Compare / R1 vs GPT-5 Nano
R1 vs GPT-5 Nano
Which is cheaper, which is more capable, and which does better at each kind of work, from 15 results on 3 sources that measured both models.
R1 or GPT-5 Nano? The short answer
- GPT-5 Nano is cheaper: $0.14 against $1.15 per million tokens, 8.4 times less.
- GPT-5 Nano scores higher on the Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index: 13.0 against 11.4.
- On our business benchmarks, R1 ranks higher for writing and sticking to the facts.
- On our business benchmarks, GPT-5 Nano ranks higher for agents and tool use and reasoning and knowledge.
At a glance
| R1 | GPT-5 Nano | |
|---|---|---|
| Price per million tokens | $0.70 in · $2.50 out | $0.050 in · $0.40 out |
| Blended (3 in : 1 out) | $1.15 | $0.14 |
| Cheapest host, blended | – | $0.069 (OpenAI) |
| Intelligence Index | 11.4 | 13.0 |
| Spring Prompt overall | – | – |
| Output speed, tokens a second | – | – |
| Context window | 64,000 tokens | 400,000 tokens |
| Weights | Open | Closed |
| Developer based in | China | the US |
Prices are the developer's list price where we have read it, otherwise the typical host on OpenRouter; see every model's price. Intelligence and speed from Artificial Analysis.
Which is better for what
Each model's rank among models available today, for each kind of work, from our own benchmarks and licensed sources. The better rank is in green.
| Use case | R1 | GPT-5 Nano |
|---|---|---|
| Agents and tool useMulti-step tasks with tools: support desks, coding agents, function calls | 123 of 161 | 50 of 161 |
| Reasoning and knowledgeHard questions across science, maths and general knowledge | 133 of 195 | 131 of 195 |
| WritingWhat people prefer in blind comparisons, and judged writing quality | 89 of 187 | 150 of 187 |
| Sticking to the factsSummarising without inventing things, and factual answers | 110 of 153 | 127 of 153 |
Every shared result
| Benchmark | Metric | R1 | GPT-5 Nano |
|---|---|---|---|
| Arena (formerly LMArena)reported | Business, management and financeArena rating | 1,388 | 1,339 |
| Arena (formerly LMArena)reported | Creative writingArena rating | 1,374 | 1,247 |
| Arena (formerly LMArena)reported | Expert promptsArena rating | 1,402 | 1,354 |
| Arena (formerly LMArena)reported | Instruction followingArena rating | 1,397 | 1,327 |
| Arena (formerly LMArena)reported | OverallArena rating | 1,398 | 1,338 |
| Arena (formerly LMArena)reported | Writing, literature and languageArena rating | 1,382 | 1,289 |
| Artificial Analysisreported | Artificial Analysis Intelligence Indexindex score | 11.4 | 13.0 |
| Artificial Analysisreported | GPQA Diamond% of questions | 70.8% | 67.6% |
| Artificial Analysisreported | Humanity's Last Exam% of questions | 8.5% | 9.5% |
| Artificial Analysisreported | IFBench% of instructions | 39.0% | 67.6% |
| Artificial Analysisreported | Long-context reasoning (AA-LCR)% of questions | 57.7% | 45.0% |
| Artificial Analysisreported | Terminal-Bench Hard% of tasks | 6.1% | 17.4% |
| Artificial Analysisreported | Τ²-bench telecom% of tasks | 11.4% | 36.5% |
| Vectara Hallucination Leaderboardreported | Answer rate% of documents | 97.0% | 100.0% |
| Vectara Hallucination Leaderboardreported | Hallucination rate% of summaries | 11.3% | 10.5% |
Bold green marks the better value on that metric. Where a source reports ranges that overlap, the difference may not be meaningful; see the benchmark page for ranges.
Quick answers
Is R1 better than GPT-5 Nano?
It depends on the task. Among models available today, on our benchmarks and licensed sources, R1 ranks higher for writing and sticking to the facts; GPT-5 Nano ranks higher for agents and tool use and reasoning and knowledge.
Which is cheaper, R1 or GPT-5 Nano?
GPT-5 Nano costs $0.14 per million tokens (three input to one output), against $1.15 for R1.
Run R1 and GPT-5 Nano on your own prompt
Benchmarks aren't your data. Try both side by side in the playground, with the cost of every answer.