMArena Text: hard prompts in English1362Not measuredOnly GPT-4.1 Mini measured
LMArena Vision: diagrams1182Not measuredOnly GPT-4.1 Mini measured
LMArena Vision: homework1214Not measuredOnly GPT-4.1 Mini measured
Neither model has a result on the other 7 boards here
MathDirectional onlyPublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index10 boards, none shared
Math benchmarks for GPT-4.1 Mini and Sonar
BenchmarkGPT-4.1 MiniSonarLeader
AIME49.4%Not measuredOnly GPT-4.1 Mini measured
MATH 500 (Vals AI)88.0%Not measuredOnly GPT-4.1 Mini measured
MGSM (Vals AI)87.8%Not measuredOnly GPT-4.1 Mini measured
AA Math Index46.3Not measuredOnly GPT-4.1 Mini measured
AIME 2025 (Artificial Analysis run)46.3%Not measuredOnly GPT-4.1 Mini measured
OTIS Mock AIME44.7%Not measuredOnly GPT-4.1 Mini measured
FrontierMath, tiers 1 to 36.7%Not measuredOnly GPT-4.1 Mini measured
MATH level 587.3%Not measuredOnly GPT-4.1 Mini measured
LMArena Text: math1343Not measuredOnly GPT-4.1 Mini measured
LMArena Text: mathematical work1347Not measuredOnly GPT-4.1 Mini measured
Neither model has a result on the other 3 boards here
KnowledgeLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index10
Knowledge benchmarks for GPT-4.1 Mini and Sonar
BenchmarkGPT-4.1 MiniSonarLeader
MMLU Pro77.2%Not measuredOnly GPT-4.1 Mini measured
LegalBench (Vals AI)78.0%Not measuredOnly GPT-4.1 Mini measured
CorpFin (Vals AI)57.9%Not measuredOnly GPT-4.1 Mini measured
TaxEval (Vals AI)71.9%Not measuredOnly GPT-4.1 Mini measured
MortgageTax (Vals AI)65.5%Not measuredOnly GPT-4.1 Mini measured
MedQA (Vals AI)84.6%Not measuredOnly GPT-4.1 Mini measured
MMLU Pro (Artificial Analysis run)78.1%68.9%GPT-4.1 Mini
SimpleQA Verified12.7%Not measuredOnly GPT-4.1 Mini measured
LMArena Text: science1328Not measuredOnly GPT-4.1 Mini measured
LMArena Text: medicine and healthcare1324Not measuredOnly GPT-4.1 Mini measured
LMArena Text: legal and government1343Not measuredOnly GPT-4.1 Mini measured
LMArena Text: business and finance1322Not measuredOnly GPT-4.1 Mini measured
Neither model has a result on the other 5 boards here
Web designDirectional onlyPublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index6 boards, none shared
Web design benchmarks for GPT-4.1 Mini and Sonar
BenchmarkGPT-4.1 MiniSonarLeader
Design Arena: websites997Not measuredOnly GPT-4.1 Mini measured
Design Arena: UI components961Not measuredOnly GPT-4.1 Mini measured
Design Arena: game dev1071Not measuredOnly GPT-4.1 Mini measured
Design Arena: data viz1034Not measuredOnly GPT-4.1 Mini measured
Design Arena: 3D837Not measuredOnly GPT-4.1 Mini measured
Design Arena: all code categories994Not measuredOnly GPT-4.1 Mini measured
Neither model has a result on the other 3 boards here
GeneralDirectional onlyPublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index30 boards, none shared
General benchmarks for GPT-4.1 Mini and Sonar
BenchmarkGPT-4.1 MiniSonarLeader
IFBench38.3%Not measuredOnly GPT-4.1 Mini measured
Long context reasoning (AA-LCR)44.0%Not measuredOnly GPT-4.1 Mini measured
DTBench68.8%Not measuredOnly GPT-4.1 Mini measured
LMCA21.1%Not measuredOnly GPT-4.1 Mini measured
Fiction.LiveBench44.4%Not measuredOnly GPT-4.1 Mini measured
LMArena Text1341Not measuredOnly GPT-4.1 Mini measured
LMArena Text: instruction following1333Not measuredOnly GPT-4.1 Mini measured
LMArena Text: creative writing1299Not measuredOnly GPT-4.1 Mini measured
LMArena Vision1181Not measuredOnly GPT-4.1 Mini measured
LMArena Text: English1356Not measuredOnly GPT-4.1 Mini measured
LMArena Text: non-English1318Not measuredOnly GPT-4.1 Mini measured
LMArena Text: Chinese1329Not measuredOnly GPT-4.1 Mini measured
LMArena Text: German1350Not measuredOnly GPT-4.1 Mini measured
LMArena Text: Japanese1290Not measuredOnly GPT-4.1 Mini measured
LMArena Text: Korean1298Not measuredOnly GPT-4.1 Mini measured
LMArena Text: French1358Not measuredOnly GPT-4.1 Mini measured
LMArena Text: Spanish1319Not measuredOnly GPT-4.1 Mini measured
LMArena Text: Russian1324Not measuredOnly GPT-4.1 Mini measured
LMArena Text: Polish1326Not measuredOnly GPT-4.1 Mini measured
LMArena Text: multi-turn1354Not measuredOnly GPT-4.1 Mini measured
LMArena Text: longer queries1344Not measuredOnly GPT-4.1 Mini measured
LMArena Text: writing and language1319Not measuredOnly GPT-4.1 Mini measured
LMArena Text: entertainment and media1300Not measuredOnly GPT-4.1 Mini measured
LMArena Vision: English1191Not measuredOnly GPT-4.1 Mini measured
LMArena Vision: Chinese1186Not measuredOnly GPT-4.1 Mini measured
LMArena Vision: reading text1188Not measuredOnly GPT-4.1 Mini measured
LMArena Vision: humor1182Not measuredOnly GPT-4.1 Mini measured
LMArena Vision: captioning1174Not measuredOnly GPT-4.1 Mini measured
LMArena Vision: recognizing things1187Not measuredOnly GPT-4.1 Mini measured
LMArena Vision: creative writing1182Not measuredOnly GPT-4.1 Mini measured
Neither model has a result on the other 16 boards here
Image generationNot comparablePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index0 boards, none shared
Image generation benchmarks for GPT-4.1 Mini and Sonar
BenchmarkGPT-4.1 MiniSonarLeader
Neither model has a result on 5 boards here

