Goodbye GPT-3.5, OpenAI's new GPT-4o mini AI model is all about compact power

OpenAI has added a new large language model (LLM) called GPT-4o mini to ChatGPT and its APIs. As the name implies, the GPT-4o Mini model is a smaller version of the GPT-4o model introduced in May. The mini model is designed to balance the power of GPT-4o with a more cost-efficient approach.

GPT-4o mini has much of the functionality of its larger cousin, though the API only has text and vision support for now, with image, video, and audio inputs and outputs still in the works. Like GPT-4o, the new model has a context window of 128,000 tokens, or eight times that of GPT-3.5 Turbo. The new model also comes with enhanced safety features. Along with those built into GPT-4o already, GPT-4o mini added new techniques that make it more resistant to jailbreaks and improper prompt injections, among other issues concerning developers looking to deploy AI APIs broadly.

Ready for bigger jobs

OpenAI suggests the bigger context window and other upgrades, such as improved non-English text understanding, will make GPT-4o mini especially useful for processing big documents or linking multiple interactions with the AI model. For example, it could provide better recommendations in online stores, speed up real-time text responses for customer service, and produce accurate and detailed answers to students studying for an exam more quickly than other models. OpenAI has visions of GPT-4o automating and streamlining business processes thanks to its ability to fetch data and take actions with external systems. For businesses using the API, the cost is notably reduced to just over half the price per token of GPT-3.5 Turbo.

“OpenAI is committed to making intelligence as broadly accessible as possible,” OpenAI explained in its announcement. “We expect GPT-4o mini will significantly expand the range of applications built with AI by making intelligence much more affordable.”

GPT-4o mini is part of the recent wave of smaller LLMs like Google‘s Gemini Flash and Anthropic’s Claude Haiku. According to OpenAI, however, GPT-4o mini blows them out of the water when it comes to many of the standard tests. The model scored 82% on the Massive Multitask Language Understanding (MMLU) benchmark, compared to 77.9% and 73.8% by Gemini Flash and Haiku, respectively. The same goes for the MGSM and Human Eval tests, where GPT-4o Mini hit 87% and 87.2%, while Gemini Flash had 75.5% and 71.5%, and Haiku had 71.7% and 75.9%. In other words, GPT-4o Mini wins out on textual comprehension in addition to math and coding tasks, as can be seen in the graph below.

(Image credit: OpenAI)

Mini Model Major Plans

The introduction of GPT-4o Mini represents a significant step in making advanced AI more affordable and accessible, according to OpenAI. Lower costs plus better performance will likely help incorporate AI into everyday applications. The same goes for ChatGPT users, who can all access the model starting this week. OpenAI also has plans to introduce fine-tuning capabilities for GPT-4o Mini within the API.

The broader picture shows another step in ChatGPT’s evolving services. As OpenAI phases out GPT-3.5 for ChatGPT, the focus shifts to the next stage of providing more powerful models. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has long hinted at how GPT-5 will “substantially improve” upon the existing models. At the same time, the leaked OpenAI scale for measuring AI power shows there is still a long way to go to the still-mythical artificial general intelligence (AGI) that can perfectly mimic the workings of the human mind.