GPT-4o vs GPT-5 nano

GPT-4o vs GPT-5 nano: GPT-5 nano is cheaper by 98% on average. GPT-4o from Azure OpenAI (128,000-token context, tool calls) vs. GPT-5 nano from Azure 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-5 nanoCheaper
Azure OpenAI
$47.18/mo
Input $0.0500/M · Output $0.400/M
At this workload, GPT-5 nano is 97% cheaper than GPT-4o — a savings of $1,703/month ($20,436/year).
Production recipe — Agent Command Center
strategy: cost-optimized
primary:
  model: gpt-5-nano
  provider: azure-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 nano
Input price $2.50/M $0.0500/M
Output price $10.00/M $0.400/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
~98% 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 nano
1,325
HumanEvalcode
GPT-4o
90.2%
GPT-5 nano
86.3%
MMLUgeneral
GPT-4o
88.7%
GPT-5 nano
IFEvalgeneral
GPT-4o
84.0%
GPT-5 nano
MATHmath
GPT-4o
76.6%
GPT-5 nano
MMLU-Proreasoning
GPT-4o
GPT-5 nano
73.0%
MMMUmultimodal
GPT-4o
69.1%
GPT-5 nano
GPQAreasoning
GPT-4o
53.6%
GPT-5 nano