Model Comparison

GLM-4.5-Air vs GPT-4.1 miniWhich is better in 2026?

GLM-4.5-Air significantly outperforms across most benchmarks.

Verdict: GLM-4.5-Air vs GPT-4.1 mini — which is better?

GLM-4.5-Air (by Zhipu AI) and GPT-4.1 mini (by OpenAI) are two of the AI models people compare most. Here is how they stack up on benchmarks, price and capabilities, and which one to pick in 2026.

GLM-4.5-Air outperforms in 6 benchmarks (AIME 2024, GPQA, Humanity's Last Exam, SWE-Bench Verified, TAU-bench Airline, TAU-bench Retail), while GPT-4.1 mini is better at 0 benchmarks. GLM-4.5-Air significantly outperforms across most benchmarks.

Choose GLM-4.5-Air if…

  • you want the strongest raw capability — it leads on 6 of 6 shared benchmarks
  • you want the most recent training data — it shipped Jul 2025
  • you need open weights you can self-host or fine-tune

Choose GPT-4.1 mini if…

  • you want predictable pricing at $0.40/M input and $1.60/M output
Want to compare interactively?Try the playground

Performance Benchmarks

Comparative analysis across standard metrics

6 benchmarks

GLM-4.5-Air outperforms in 6 benchmarks (AIME 2024, GPQA, Humanity's Last Exam, SWE-Bench Verified, TAU-bench Airline, TAU-bench Retail), while GPT-4.1 mini is better at 0 benchmarks.

GLM-4.5-Air significantly outperforms across most benchmarks.

Sun Jun 07 2026 • llm-stats.com

Arena Performance

Human preference votes

Context Window

Maximum input and output token capacity

Only GPT-4.1 mini specifies input context (1,047,576 tokens). Only GPT-4.1 mini specifies output context (32,768 tokens).

Zhipu AI
GLM-4.5-Air
Input- tokens
Output- tokens
OpenAI
GPT-4.1 mini
Input1,047,576 tokens
Output32,768 tokens
Sun Jun 07 2026 • llm-stats.com

Input Capabilities

Supported data types and modalities

GPT-4.1 mini supports multimodal inputs, whereas GLM-4.5-Air does not.

GPT-4.1 mini can handle both text and other forms of data like images, making it suitable for multimodal applications.

GLM-4.5-Air

Text
Images
Audio
Video

GPT-4.1 mini

Text
Images
Audio
Video

License

Usage and distribution terms

GLM-4.5-Air is licensed under MIT, while GPT-4.1 mini uses a proprietary license.

License differences may affect how you can use these models in commercial or open-source projects.

GLM-4.5-Air

MIT

Open weights

GPT-4.1 mini

Proprietary

Closed source

Release Timeline

When each model was launched

GLM-4.5-Air was released on 2025-07-28, while GPT-4.1 mini was released on 2025-04-14.

GLM-4.5-Air is 4 months newer than GPT-4.1 mini.

GLM-4.5-Air

Jul 28, 2025

10 months ago

3mo newer
GPT-4.1 mini

Apr 14, 2025

1.1 years ago

Knowledge Cutoff

When training data ends

GPT-4.1 mini has a documented knowledge cutoff of 2024-05-31, while GLM-4.5-Air's cutoff date is not specified.

We can confirm GPT-4.1 mini's training data extends to 2024-05-31, but cannot make a direct comparison without GLM-4.5-Air's cutoff date.

GLM-4.5-Air

—

GPT-4.1 mini

May 2024

Outputs Comparison

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Key Takeaways

Zhipu AI
Has open weights
Higher AIME 2024 score (89.4% vs 49.6%)
Higher GPQA score (75.0% vs 65.0%)
Higher Humanity's Last Exam score (10.6% vs 3.7%)
Higher SWE-Bench Verified score (57.6% vs 23.6%)
Higher TAU-bench Airline score (60.8% vs 36.0%)
Higher TAU-bench Retail score (77.9% vs 55.8%)
OpenAI
Larger context window (1,047,576 tokens)
Supports multimodal inputs
Zhipu AIGLM-4.5-Air
OpenAIGPT-4.1 mini
Compare in Playground

Detailed Comparison

AI Model Comparison Table
Feature
Zhipu AI
GLM-4.5-Air
OpenAI
GPT-4.1 mini

FAQ

Common questions about GLM-4.5-Air vs GPT-4.1 mini.

Which is better, GLM-4.5-Air or GPT-4.1 mini?

GLM-4.5-Air significantly outperforms across most benchmarks. GLM-4.5-Air is made by Zhipu AI and GPT-4.1 mini is made by OpenAI. The best choice depends on your use case — compare their benchmark scores, pricing, and capabilities above.

How does GLM-4.5-Air compare to GPT-4.1 mini in benchmarks?

GLM-4.5-Air scores MATH-500: 98.1%, AIME 2024: 89.4%, MMLU-Pro: 81.4%, TAU-bench Retail: 77.9%, BFCL-v3: 76.4%. GPT-4.1 mini scores CharXiv-D: 88.4%, MMLU: 87.5%, IFEval: 84.1%, MMMLU: 78.5%, MathVista: 73.1%.

What are the context window sizes for GLM-4.5-Air and GPT-4.1 mini?

GLM-4.5-Air supports an unknown number of tokens and GPT-4.1 mini supports 1.0M tokens. A larger context window lets you process longer documents, conversations, or codebases in a single request.

What are the main differences between GLM-4.5-Air and GPT-4.1 mini?

Key differences include multimodal support (no vs yes), licensing (MIT vs Proprietary). See the full comparison above for benchmark-by-benchmark results.

Who makes GLM-4.5-Air and GPT-4.1 mini?

GLM-4.5-Air is developed by Zhipu AI and GPT-4.1 mini is developed by OpenAI.

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