OpenAI just announced new AI models: GPT-4.1, GPT-4.1 mini, and even a GPT-4.1 nano. They're available now in the API.

It seems OpenAI is focusing on making their models better at coding, following instructions, and handling way more text. Let's see what this means.

What Has Changed?

  • Better at Coding: This seems to be a major focus. GPT-4.1 scored 54.6% on SWE-bench Verified (a software engineering test), which is a massive jump from GPT-4o's 33.2%. They say it's better at real-world coding tasks, understanding codebases, and following specific formats like code diffs.

  • Follows Instructions Better: Sick of the AI not quite doing what you asked? GPT-4.1 is supposed to be more reliable. It scored 38.3% on Scale’s MultiChallenge benchmark (up 10.5% from GPT-4o), which tests how well it follows instructions, especially over multiple turns in a conversation. They specifically mention improvements in handling negative instructions (like "don't do XYZ") and complex formatting requests.

  • HUGE Context Windows: All three new models (4.1, mini, nano) support up to 1 million tokens of context! That's up from 128k in GPT-4o. Think of processing massive codebases or multiple long documents at once.

  • Faster and Cheaper Options:

    • GPT-4.1: Is 26% cheaper than GPT-4o for typical queries.
    • GPT-4.1 mini: A big improvement over GPT-4o mini. OpenAI claims it matches or beats GPT-4o on some intelligence tests while being nearly half the latency and 83% cheaper. Wow!
    • GPT-4.1 nano: Their fastest and cheapest model now. Designed for low-latency tasks like autocompletion or classification, but still has that 1 million token context window.

  • Better Image Understanding (Vision): The new models, especially GPT-4.1 mini, show improvements in understanding images, charts, and even long videos. GPT-4.1 got 72.0% on a long video understanding test, beating GPT-4o.

  • API Only: Important note: These new models (4.1, mini, nano) are only available via the API.

When Should You Use These?

Based on the improvements:

  • Coding Tools & Agents: The big coding boost makes GPT-4.1 (and maybe mini) much more attractive for code generation, review, debugging, and building automated coding agents.

  • Complex Instruction Tasks: If you need an AI to follow specific formats, multi-step instructions, or remember details from long conversations, GPT-4.1 looks more reliable.

  • Processing Large Amounts of Text/Code: Analyzing long documents, summarizing books, querying across entire code repositories – the 1M token window opens up possibilities here for all three models.

  • Speed-Sensitive Apps: GPT-4.1 mini and nano are explicitly designed for lower latency. Think faster chatbots, real-time analysis, or quick classifications.

  • Cost-Sensitive Apps: Nano is the cheapest option, and Mini offers a great performance/cost balance compared to previous models.

My Quick Opinion

The introduction of mini and nano versions alongside the main 4.1 is a smart move. It gives developers clear choices based on their needs for performance, speed, and cost.

It's also good they're focusing on instruction following which I think was much needed even you must have noticed bashing on social platforms for models giving irrelevant responses. Also making these API-only clarifies where developers should look for the latest capabilities.

All in all, this looks like a solid update focused on practical developer needs. Do check it out - https://openai.com/index/gpt-4-1/.