AI model comparison
GLM 4.5 Air vs GPT-4.1 Mini
Pricing, context window, benchmarks, and features compared side by side. Or skip the guesswork and send one prompt to both.
Z.ai
GLM 4.5 Air
GLM-4.5-Air is the lightweight variant of our latest flagship model family, also purpose-built for agent-centric applications.
- Input / 1M
- $0.13
- Output / 1M
- $0.85
- Context
- 131K
OpenAI
GPT-4.1 Mini
GPT-4.1 Mini is a mid-sized model delivering performance competitive with GPT-4o at substantially lower latency and cost.
- Input / 1M
- $0.40
- Output / 1M
- $1.60
- Context
- 1.05M
At a glance
Quick verdict
How the two models stack up on the things people ask about most.
Lower price
GLM 4.5 Air
2.3x cheaper for a typical chat
Higher intelligence score
GLM 4.5 Air
11.1 vs 10.2 on Artificial Analysis
Larger context window
GPT-4.1 Mini
1.05M vs 131K tokens
Newer release
GLM 4.5 Air
Released July 25, 2025
Benchmarks
Benchmark scores
Independent scores from Artificial Analysis. Higher is better.
Intelligence index
GPT-4.1 Mini10.2Coding index
GPT-4.1 Mini20.2Agentic index
GPT-4.1 MiniNot availablePricing
GLM 4.5 Air vs GPT-4.1 Mini API pricing
Per-token API rates. Cheaper option highlighted.
| Metric | GPT-4.1 Mini | |
|---|---|---|
| Input tokensPer 1M tokens | $0.13 | $0.40 |
| Output tokensPer 1M tokens | $0.85 | $1.60 |
| Cached input (read)Per 1M tokens | $0.03 | $0.10 |
| Cache writePer 1M tokens | Not available | Not available |
| Web searchPer request | Not available | $0.01 |
What it costs in practice
Estimated cost per 1,000 requests at standard rates. Coding and long-document figures also show the cost when the input is already cached.
Chat message
2K in, 500 out
GPT-4.1 Mini$1.60Coding task
30K in, 4K out
GPT-4.1 Mini$18.40$9.40 cachedLong document summary
150K in, 2K out
GPT-4.1 Mini$63.20$18.20 cachedSpecs
Context window and capabilities
How much each model can read, how much it can write, and what it accepts as input.
| Metric | GPT-4.1 Mini | |
|---|---|---|
| Context window | 131K tokens | 1.05M tokens |
| Max output | 98K tokens | 33K tokens |
| Input types | Text | File, Image, Text |
| Output types | Text | Text |
| Reasoning effort levels | Not available | Not available |
| Default reasoning effort | Not available | Not available |
| Release date | July 25, 2025 | April 14, 2025 |
Features
Supported features
API features available for each model.
| Metric | GPT-4.1 Mini | |
|---|---|---|
| Tool calling | Supported | Supported |
| Structured outputs | Not supported | Supported |
| JSON mode | Not supported | Supported |
| Reasoning | Supported | Not supported |
| Temperature | Supported | Supported |
| Stop sequences | Supported | Not supported |
| Deterministic seed | Supported | Supported |
| Verbosity control | Not supported | Not supported |
Keep exploring
More on these models
Other head-to-heads, the full model page, and the alternatives list for each model.
- GLM 4.5 Air vs Gemini 2.5 Flash Lite
- GLM 4.5 Air vs Qwen3 235B A22B Instruct 2507
- GLM 4.5 Air vs GLM 4.7 Flash
- GLM 4.5 Air vs Mercury 2
- GLM 4.5 Air vs GLM 4.5
- GLM 4.5 Air vs Qwen3 Coder 480B A35B
- GLM 4.5 Air vs Qwen3 Coder Next
- GLM 4.5 Air vs Mistral Small 4
- GLM 4.5 Air vs Qwen3 Next 80B A3B Instruct
- GLM 4.5 Air vs GLM 4.6V
- GLM 4.5 Air vs Qwen3 Next 80B A3B Thinking
- GLM 4.5 Air vs Trinity Large Thinking
- GLM 4.5 Air vs Llama 4 Maverick
- GLM 4.5 Air vs GLM 4.5V
GPT-4.1 MiniView full model details- GPT-4.1 Mini vs Gemini 2.5 Flash Lite
- GPT-4.1 Mini vs GPT-4o-mini
- GPT-4.1 Mini vs GPT-5.6 Luna Pro
- GPT-4.1 Mini vs Qwen3 Next 80B A3B Instruct
- GPT-4.1 Mini vs DeepSeek V3 0324
- GPT-4.1 Mini vs Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct
- GPT-4.1 Mini vs Mistral Medium 3.1
- GPT-4.1 Mini vs Devstral 2 2512
- GPT-4.1 Mini vs Kimi K2 0711
- GPT-4.1 Mini vs o3 Mini
- GPT-4.1 Mini vs MiniMax M1
- GPT-4.1 Mini vs R1
- GPT-4.1 Mini vs GLM 4.6V
- GPT-4.1 Mini vs Sonar
- GPT-4.1 Mini vs Qwen3 Next 80B A3B Thinking
- GPT-4.1 Mini vs o3 Mini High
- GPT-4.1 Mini vs Trinity Large Thinking
- GPT-4.1 Mini vs GPT-4o (2024-08-06)
- GPT-4.1 Mini vs Mistral Large 3 2512
- GPT-4.1 Mini vs Mistral Medium 3
- GPT-4.1 Mini vs GPT-4o (2024-11-20)
- GPT-4.1 Mini vs GLM 4.5V
- GPT-4.1 Mini vs Hermes 4 405B
- GPT-4.1 Mini vs Nova Pro 1.0
- GPT-4.1 Mini vs GPT-3.5 Turbo
Our take
GLM 4.5 Air is 2.3x cheaper for a typical chat. GLM 4.5 Air scores higher on the Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index (11.1 vs 10.2). GPT-4.1 Mini has the larger context window (1.05M vs 131K tokens). The right pick depends on your workload, so the quickest way to settle it is to send the same prompt to both and compare.
FAQ
Frequently asked questions
Is GLM 4.5 Air or GPT-4.1 Mini cheaper?
GLM 4.5 Air is cheaper for a typical chat (2K input tokens and 500 output tokens). GLM 4.5 Air costs $0.13 per 1M input tokens and $0.85 per 1M output tokens, while GPT-4.1 Mini costs $0.40 per 1M input tokens and $1.60 per 1M output tokens.
Which has a bigger context window, GLM 4.5 Air or GPT-4.1 Mini?
GPT-4.1 Mini supports up to 1.05M tokens of context, compared with 131K for GLM 4.5 Air.
Is GLM 4.5 Air smarter than GPT-4.1 Mini?
On the Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index, GLM 4.5 Air scores 11.1 and GPT-4.1 Mini scores 10.2, putting GLM 4.5 Air ahead. Benchmarks don't capture everything, so the best test is running your own prompts through both.
Can I use GLM 4.5 Air and GPT-4.1 Mini at the same time?
Yes. Shortcut Chat sends one prompt to multiple models at once, so you can see GLM 4.5 Air and GPT-4.1 Mini answer side by side and keep the better response.
Why choose? Ask both.
Send one prompt to GLM 4.5 Air and GPT-4.1 Mini at the same time. Compare the answers side by side and keep the best one.