Quick Comparison
| Feature | GPT-4 Turbo | GPT-4 | Winner |
|---|---|---|---|
| Speed | 2-3x faster | Baseline | GPT-4 Turbo |
| Cost | $10/1M tokens | $30/1M tokens | GPT-4 Turbo |
| Quality | ~98% of GPT-4 | 100% baseline | GPT-4 |
| Context Window | 128K tokens | 8K/32K tokens | GPT-4 Turbo |
| Knowledge Cutoff | April 2023 | September 2021 | GPT-4 Turbo |
Key Differences
GPT-4 Turbo Advantages
- 3x cheaper per token
- 2-3x faster response times
- 16x larger context window
- More recent training data
- Better for production workloads
GPT-4 Advantages
- Slightly better reasoning
- More consistent outputs
- Better for complex tasks
- More thorough responses
- Preferred for research
Performance Benchmarks
Speed Comparison
| Metric | GPT-4 Turbo | GPT-4 |
|---|---|---|
| First token latency | 0.8-1.2s | 2.5-3.5s |
| Tokens per second | 40-60 | 15-25 |
| Total response time (avg) | 3-5s | 8-15s |
Use Case Recommendations
Use GPT-4 Turbo For:
- • Production applications requiring low latency
- • High-volume API usage where cost matters
- • Processing long documents (up to 128K tokens)
- • Real-time chat applications
- • Most general-purpose tasks
Use GPT-4 For:
- • Complex reasoning tasks requiring highest accuracy
- • Research and analysis work
- • Tasks where quality matters more than speed/cost
- • Situations requiring maximum consistency
- • One-off complex queries
Cost Analysis
Monthly Cost Comparison
Based on 10M tokens/month usage
| Model | Input Cost | Output Cost | Total Monthly | Annual Savings |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| GPT-4 Turbo | $50 | $100 | $150 | - |
| GPT-4 | $150 | $300 | $450 | +$3,600/year |
Conclusion
For most use cases, GPT-4 Turbo is the clear winner, offering nearly identical quality at 1/3 the cost and 2-3x the speed. Only choose the original GPT-4 when you need the absolute best quality for complex reasoning tasks and cost/speed are not concerns.
References
- [1] OpenAI. "API Pricing" (2024)
- [2] Anthropic. "Claude Documentation" (2024)
- [3] Google. "Vertex AI Pricing" (2024)