Comparing GPT-3.5, GPT-4 mini, and GPT-4o
As previously noted, the GPT-3.5 model, integrated into ChatGPT, faced issues with generating incorrect information due to hallucination phenomena.
However, OpenAI has continuously improved the performance and efficiency of its GPT models with several versions following GPT-3.5.
In this lesson, we will easily compare the differences of GPT-3.5, GPT-4 mini, and GPT-4o focusing on their structure and characteristics.
What is GPT-3.5?
Released at the end of 2022, GPT-3.5 was integrated into the initial free version of ChatGPT (as of 2023).
- Base Model: An enhanced version of the GPT-3 series
- Response Speed: Fast and lightweight
- Text Processing Ability: Suitable for general conversations and simple analysis
- Multimodal: Not supported (text input only)
While GPT-3.5 has faster learning speed and lower usage costs, it has limitations in complex reasoning or generating creative responses.
What is GPT-4 mini?
GPT-4 mini is a lightweight version designed by OpenAI, maintaining the performance of the GPT-4 series while being smaller and faster.
Internally, it uses technology from the GPT-4 series but is optimized for speed and cost.
- Base Model: Based on the structure of GPT-4 (lightweight)
- Response Speed: Faster than GPT-4, slightly slower than GPT-3.5
- Text Quality: More precise than GPT-3.5, with improved sentence construction
- Multimodal: Potential for limited support
Though detailed specs of GPT-4 mini haven’t been publicly specified, it aims to deliver GPT-4 level quality at a lower cost.
What is GPT-4o?
GPT-4o is OpenAI's latest model released in 2024. The "o" stands for omni, indicating "a model capable of processing all inputs."
- Base Model: An optimized version of GPT-4
- Multimodal Capabilities: Can process text, images, audio, and video inputs
- Speed: Quick response speed as seen in GPT-3.5
- Performance: Equal to or surpassing GPT-4
- Cost: Cheaper than existing GPT-4 models
GPT-4o offers both fast speeds and multimodal functions, enabling smooth handling of tasks like real-time voice conversations or image analysis.
Additionally, there are various versions of GPT models, such as GPT-4.5 which enhances GPT-4 based on unsupervised learning, and models with a focus on logical operations like GPT-o1 and GPT-o3.
In the next lesson, we'll compare responses not only from OpenAI's GPT models but also with Claude from Anthropic and deepseek-chat from DeepSeek.
Want to learn more?
Join CodeFriends Plus membership or enroll in a course to start your journey.