OpenAI Unveils GPT-4.1 with Enhanced Features and Improved Performance
OpenAI has officially launched GPT-4.1, the next iteration of its multimodal AI model, which builds on the capabilities of the GPT-4o released last year. During a livestream on Monday, OpenAI highlighted that GPT-4.1 offers an even larger context window and outperforms GPT-4o in various aspects, with substantial improvements in coding and instruction following.
Developers now have access to GPT-4.1, as well as two smaller variants: GPT-4.1 Mini and GPT-4.1 Nano. The Mini version is designed to be more accessible and affordable for developers, while the Nano version is OpenAI’s most compact and cost-effective model yet, offering a faster, lighter option.
All three models are capable of processing up to one million tokens of context—significantly higher than the 128,000-token limit of GPT-4o. OpenAI has trained GPT-4.1 to efficiently handle the full million-token context, improving its ability to discern relevant text and ignore irrelevant information, regardless of the context length.
Notably, GPT-4.1 is 26% cheaper than GPT-4o, a factor that has gained importance with the release of DeepSeek’s more efficient AI model.
As part of its strategy, OpenAI plans to phase out the two-year-old GPT-4 model from ChatGPT by April 30, replacing it with GPT-4o, which has received several updates that make it a natural successor. Additionally, OpenAI intends to discontinue the GPT-4.5 preview API by July 14, as GPT-4.1 is expected to deliver comparable or improved performance at a lower cost and with reduced latency.
GPT-4o, which was previously updated to introduce image-generation capabilities, had to restrict access to free ChatGPT accounts due to overwhelming demand. The introduction of GPT-4.1 coincides with OpenAI’s broader model update plans, which also include the upcoming launch of the GPT-5 model, now delayed until a few months from now. OpenAI’s CEO, Sam Altman, explained that the delay stems from challenges in seamlessly integrating all features.
In addition to GPT-4.1, OpenAI is preparing to launch new versions of its o3 and o4 mini reasoning models, with early references already appearing in the latest updates for ChatGPT.