GPT-4o vs GPT-5

GPT-4o vs GPT-5: GPT-5 is cheaper by 50% on average. GPT-4o from Azure OpenAI (128,000-token context, tool calls) vs. GPT-5 from OpenAI (272,000-token context, reasoning, tool calls). Use Agent Command Center to A/B both in shadow mode and pick the winner per workload.

Side-by-side cost

Live workload comparison

Same workload run through both models. The cheaper one is highlighted.

3,000
0272,000
400
0128,000
5,000
01,000,000
Azure OpenAI
$1,750/mo
Input $2.50/M · Output $10.00/M
GPT-5Cheaper
OpenAI
$1,179/mo
Input $1.25/M · Output $10.00/M
At this workload, GPT-5 is 33% cheaper than GPT-4o — a savings of $571/month ($6,848/year).
Production recipe — Agent Command Center
strategy: cost-optimized
primary:
  model: gpt-5
  provider: openai
fallback:
  model: gpt-4o
  provider: azure-openai
shadow: { sample_rate: 0.05 }   # mirror 5% of traffic to compare quality live
GPT-4o GPT-5
Input price $2.50/M $1.25/M
Output price $10.00/M $10.00/M
Context window 128,000 272,000
Max output 16,384 128,000
Function calling
Vision
Audio input
Reasoning
Prompt caching
Structured output
Pricing verified May 12, 2026 May 12, 2026
Cheaper option
~50% cheaper than GPT-4o
Larger context
272,000 tokens
More capabilities
5 of 6 capability flags advertised

Benchmark comparison

Side-by-side public benchmark scores. Greener bar = winner.

Chatbot Arena ELOgeneral
GPT-4o
1,265
GPT-5
1,450
MATH-500math
GPT-4o
GPT-5
99.6%
AIME 2024math
GPT-4o
GPT-5
98.4%
BFCL v3agent
GPT-4o
GPT-5
96.3%
AIME 2025math
GPT-4o
GPT-5
94.6%
LiveCodeBenchcode
GPT-4o
GPT-5
90.0%
MMLU-Proreasoning
GPT-4o
GPT-5
89.4%
MMLUgeneral
GPT-4o
88.7%
GPT-5
Aider Polyglotcode
GPT-4o
GPT-5
88.0%
GPQA Diamondreasoning
GPT-4o
GPT-5
87.3%
MATHmath
GPT-4o
76.6%
GPT-5
SWE-bench Verifiedagent
GPT-4o
GPT-5
74.9%
GPQAreasoning
GPT-4o
53.6%
GPT-5
Humanity's Last Examreasoning
GPT-4o
GPT-5
42.0%
ARC-AGI-2reasoning
GPT-4o
GPT-5
17.6%