CtrlAltDebrief

R1 vs GPT-4o

API pricing, context window and capabilities for R1 and GPT-4o, side by side. Prices are the cheapest serving route per 1M tokens, verified against LiteLLM and OpenRouter.

Verdict

computed from the published numbers

R1 wins on price, on intelligence and on context window. Benchmark data is unavailable for one or both models.

Price
R1
Coding
Not called
Intelligence
R1
Context window
R1

Key takeaways

who wins on what, from the published numbers

R1 wins

  • Cheaper input ($0.40 vs $2.50 /1M)
  • Cheaper output ($0.40 vs $10.00 /1M)
  • Larger context window (164K vs 131K)
  • Higher max output (164K vs 16K)
  • More serving providers (12 vs 6)
  • Has reasoning mode

GPT-4o wins

  • Supports vision
  • Supports audio
Cheaper overall
R1
$0.40 + $0.40 /1M
Larger context
R1
164K
More providers
R1
12 providers

Pricing & specs

cheapest serving route · per 1M tokens
R1GPT-4o
Input $/1M$0.40 best$2.50
Output $/1M$0.40 best$10.00
Context window164K best131K
Max output164K best16K
Serving providers12 best6
Released2025-01-01 2024-05-13

Benchmarks

Artificial Analysis indices, side by side
R1GPT-4o
Intelligence20.1 best11.2
GPQA Diamond81% best54%
Output speedNot available 99 t/s
Latency (TTFT)Not available 5.19s

Cost calculator

choose a serving route for each side
Input tokens / month
Output tokens / month
R1
via Hyperbolic
$2.40
GPT-4o
via Azure
$23

Capabilities

feature support, side by side
FeatureR1GPT-4o
Vision—✓
Tool use✓✓
Reasoning✓—
Audio—✓
Prompt caching✓✓
Structured output✓✓
Web search——

Related comparisons

Frequently asked questions

Which is cheaper, R1 or GPT-4o?
R1 is cheaper for input ($0.40 vs $2.50 per 1M tokens). R1 is cheaper for output ($0.40 vs $10.00 per 1M tokens).
What is the context window difference between R1 and GPT-4o?
R1 has a 164K-token context window and GPT-4o has 131K tokens, so R1 can take a larger prompt.
How do R1 and GPT-4o compare on benchmarks?
On the tracked Artificial Analysis indices, R1 leads on intelligence.
Pricing verified against LiteLLM + OpenRouter + provider pages · refreshed daily

Every weekday

AI moves fast. Here's your debrief.

News, analysis, tools, and more.

For people who build with AI