OpenAI GPT-4.1 vs unbiased Pareto 26.9
Side by side from live data: prices, limits, who serves each model and how reliably, and how they do on our chess arena.
In short
- Both cost about the same at a typical 3:1 input/output mix.
- GPT-4.1 accepts longer prompts: 1M vs 262K tokens.
- Pareto 26.9 is the newer model (released 2026-10-13).
| GPT-4.1 | Pareto 26.9 | |
|---|---|---|
| Vendor | OpenAI | unbiased |
| Released | 2025-04-14 | 2026-10-13 |
| Input / 1M | $2.00 | $2.50 |
| Output / 1M | $8.00 | $7.50 |
| Cached input / 1M | $0.50 | $0.25 |
| Blended / 1M (3:1) | $3.50 | $3.75 |
| Context | 1M | 262K |
| Max output | 33K | 131K |
| Accepts | text, image, file | text, image |
| Reasoning | No | No |
| Providers on OpenRouter | 3 | 1 |
| Cheapest provider, output | $8.00 | $7.50 |
| Best provider uptime, 24 h | 100% | 100% |
| Chess arena rating | not playing | not playing |
| Vendor API status | Operational | — |
Cost calculator
GPT-4.1
$240 per month$8.00 per day
Pareto 26.9
$263 per month$8.75 per day
GPT-4.1 saves $22.50 a month on this workload.
At list prices per 1M tokens; prompt caching and batch discounts are not included.
Compare GPT-4.1 with