GPT-4o Mini vs Claude Sonnet 5

OpenAI's older small model was built for fast, cheap, focused tasks. GPT-4o Mini reads text and images and handles classification, extraction, translation, and short-form generation well. It is affordable and reliable for simple work, but it is now several generations old, with a modest feature set and outdated knowledge. OpenAI itself recommends newer small models for anything demanding.

The all-rounder in the Claude family, and a sensible default for most work. Sonnet 5 codes, writes, and analyses across the same ground as the flagship, reads images and documents, and holds the same very large context. It is faster and costs less. It gives up ground only on problems difficult enough to need the flagship.