GPT-4o vs R1
| Signal | GPT-4o | Delta | R1 |
|---|---|---|---|
Capabilities | 67 | -- | |
Benchmarks | 74 | +1 | |
Pricing | 90 | -7 | |
Context window size | 81 | -2 | |
Recency | 0 | -30 | |
Output Capacity | 70 | +0 | |
| Overall Result | 2 wins | of 6 | 3 wins |
Score History
71.2
current score
R1
right now
74.2
current score
GPT-4o
OpenAI
R1
DeepSeek
R1 saves you $555.00/month
That's $6660.00/year compared to GPT-4o at your current usage level of 100K calls/month.
| Metric | GPT-4o | R1 | Winner |
|---|---|---|---|
| Overall Score | 71 | 74 | R1 |
| Rank | #157 | #134 | R1 |
| Quality Rank | #157 | #134 | R1 |
| Adoption Rank | #157 | #134 | R1 |
| Parameters | -- | -- | -- |
| Context Window | 128K | 164K | R1 |
| Pricing | $2.50/$10.00/M | $0.70/$2.50/M | -- |
| Signal Scores | |||
| Capabilities | 67 | 67 | GPT-4o |
| Benchmarks | 74 | 73 | GPT-4o |
| Pricing | 90 | 98 | R1 |
| Context window size | 81 | 83 | R1 |
| Recency | 0 | 30 | R1 |
| Output Capacity | 70 | 70 | GPT-4o |
Our score (0-100) is driven by benchmark performance (90%) from Arena Elo ratings, MMLU, GPQA, HumanEval, SWE-bench, and 15+ standardized evaluations. Capabilities and context window serve as tiebreakers (10%). Learn more about our methodology.
Scores 71/100 (rank #157), placing it in the top 46% of all 290 models tracked.
Scores 74/100 (rank #134), placing it in the top 54% of all 290 models tracked.
With only a 3-point gap, these models are in the same performance tier. The practical difference in output quality is minimal - your choice should depend on pricing, latency requirements, and specific feature needs.
Choose GPT-4o when you need:
- Multimodal workflows that require image understanding
Choose R1 when you need:
- High-volume production workloads where API costs must be minimized
- Step-by-step reasoning and chain-of-thought problem solving
- Self-hosted deployments where you need full control over the model
R1 offers 74% better value per quality point. At 1M tokens/day, you'd spend $48.00/month with R1 vs $187.50/month with GPT-4o - a $139.50 monthly difference.
Both models have comparable response speeds. For most applications, the latency difference is negligible.
When latency matters most: Interactive chatbots, IDE code completion, real-time translation, and user-facing applications where response time directly impacts experience. For batch processing, background summarization, or offline analysis, latency is less critical.
Code generation & review
Based on overall model capabilities and architecture for coding tasks like generating functions, debugging, and refactoring
Customer support chatbot
Suitable for user-facing chat with competitive response times. R1 also offers lower per-token costs for high-volume support
Long document analysis
Larger context window (164K tokens) can process longer documents, contracts, and research papers in a single pass
Batch data extraction
Lower output pricing ($2.50/M) reduces costs when processing thousands of records daily
Creative writing & content
Higher overall composite score (74/100) correlates with better nuance, coherence, and style in long-form content
Image understanding & OCR
Supports vision input - can analyze screenshots, diagrams, photos, and scanned documents directly
GPT-4o and R1 are extremely close in overall performance (only 3 points apart). Your best choice depends entirely on which specific strengths matter most for your use case.
By Use Case
Best for Quality
GPT-4o
Marginally better benchmark scores; both are excellent
Best for Cost
R1
74% lower pricing; better value at scale
Best for Reliability
GPT-4o
Higher uptime and faster response speeds
Best for Prototyping
GPT-4o
Stronger community support and better developer experience
Best for Production
GPT-4o
Wider enterprise adoption and proven at scale
by OpenAI
- Choose for Quality - Marginally better benchmark scores; both are excellent
- Choose for Reliability - Higher uptime and faster response speeds
- Choose for Prototyping - Stronger community support and better developer experience
- Choose for Production - Wider enterprise adoption and proven at scale
| Capability | GPT-4o | R1 |
|---|---|---|
| Vision (Image Input)differs | ||
| Function Calling | ||
| Streaming | ||
| JSON Mode | ||
| Reasoningdiffers | ||
| Web Search | ||
| Image Output |
GPT-4o
OpenAI
R1
DeepSeek
R1 saves you $12.24/month
That's 74% cheaper than GPT-4o at 1,000 tokens/request and 100 requests/day.
Assumes 60% input / 40% output token ratio per request. Actual costs may vary based on your usage pattern.
| Parameter | GPT-4o | R1 |
|---|---|---|
| Context Window | 128K | 164K |
| Max Output Tokens | 16,384 | 16,000 |
| Open Source | No | Yes |
| Created | May 13, 2024 | Jan 20, 2025 |