R1 vs GPT-5

Summary by test (our internal 1–5 scores and ranks; external math/code benchmarks attributed to Epoch AI where present):

• Tool calling: GPT-5 5 vs R1 4. GPT-5 is tied for 1st on tool calling (tied with 16 others), so it will select and sequence functions more reliably in our tests. R1 is capable (4/5) but ranks lower (rank 18 of 54). This matters for orchestration, agent frameworks, and multi-step automation.
• Long context: GPT-5 5 vs R1 4. GPT-5 ties for 1st (tied with 36) and has a 400k context window vs R1’s 64k in the payload — better for retrieval-augmented agents and very long documents.
• Structured output: GPT-5 5 vs R1 4. GPT-5 is tied for 1st on schema compliance; R1 is solid but one notch down, so GPT-5 will be safer when strict JSON or API bindings are required.
• Classification: GPT-5 4 vs R1 2. GPT-5 is tied for 1st (with 29 others); R1 ranks very low (rank 51/53). For routing, moderation, or high-precision classifiers pick GPT-5.
• Agentic planning: GPT-5 5 vs R1 4. GPT-5 ties for 1st in agentic planning; R1 performs well but lacks GPT-5’s top ranking for goal decomposition and recovery.
• Safety calibration: GPT-5 2 vs R1 1. Both are low on safety calibration, but GPT-5 ranks better (rank 12 of 55 vs R1 rank 32). If safety gating matters, neither is perfect but GPT-5 is measurably better in our tests.
• Strategic analysis: tie 5/5. Both score 5 and tie for top ranks; both are strong at nuanced tradeoff reasoning.
• Constrained rewriting: tie 4/4. Both handle hard character limits similarly.
• Faithfulness: tie 5/5. Both top out on sticking to sources in our tests.
• Persona consistency & Multilingual: both 5/5 ties, so both are reliable for character maintenance and non-English quality.
• Creative problem solving: R1 5 vs GPT-5 4 — R1 wins here and ranks tied for top in creative problem solving; choose R1 when you need non-obvious, diverse ideas. External benchmarks (Epoch AI): on MATH Level 5 GPT-5 scores 98.1% vs R1 93.1% (GPT-5 ranks 1 of 14; R1 ranks 8 of 14). On AIME 2025 GPT-5 scores 91.4% vs R1 53.3% (GPT-5 rank 6 of 23; R1 rank 17 of 23). GPT-5 also reports 73.6% on SWE-bench Verified (Epoch AI), placing it 6 of 12; R1 has no SWE-bench Verified score in the payload. These external math/code numbers reinforce GPT-5’s advantage for math-heavy and code-resolution tasks. Practical interpretation: GPT-5 is the stronger overall performer for classification, function/tool orchestration, very long contexts, and math/coding benchmarks; R1 is strongest on creative generation at a substantially lower cost.

Costs in the payload are per million tokens (input and output listed separately). R1: input $0.70/M, output $2.50/M. GPT-5: input $1.25/M, output $10.00/M. If you assume a 50/50 split of input vs output tokens, R1 costs $1.60 per 1M total tokens (0.5*$0.70 + 0.5*$2.50) and GPT-5 costs $5.625 per 1M total tokens (0.5*$1.25 + 0.5*$10.00) — GPT-5 is ~3.5x more expensive at that usage profile. At equal 50/50 split: 1M tokens → R1 $1.60 vs GPT-5 $5.63; 10M → R1 $16.00 vs GPT-5 $56.25; 100M → R1 $160.00 vs GPT-5 $562.50. Who should care: any high-volume app or company at 10M+ tokens/month will see material monthly cost differences — R1 is the clear choice if token costs are the binding constraint. Use GPT-5 if the application requires its higher long-context, tool-calling, or multimodal capabilities and the budget can absorb ~3–4x higher token spend. Note: payload priceRatio is 0.25, reflecting R1’s substantially lower cost relative to GPT-5.

Choose R1 if:

• You need a low-cost model for high-volume chat or creative generation (R1 input $0.70/M, output $2.50/M).
• Your workload favors creative, idea-generation, persona-driven chat, or you must optimize token spend (R1 scores 5/5 on creative problem solving and is ~3.5x cheaper per 1M tokens under a 50/50 input/output split). Choose GPT-5 if:
• You need the best tool calling, long-context handling, structured-output compliance, or multimodal input (GPT-5 scores 5/5 on tool_calling, long_context, structured_output and supports text+image+file->text in the payload).
• You rely on math or coding accuracy (GPT-5: MATH Level 5 98.1% and SWE-bench Verified 73.6% per Epoch AI) and can accept higher token costs.