Pairwise benchmark snapshot · Aug 1, 2026

GPT-4o mini vs Yi-Lightning benchmark

Name: GPT-4o mini vs Yi-Lightning AI benchmark comparison
Creator: CompareLLM
License: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

In this head-to-head showdown, Yi-Lightning delivers higher overall intelligence and human-preferred responses (Elo 1,475 vs 1,272), while Yi-Lightning leads in SWE-bench software engineering benchmarks (63.4%), while Yi-Lightning is more budget-friendly at $0.14/1M per 1M output tokens, while GPT-4o mini provides faster response streaming (160 tok/s). Review the complete breakdown below to determine which model best fits your performance and budget requirements.

Share Analysis:

Verified Head-to-Head Advantage Breakdown

9 direct benchmark disciplines evaluated across capability, speed, and cost

GPT-4o mini (3)Yi-Lightning (6)

GPT-4o mini

3 of 9 Wins

✓Time to first token✓Output speed✓Context window

Yi-Lightning

6 of 9 Wins

✓Preference Elo✓LiveBench✓SWE-bench✓GPQA Diamond✓Input price✓Output price

OpenAI

Leads 3 of 9 metrics

GPT-4o mini

Legacy small OpenAI model. Useful as a cheap baseline.

4o MiniElo 1,272$0.6/1M out

01.AI

Leads 6 of 9 metrics

Yi-Lightning

01.AI ultra-fast reasoning model delivering top LiveBench efficiency.

LightningElo 1,475$0.14/1M out

GPT-4 Series Lineage & Sibling Variants

3 models

Currently comparing GPT-4o mini vs Yi-Lightning. Alternative family tiers available.

Active: GPT-4o mini

GPT-4o$10 GPT-4.5 Orion$150

Top Rival Showdowns for GPT-4o mini

All Matchups

Compare vs:vs Claude Opus 4.5 vs Gemini 3 Pro vs Grok 4.6 vs DeepSeek V4 Pro vs Qwen 3 Max

Preference LeaderYi-Lightning Wins

Yi-Lightning

Δ 203 Arena Elo pts

Throughput LeaderGPT-4o mini Wins

GPT-4o mini

160 tok/s

Value per Dollar LeaderYi-Lightning Wins

Yi-Lightning

$0.14 / 1M output

Capability Percentiles

Relative percentile scores computed across all active models in the benchmark catalog.

Multi-Dimensional Capability Radar

Leaders Matchup Capability Radar

Comparing top Western standard models with China's leading frontier rival across 6 skill dimensions. Tap any spoke or dot to inspect.

Tap any node to inspect

Percentile 0–100

Head-to-Head Comparison

Overall Matchup Breakdown

Category wins across reasoning intelligence, generation speed, and token cost.

GPT-4o mini (3)vsYi-Lightning (7)

GPT-4o mini: 3W (30%)Overall: Yi-LightningYi-Lightning: 7W (70%)

← GPT-4o miniYi-Lightning →

🏆Yi-Lightning(5/5)

Intelligence & Reasoning

Preference Elo, Coding proficiency, SWE-bench & LiveBench accuracy

Benchmark

GPT-4o minivsYi-Lightning

Preference Elo

1,272vs1,475+203

Coding Elo

—vs1,480

SWE-bench

41.2%vs63.4%+22.2%

LiveBench

48.1%vs65%+16.9%

GPQA Diamond

60.1%vs78%+17.9%

GPT-4o mini: 0WYi-Lightning: 5W

🏆GPT-4o mini(2/2)

Speed & Latency

Generation throughput and time to first token responsiveness

Benchmark

GPT-4o minivsYi-Lightning

Output speed

160 tok/svs130 tok/s+30 tok/s

Time to first token

130 msvs150 ms+20 ms

GPT-4o mini: 2WYi-Lightning: 0W

🏆Yi-Lightning(2/3)

