GPT-5.1 vs GPT-5 Codex

1. Configurable Reasoning for Agentic Tasks

• Built to excel in autonomous or semi-autonomous coding workflows, with adjustable reasoning effort for planning, refactoring and debugging.

2. Fast Multi-Modal Input with Large Output

• Accepts both text and image inputs while producing text outputs.
• Offers up to 128 k output tokens, allowing long responses and code generation across multiple files.

3. Large Context & Knowledge Cut-Off

• 400 k token context window supports processing large codebases or documents.
• Knowledge cut-off of Sep 30 2024 ensures familiarity with recent tools and frameworks.

4. Reasoning Token Support

• Provides explicit support for reasoning tokens, enabling developers to fine-tune the balance between reasoning depth and speed.

1. Purpose-Built for Agentic Coding

• Optimized specifically for scenarios where the model must act as an autonomous or semi-autonomous coding agent.
• Tailored for Codex workflows such as planning, editing, debugging, and multi-step tool-driven code tasks.

2. Advanced Coding Reasoning

• Extends GPT-5's higher reasoning mode to better handle complex software logic and multi-file dependencies.
• Produces more accurate, structured, and maintainable code across modern programming languages.

3. Strong Tool Use in Developer-Like Environments

• Designed for Codex's agent environment, enabling the model to:
  • Read and modify files
  • Follow function signatures and API contracts
  • Navigate codebases with awareness of context and structure

4. Large Context Window for Full-Project Understanding

• 400,000-token context allows ingestion of:
  • Entire repositories
  • Multiple files at once
  • Architectural descriptions
• Enables long-range reasoning across codebases rather than isolated snippets.

5. Multimodal Capability for Development Tasks

• Accepts text and image as input (great for screenshots of error logs, UI mocks, whiteboards).
• Outputs text only, focusing its output precision on code, reasoning, and documentation.

6. Continuous Snapshot Updates

• The underlying model version is regularly upgraded behind the scenes.
• Ensures developers always use the best coding-enhanced GPT-5 variant without changing model names.

7. Reliable Instruction Following

• Very strong adherence to constraints like:
  • File/folder structure requirements
  • Framework conventions
  • Naming patterns
  • Linting rules
• Makes it suitable for production coding agents.

8. Broad API Integration

• Available only in the Responses API, giving you:
  • Streaming
  • Structured outputs
  • Function calling
• Allows creation of interactive coding tools and agent workflows with tight model control.