OpenAI Chat Model Cheat Sheet - Decoding the Chaos
10 October 2025 by Brady Stroud
AI collaboration: This post was drafted with AI support, but the ideas, experiences and opinions are all my own.
OpenAI’s model names (e.g., o3, 4o, 4.1, 5.2) are confusing and change often.
This is my quick reference for picking the right model for any task 🧠⚡️
This is a living document - if you spot mistakes or missing models,
please make a PR!
This page lives in GitHub Markdown via TinaCMS 🦙
OpenAI Chat Model Cheat-Sheet (Updated February 2026)
Legend:
- 🟢 current & recommended
- 🟡 supported but not first-choice
- 🔴 legacy / deprecated
| Status | Model | Release / Change | Strengths / Best Use-Cases | Trade-offs / Notes |
| 🟡 | GPT-5.3-Codex | Feb 2026 | Newest Codex flagship for agentic coding + broader professional work on a computer. | Available in Codex for paid ChatGPT plans; API access is not broadly available yet (no stable public API model ID to pin). |
| 🟡 | GPT-5.3-Codex-Spark | Feb 2026 | Ultra-fast, real-time coding (tight interactive loop; minimal targeted edits by default). | Research preview for Codex users; API access limited to select design partners. |
| 🟢 | GPT-5.2 (gpt-5.2) | Dec 2025 | Current flagship “thinking” model for professional work, long-horizon agents, and hard coding/reasoning. | Higher latency/cost; pick smaller variants when you don’t need max capability. |
| 🟢 | GPT-5.2-Codex (gpt-5.2-codex) | 2025-2026 | Most intelligent coding model; optimized for long-horizon, agentic coding tasks (Codex-style). | Coding-specialized; prefer general GPT models for writing/analysis-heavy work. |
| 🟢 | GPT-5.2 Pro (gpt-5.2-pro) | Dec 2025 | Highest-quality GPT-5.2 option when correctness is worth the wait (deep reasoning, fewer major errors). | Much more expensive; overkill for routine tasks. |
| 🟢 | GPT-5.1 (gpt-5.1) | Nov 2025 | Strong general reasoning model with configurable/adaptive reasoning effort. | Usually superseded by 5.2 for frontier work. |
| 🟢 | GPT-5 (gpt-5) | Aug 2025 | First GPT-5 release; still solid for general reasoning/coding. | Generally behind 5.1/5.2 on capability. |
| 🟢 | GPT-5 mini (gpt-5-mini) | 2025-2026 | Faster, cost-efficient GPT-5 family model for well-defined tasks and high throughput. | Less headroom on complex reasoning. |
| 🟢 | GPT-5 nano (gpt-5-nano) | 2025-2026 | Fastest/cheapest GPT-5 family model for simple tasks (classification, routing, autocomplete). | Limited nuance; brittle on long reasoning chains. |
| 🟢 | GPT-4.1 (gpt-4.1) | 14 Apr 2025 | Smartest non-reasoning model; excellent for coding, instruction following, and long context (1M tokens). | Usually weaker on “think hard” problems vs GPT-5.x or o-series reasoning models. |
| 🟢 | GPT-4.1 mini (gpt-4.1-mini) | 14 Apr 2025 | Smaller, faster 4.1; great quality/price default when you don’t need frontier reasoning. | Less capable than full 4.1. |
| 🟢 | GPT-4.1 nano (gpt-4.1-nano) | 14 Apr 2025 | Ultra-fast/cheap; still supports long context; ideal for extraction, tagging, and lightweight copilots. | Loses nuance and robustness. |
| 🟡 | GPT-5.1-Codex-Max (gpt-5.1-codex-max) | 2025-2026 | Codex variant tuned for longer-running agentic coding tasks. | Older generation vs 5.2-Codex; Responses API only. |
| 🟡 | GPT-5.1-Codex (gpt-5.1-codex) | 2025-2026 | Codex-optimized agentic coding model (good default for Codex flows). | Older generation vs 5.2-Codex; Responses API only. |
| 🟡 | GPT-5.1 Codex mini (gpt-5.1-codex-mini) | 2025-2026 | Cheaper/smaller Codex variant for fast coding iterations. | Less capable than larger Codex models. |
| 🟡 | GPT-5-Codex (gpt-5-codex) | 2025-2026 | Earlier Codex family model for agentic coding. | Superseded by newer Codex variants; Responses API only. |
| 🟡 | OpenAI o3 (o3) | Apr 2025 | Strong reasoning model (math/science/coding) and agentic tool use. | Marked as “succeeded by GPT-5” in the API docs; use when you specifically want o-series behavior. |
| 🟡 | OpenAI o4-mini (o4-mini) | Apr 2025 | Cost-efficient reasoning when you want real “thinking” but need speed/volume. | Marked as “succeeded by GPT-5 mini” in the API docs. |
| 🟡 | GPT-4o / GPT-4o mini (gpt-4o, gpt-4o-mini) | 2024-2025 | Versatile multimodal (text + image) general model family; strong for everyday chat + vision. | Not the newest frontier; typically behind GPT-4.1 and GPT-5.x on pure coding/reasoning. |
| 🟡 | GPT-4 Turbo / GPT-4 (gpt-4-turbo, gpt-4) | 2023-2024 | Older but still usable for compatibility and legacy behaviors. | Prefer newer families unless you need an exact legacy behavior/snapshot. |
| 🔴 | GPT-4.5 Preview (gpt-4.5-preview) | Feb 2025 | Research preview model (not intended as a long-term default). | Marked deprecated in the API docs. |
| 🔴 | codex-mini-latest (codex-mini-latest) | 2024-2025 | Deprecated Codex-CLI-focused model (fine-tuned from o4-mini). | Deprecated; docs recommend starting with gpt-4.1 for direct API use. |
| 🔴 | GPT-3.5 Turbo (gpt-3.5-turbo) | 2023-2024 | Legacy cheap chat model for simple tasks. | Outclassed by newer mini/nano models. |
Decoding the Names
- GPT = Generative Pre-trained Transformer
- Major number (3, 4, 5) → generation
- .1 / .2 / .5 → iterative upgrade within a generation
- o-series (e.g.
o3,o4-mini) → reasoning-first models (trained to “think longer”) - 4o → “omni” GPT model family (multimodal inputs)
- mini / nano → smaller, faster, cheaper variants
- pro → more compute for higher-quality answers
- codex → coding-optimized variant (agentic coding focus)
- -chat-latest → ChatGPT-flavored alias (convenience/compat; not always recommended for stable production)
- YYYY-MM-DD in ID (e.g.
gpt-4o-2024-11-20) → a snapshot you can pin for stability
ChatGPT Names vs API Model IDs
ChatGPT’s picker labels don’t always match what you pass to the API.
| ChatGPT label | API model ID |
| ChatGPT-5.2 Instant | gpt-5.2-chat-latest |
| ChatGPT-5.2 Thinking | gpt-5.2 |
| ChatGPT-5.2 Pro | gpt-5.2-pro |