Pricing & Capacity

Cost per million tokens and max context window length

Benchmark

GPT-4o minivsYi-Lightning

Output price

$0.6/1Mvs$0.14/1M+$0.46/1M

Input price

$0.15/1Mvs$0.14/1M+$0.01/1M

Context window

128kvs16k+112k

GPT-4o mini: 1WYi-Lightning: 2W

Side-by-Side Benchmark Matrix

Preference Elo+203

GPT-4o mini1,272

seed-bootstrap · Aug 1, 2026

Yi-Lightning1,475

seed-bootstrap · Aug 1, 2026

Coding Elo

GPT-4o mini—

Yi-Lightning1,480

seed-bootstrap · Aug 1, 2026

LiveBench+16.9%

GPT-4o mini48.1%

seed-bootstrap · Aug 1, 2026

Yi-Lightning65%

seed-bootstrap · Aug 1, 2026

SWE-bench+22.2%

GPT-4o mini41.2%

seed-bootstrap · Aug 1, 2026

Yi-Lightning63.4%

seed-bootstrap · Aug 1, 2026

GPQA Diamond+17.9%

GPT-4o mini60.1%

seed-bootstrap · Aug 1, 2026

Yi-Lightning78%

seed-bootstrap · Aug 1, 2026

Time to first token+20 ms

GPT-4o mini130 ms

seed-bootstrap · Aug 1, 2026

Yi-Lightning150 ms

seed-bootstrap · Aug 1, 2026

Output speed+30 tok/s

GPT-4o mini160 tok/s

seed-bootstrap · Aug 1, 2026

Yi-Lightning130 tok/s

seed-bootstrap · Aug 1, 2026

Input price+$0.01/1M

GPT-4o mini$0.15/1M

seed-bootstrap · Aug 1, 2026

Yi-Lightning$0.14/1M

seed-bootstrap · Aug 1, 2026

Output price+$0.46/1M

GPT-4o mini$0.6/1M

seed-bootstrap · Aug 1, 2026

Yi-Lightning$0.14/1M

seed-bootstrap · Aug 1, 2026

Context window+112k

GPT-4o mini128k

seed-bootstrap · Aug 1, 2026

Yi-Lightning16k

seed-bootstrap · Aug 1, 2026

Benchmark	GPT-4o mini	Yi-Lightning	Advantage Delta
Preference Elo	1,272 seed-bootstrap · Aug 1, 2026	1,475 seed-bootstrap · Aug 1, 2026	+203
Coding Elo	—	1,480 seed-bootstrap · Aug 1, 2026	—
LiveBench	48.1% seed-bootstrap · Aug 1, 2026	65% seed-bootstrap · Aug 1, 2026	+16.9%
SWE-bench	41.2% seed-bootstrap · Aug 1, 2026	63.4% seed-bootstrap · Aug 1, 2026	+22.2%
GPQA Diamond	60.1% seed-bootstrap · Aug 1, 2026	78% seed-bootstrap · Aug 1, 2026	+17.9%
Time to first token	130 ms seed-bootstrap · Aug 1, 2026	150 ms seed-bootstrap · Aug 1, 2026	+20 ms
Output speed	160 tok/s seed-bootstrap · Aug 1, 2026	130 tok/s seed-bootstrap · Aug 1, 2026	+30 tok/s
Input price	$0.15/1M seed-bootstrap · Aug 1, 2026	$0.14/1M seed-bootstrap · Aug 1, 2026	+$0.01/1M
Output price	$0.6/1M seed-bootstrap · Aug 1, 2026	$0.14/1M seed-bootstrap · Aug 1, 2026	+$0.46/1M
Context window	128k seed-bootstrap · Aug 1, 2026	16k seed-bootstrap · Aug 1, 2026	+112k

Interactive Simulator (USD)

Workload Cost & Savings Calculator

Simulate monthly production API costs in USD (US Dollar).

Save up to 51% with Yi-Lightning

Monthly Volume50M tokens/mo

Quick Presets:

Token Ratio (In vs Out)70% In / 30% Out

RAG / Search (10% out)Coding / Chat (50% out)

GPT-4o mini$14.25 / mo

In: $5.25Out: $9

Yi-Lightning$7.00 / mo

In: $4.9Out: $2.1

Estimated Cost Delta

Yi-Lightning is estimated to save $7.25/month ($87/year).

