OpenAI unveiled its latest AI model, GPT-4.1, along with its smaller counterparts, GPT-4.1 mini and GPT-4.1 nano. These new models feature major enhancements in coding, instruction following, and long context comprehension, marking a notable advancement in AI capabilities.
The new models, exclusively available through OpenAI’s application programming interface (API), surpass the performance of the company’s most advanced GPT-4o model across multiple metrics, according to the ChatGPT developer.
Improved context understanding and performance
With an enhanced ability to understand context, these models can now support up to 1 million tokens — the units of data processed by an AI model. Additionally, they come with updated knowledge that extends through June 2024.
GPT-4.1 demonstrated a remarkable 21 percent improvement over GPT-4o and a 27 percent improvement compared to GPT-4.5 in coding tasks. The advancements in instruction following and long context comprehension further enhance the effectiveness of the GPT-4.1 models in powering AI agents. “Benchmarks are strong, but we focused on real-world utility, and developers seem very happy,” stated CEO Sam Altman in a post on the social media platform X.
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Cost efficiency and future developments
OpenAI also highlighted that this family of models operates at a “much lower cost” compared to GPT-4.5. The company announced plans to discontinue the GPT-4.5 preview available in the API by July, as the new models provide either improved or comparable performance.
In February, OpenAI had released the GPT-4.5 research preview for select users and developers, with intentions to broaden access in the weeks that followed.
Surge in user activity driven by AI art trends
Last month, a surge of interest in creating Ghibli-style AI art using ChatGPT’s image-generation tool led to an unprecedented increase in users, overwhelming OpenAI’s servers and temporarily restricting feature usage. According to data from market research firm Similarweb, the average weekly active users of ChatGPT surpassed the 150 million mark for the first time this year.
This viral trend saw users from around the globe inundate social media with images inspired by the hand-drawn style of the legendary Japanese animation studio, Studio Ghibli, founded by the acclaimed director Hayao Miyazaki, known for classics like “Spirited Away” and “My Neighbor Totoro.” “We added one million users in the last hour,” remarked Altman in an X post on March 31, drawing a comparison to the one million users gained in five days following ChatGPT’s explosive launch more than two years ago.
Record highs in user engagement and downloads
Active users, in-app subscription revenue, and app downloads reached unprecedented levels last month, as reported by SensorTower data, following the rollout of updates to the GPT-4o model that enabled advanced image generation capabilities. Global app downloads and weekly active users on the ChatGPT app rose by 11 percent and 5 percent, respectively, week-on-week, while in-app purchase revenue saw a 6 percent increase, according to the market intelligence firm.
