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GPT-5 Series Complete Guide: 5.2, 5.1, 5, mini, and nano

Comprehensive guide to OpenAI's GPT-5 model family. Compare capabilities, pricing, and use cases for all GPT-5 variants.

📅 2/22/2026⏱️ 18 min read
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GPT-5 Series Complete Guide: 5.2, 5.1, 5, mini, and nano

OpenAI's GPT-5 series represents a major leap forward in AI capabilities. This comprehensive guide covers all five models in the GPT-5 family, helping you choose the right one for your needs.

GPT-5 Model Lineup Overview

ModelInput CostOutput CostContextBest For
GPT-5.2$1.75$14.00200KFlagship performance
GPT-5.1$1.25$10.00200KBalanced premium
GPT-5$1.25$10.00200KGeneral flagship
GPT-5 mini$0.25$2.00128KHigh-volume tasks
GPT-5 nano$0.05$0.4064KUltra-efficient

GPT-5.2: The Flagship Model

GPT-5.2 represents OpenAI's most advanced model with enhanced reasoning, improved accuracy, and superior multimodal capabilities.

  • Advanced reasoning and problem-solving capabilities
  • Enhanced multimodal understanding (text, images, audio)
  • 200K token context window for complex tasks
  • Improved accuracy on mathematical and logical problems
  • Best-in-class performance on coding benchmarks

GPT-5 mini: The Efficiency Champion

GPT-5 mini offers remarkable performance at a fraction of the cost, making it ideal for high-volume applications.

  • 10x cheaper than GPT-5.2 for input tokens
  • Maintains strong performance on most tasks
  • 128K context window for substantial conversations
  • Optimized for speed and efficiency
  • Perfect for chatbots and content generation

GPT-5 nano: Ultra-Low Cost AI

GPT-5 nano provides AI capabilities at unprecedented low cost, enabling new use cases and applications.

  • 35x cheaper than GPT-5.2 for input tokens
  • 64K context window for focused tasks
  • Ideal for edge computing and IoT applications
  • Enables AI in cost-sensitive environments
  • Perfect for simple automation and classification
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Start with GPT-5 mini for most applications, then upgrade to GPT-5.1 or 5.2 if you need enhanced capabilities, or downgrade to nano for ultra-high-volume use cases.

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