What each workload costs

Three fixed token mixes at each model's listed price, so per-token rates become a bill.

Chat turn

1K input + 500 output tokens

GPT-4.1 Mini$0.0012Fits in one request
Sonar$0.0015Fits in one request

GPT-4.1 Mini costs less

Repository review

50K input + 3K output tokens

GPT-4.1 Mini$0.025Fits in one request
Sonar$0.053Fits in one request

GPT-4.1 Mini costs less

Agent loop

200K input + 10K output tokens

GPT-4.1 Mini$0.096Fits in one request
Sonar$0.210Exceeds the context window

GPT-4.1 Mini costs less

Listed OpenRouter rates, without cache or batch discounts. A workload that does not fit a model's context window would need splitting.

Specification differences

The leading value in a row is marked; a row with a missing value names no leader. Our two rows are marked in red.

Specifications of GPT-4.1 Mini and Sonar
SpecificationOpenAI GPT-4.1 MiniPerplexity Sonar
MakerOpenAIPerplexity
WeightsNo public weights listedNo public weights listed
ReleasedApril 14, 2025January 27, 2025
Context window1.05M127K
Input $/Mtok$0.40$1.00
Output $/Mtok$1.60$1.00
Coding indexNot benchmarkedNot benchmarked
Independent measurements behind it00
Cost per solved task$1.818Not computable
SourceOpenRouter listingOpenRouter listing

Questions

Is GPT-4.1 Mini better than Sonar for coding?

Neither model has a coding score yet, so the two cannot be ranked on coding. GPT-4.1 Mini has the edge where the context window is larger, 1.05M against 127K tokens.

Which is cheaper, GPT-4.1 Mini or Sonar?

GPT-4.1 Mini costs $0.40 per million input tokens and $1.60 per million output tokens; Sonar costs $1.00 and $1.00. Cost per solved task is known for GPT-4.1 Mini only.

Which has the bigger context window, GPT-4.1 Mini or Sonar?

GPT-4.1 Mini, with 1.05M tokens against 127K.

How many benchmarks is the GPT-4.1 Mini vs Sonar comparison based on?

5 benchmarks have a result for both models as of October 21, 2026. GPT-4.1 Mini's coding index rests on 0 independent benchmarks and Sonar's on 0. Where only one model has a result, the page says so instead of naming a winner.

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