GPT-4o API Hands‑On Review: Blessing or Challenge for Developers?

Pricing

Input price 36.15 USD per 1 M tokens and output price 108.45 USD per 1 M tokens for gpt-4o, exactly half of the gpt-4-turbo rates (72.30 / 216.90). Selected comparative pricing (input / output, USD per 1 M tokens): OpenAI gpt-4-turbo 72.30 / 216.90, OpenAI gpt-4o 36.15 / 108.45, 文心 ERNIE-4.0-8K 120 / 120, 通义千问 qwen-max 120 / 120, 智谱 GLM-4 100 / 100, Kimi moonshot-v1-32k 24 / 24, Kimi moonshot-v1-8k 12 / 12, MiniMax abab6.5 30 / 30, MiniMax abab6.5s 10 / 10, DeepSeek deepseek-chat (32k) 1 / 2.

Token Utilization

Test with a 1,690‑character Chinese essay:

GPT‑4o: 1,500 tokens, utilization ratio 1.13

GPT‑4‑Turbo: 2,266 tokens, ratio 0.75

GPT‑3.5‑Turbo: 2,266 tokens, ratio 0.75

Kimi v1: 1,195 tokens, ratio 1.41

DeepSeek v2: 1,275 tokens, ratio 1.33

GPT‑4o’s utilization is 50 % higher than GPT‑4‑Turbo, reducing effective cost for Chinese prompts.

Inference Speed

Three tasks were run in non‑streaming and streaming modes, each repeated five times; median times (seconds) are reported.

Task 1 – Simplified/Traditional Conversion

GPT‑4o: 8 (non‑stream), 9 (stream)

GPT‑4‑Turbo: 30, 36

GPT‑3.5‑Turbo: 14, 15

Kimi v1: 21, 28

DeepSeek v2: 37, 39

Task 2 – English Poem Recitation

GPT‑4o: 3.5, 4.0

GPT‑4‑Turbo: 7.4, 8.3

GPT‑3.5‑Turbo: 3.3, 3.9

Kimi v1: 6.5, 6.4

DeepSeek v2: 11.0, 10.7

Task 3 – Chinese Poem Recitation

GPT‑4o: 12, 13

GPT‑4‑Turbo: 38, 34

GPT‑3.5‑Turbo: 14, 12 (estimated)

Kimi v1: 20, 23

DeepSeek v2: 42, 42

Across all tasks GPT‑4o is roughly twice as fast as GPT‑4‑Turbo.

New Model Challenges and Countermeasures

Higher sensitivity to System Prompt. Separate system‑level instructions from user input.

Creative generation benefits from higher temperature (e.g., 1.0 instead of default 0.7).

Increased sensitivity to exaggerated directives. Streamline wording to avoid degradation.

Stronger example generalization. Provide precise examples to prevent misapplication.

Extreme sensitivity to enumerated commands. Either enumerate all cases or give holistic requirements.

FAQ

Do I need to change code to upgrade to GPT‑4o?

GPT‑4o uses the same Chat Completion API as GPT‑3.5/4. Only the model name in the SDK must be changed. For OpenAI‑compatible alternatives (e.g., Kimi, DeepSeek) update the API base URL, model name, and API key.

Which GPT‑4o model name should I use?

gpt-4o-2024-05-13

is a snapshot version that remains stable. gpt-4o is a pointer to the latest version; using it enables automatic upgrades but may introduce behavioral changes.

What capabilities does the GPT‑4o API expose?

The API currently accepts text and image inputs and returns text output, matching GPT‑4’s capabilities. Voice or video inputs are not yet available via the API.

Overall Assessment

In real‑world scenario tests involving complex instructions, role‑playing, and language processing, GPT‑4o performs on par with GPT‑4 while offering lower cost and faster inference. After modest prompt and temperature adjustments, it can replace GPT‑4 in production.