Based on 50M tokens (30% gen)

Key Selection Recommendations

1
Yi-Lightning:Pick Yi-Lightning when repo-level coding accuracy is the constraint.
2
GPT-4o mini:Pick GPT-4o mini when time-to-first-token matters more than peak Elo.
3
Yi-Lightning:Pick Yi-Lightning as the default general assistant.

Recommended Workload Routing

Repo / coding agentsYi-Lightning

Higher SWE-bench (63.4%).

High-volume chatYi-Lightning

Lower output list price ($0.14/1M).

Voice / low-latency UIGPT-4o mini

Lower TTFT (130 ms).

Long-document RAGGPT-4o mini

Larger window (128k).

Screenshots / visionGPT-4o mini

GPT-4o mini is the side marked multimodal in the catalog.

Target Workload	Recommended Pick	Evaluation Rationale
Repo / coding agents	Yi-Lightning	Higher SWE-bench (63.4%).
High-volume chat	Yi-Lightning	Lower output list price ($0.14/1M).
Voice / low-latency UI	GPT-4o mini	Lower TTFT (130 ms).
Long-document RAG	GPT-4o mini	Larger window (128k).
Screenshots / vision	GPT-4o mini	GPT-4o mini is the side marked multimodal in the catalog.

Community Sentiment

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Community Discussions (0)

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CompareLLM AI Matrix

Verified Head-to-Head Telemetry

LIVE BENCHMARK

OpenAI

GPT-4o mini

Elo 1,272

SWE-bench41.2%

Speed (tok/s)160 tok/s

Input / 1M Tokens$0.15/1M

Output / 1M Tokens$0.6/1M

01.AI

Yi-Lightning

Elo 1,475

SWE-bench63.4%

Speed (tok/s)130 tok/s

Input / 1M Tokens$0.14/1M

Output / 1M Tokens$0.14/1M

Frequently Asked Questions

Which is better overall, GPT-4o mini or Yi-Lightning?: Yi-Lightning has the higher preference Elo in our latest snapshot (1,475). “Better” still depends on coding, price, and latency — see the table.
Which is better at coding, GPT-4o mini or Yi-Lightning?: Yi-Lightning leads SWE-bench at 63.4% vs 41.2%. SWE-bench is one harness, not your repo.
Which is cheaper to run in production?: Yi-Lightning output tokens are $0.14/1M versus $0.6/1M. Input prices and retry rates still move the real bill.
Which is faster, GPT-4o mini or Yi-Lightning?: GPT-4o mini has the lower time-to-first-token (130 ms vs 150 ms). Tokens/sec is a separate column if you care about long completions.
Which has the larger context window?: GPT-4o mini accepts 128k tokens versus 16k.
Can I self-host either model?: Neither model is marked open-weights here. You are comparing hosted APIs.
Are these scores from CompareLLM’s own evals?: No. V1 aggregates public leaderboards (and optional first-party latency pings). Each cell names its source and date. Read /methodology.
What does preference Elo mean on this page?: Preference Elo is a crowd vote from LMArena / Arena. People see two hidden answers and pick the one they like more. The model that wins more often gets a higher Elo. That means people preferred it — not that it passed a school test. It is not SWE-bench, not accuracy, and not a number we invent. GPT-4o mini and Yi-Lightning Elo cells are dated snapshots from the named source — we do not compute Arena ourselves.

Similar Head-to-Head Comparisons

All GPT-4o mini matchups →|All Yi-Lightning matchups →

GPT-4o mini vs OpenAI o1-mini (next gpt-mini)Yi-Lightning vs Yi-Large (previous other)Yi-Lightning vs Ernie 4.5 Turbo (next other)GPT-5 vs Yi-Lightning OpenAI o3-mini vs Yi-Lightning GPT-4.5 Orion vs Yi-Lightning

GPT-4o mini vs Yi-Lightning benchmark

Capability Percentiles

Relative percentile scores computed across all active models in the benchmark catalog.

Multi-Dimensional Capability Radar

Leaders Matchup Capability Radar

Comparing top Western standard models with China's leading frontier rival across 6 skill dimensions. Tap any spoke or dot to inspect.

