OpenAI Releases GPT-4.1, a New Family of Models Designed for Coding

OpenAI’s lineup of powerful AI models is growing. Today, the company behind ChatGPT has announced the GPT-4.1 “model family,” a collection of three new AI models “purpose-built for developers.” The models can now be used via OpenAI’s API. According to OpenAI, the GPT-4.1 family will consist of three models: the normal-size GPT-4.1, the smaller and more modestly priced GPT-4.1 mini, and the even smaller and cheaper GPT-4.1 nano. These models will be available only through OpenAI’s API, and can’t be accessed through ChatGPT’s model picker. OpenAI says this is because the latest version of its GPT-4o model incorporates many of the same improvements in ChatGPT. The GPT-4.1 models have been trained on data with a knowledge cutoff of June 2024, and are said to outperform OpenAI’s top models at coding, effectively following complex instructions, and understanding large datasets. If developers want their AI applications to access more current information, they’ll need to connect the model to the internet. The GPT-4.1 models will also be able to process up to one million tokens of context at a time, significantly more than models from Google and OpenAI rival Anthropic. OpenAI says that the new GPT-4.1 models have been optimized to help software developers in coding and programming. The company adds that models will assist in front-end coding, will make fewer extraneous edits to code, and follow formats and structures more reliably. AI-assisted coding is one of the most common use cases for generative AI, and has been a focus for Anthropic. According to OpenAI, the GPT-4.1 model is 26 percent less expensive than GPT-4o when answering questions or performing tasks, but the real cost efficiencies can be found in GPT-4.1 nano. The nano model is said to be OpenAI’s fastest, cheapest model ever released, which could make it an attractive option for small businesses looking to dip a toe in the AI waters without making a big financial investment. The company also announced that the GPT-4.1 models would replace GPT-4.5 Preview, a model released in February that had high levels of capability in emotional intelligence, but was extremely expensive compared with most AI models. An OpenAI representative said that GPT-4.1 offers “improved or similar performance on many key capabilities at lower latency and cost,” making GPT-4.5 unnecessary. BY BEN SHERRY @BENLUCASSHERRY