Tap any node to inspect

Percentile 0–100

Benchmark

GPT-4o mini

Yi-Lightning

Advantage Delta

Preference Elo

1,272

seed-bootstrap · Aug 1, 2026

1,475

seed-bootstrap · Aug 1, 2026

+203

Coding Elo

—

1,480

seed-bootstrap · Aug 1, 2026

—

LiveBench

48.1%

seed-bootstrap · Aug 1, 2026

65%

seed-bootstrap · Aug 1, 2026

+16.9%

SWE-bench

41.2%

seed-bootstrap · Aug 1, 2026

63.4%

seed-bootstrap · Aug 1, 2026

+22.2%

GPQA Diamond

60.1%

seed-bootstrap · Aug 1, 2026

78%

seed-bootstrap · Aug 1, 2026

+17.9%

Time to first token

130 ms

seed-bootstrap · Aug 1, 2026

150 ms

seed-bootstrap · Aug 1, 2026

+20 ms

Output speed

160 tok/s

seed-bootstrap · Aug 1, 2026

130 tok/s

seed-bootstrap · Aug 1, 2026

+30 tok/s

Input price

$0.15/1M

seed-bootstrap · Aug 1, 2026

$0.14/1M

seed-bootstrap · Aug 1, 2026

+$0.01/1M

Output price

$0.6/1M

seed-bootstrap · Aug 1, 2026

$0.14/1M

seed-bootstrap · Aug 1, 2026

+$0.46/1M

Context window

128k

seed-bootstrap · Aug 1, 2026

16k

seed-bootstrap · Aug 1, 2026

+112k

Recommended Workload Routing

Repo / coding agentsYi-Lightning

Higher SWE-bench (63.4%).

High-volume chatYi-Lightning

Lower output list price ($0.14/1M).

Voice / low-latency UIGPT-4o mini

Lower TTFT (130 ms).

Long-document RAGGPT-4o mini

Larger window (128k).

Screenshots / visionGPT-4o mini

GPT-4o mini is the side marked multimodal in the catalog.

Target Workload	Recommended Pick	Evaluation Rationale
Repo / coding agents	Yi-Lightning	Higher SWE-bench (63.4%).
High-volume chat	Yi-Lightning	Lower output list price ($0.14/1M).
Voice / low-latency UI	GPT-4o mini	Lower TTFT (130 ms).
Long-document RAG	GPT-4o mini	Larger window (128k).
Screenshots / vision	GPT-4o mini	GPT-4o mini is the side marked multimodal in the catalog.

Frequently Asked Questions

Which is better overall, GPT-4o mini or Yi-Lightning?

Yi-Lightning has the higher preference Elo in our latest snapshot (1,475). “Better” still depends on coding, price, and latency — see the table.

Which is better at coding, GPT-4o mini or Yi-Lightning?

Yi-Lightning leads SWE-bench at 63.4% vs 41.2%. SWE-bench is one harness, not your repo.

Which is cheaper to run in production?

Yi-Lightning output tokens are $0.14/1M versus $0.6/1M. Input prices and retry rates still move the real bill.

Which is faster, GPT-4o mini or Yi-Lightning?

GPT-4o mini has the lower time-to-first-token (130 ms vs 150 ms). Tokens/sec is a separate column if you care about long completions.

Which has the larger context window?

GPT-4o mini accepts 128k tokens versus 16k.

Can I self-host either model?

Neither model is marked open-weights here. You are comparing hosted APIs.

Are these scores from CompareLLM’s own evals?

No. V1 aggregates public leaderboards (and optional first-party latency pings). Each cell names its source and date. Read /methodology.

What does preference Elo mean on this page?

Preference Elo is a crowd vote from LMArena / Arena. People see two hidden answers and pick the one they like more. The model that wins more often gets a higher Elo. That means people preferred it — not that it passed a school test. It is not SWE-bench, not accuracy, and not a number we invent. GPT-4o mini and Yi-Lightning Elo cells are dated snapshots from the named source — we do not compute Arena ourselves.