The arena · AI model review
GPT-5.2
by OpenAI
OpenAI's Dec 2025 frontier model: 400K context, 80% SWE-bench Verified, strong reasoning but slow output.
$14/1M out
Base gpt-5.2 (Thinking) at $1.75/$14 per 1M; gpt-5.2-pro tier at $21/$168; cached input $0.175 (90% discount).
OpenAI
400K tokens (128K max output)
$1.75/1M in
$14/1M out
text, vision (text output only)
No
What is GPT-5.2?
OpenAI frontier reasoning model released December 11, 2025, aimed at professional work and long-running agents. 400K token context, text and image input, five reasoning effort levels (none to xhigh). Superseded by GPT-5.4/5.5 in 2026 but still served via API at previous-generation pricing.
GPT-5.2 pros & cons
Pros
- 80.0% SWE-bench Verified and 55.6% SWE-Bench Pro at launch, near parity with Claude Opus 4.5 (80.9%)
- GDPval: ties or beats human professionals in 70.9% of comparisons, nearly double GPT-5.1's 38.8%
- Strong science and math: 92.4% GPQA Diamond (Thinking, 93.2% Pro) and 40.3% FrontierMath, state of the art at release
- 400K context with near-perfect MRCR v2 long-context retrieval up to 256K tokens
- 30% fewer hallucinations than GPT-5.1 (error rate on real ChatGPT queries down from 8.8% to 6.2%)
- Cheaper than its successors: $1.75/$14 per 1M vs $2.50/$15 (GPT-5.4) and $5/$30 (GPT-5.5)
Cons
- Speed is the top community complaint: extended thinking reported as low as ~4 tokens/s in ChatGPT, and Pro can think for a very long time and still fail
- Headline benchmark scores were obtained at xhigh reasoning effort, which consumes far more tokens and time than default settings
- Widely criticized personality regression vs GPT-5.1: Reddit users called it 'too corporate, too safe' and 'a step backwards' for chat and writing
- Coding lags Anthropic's line in head-to-head Elo comparisons (a later Opus 4.7 analysis cited a 144 Elo gap); no audio modality, no fine-tuning
- Already superseded as of mid-2026: OpenAI recommends GPT-5.5 and GPT-5.2 no longer appears on the main API pricing page
The arena’s verdict
Pick GPT-5.2 over GPT-5.1 for heavy reasoning, long-context, or agentic work: it nearly doubles GPT-5.1's GDPval win rate, cuts hallucinations 30%, and handles 400K contexts reliably. In mid-2026 it is mainly a value play, priced at $1.75/$14 versus $5/$30 for GPT-5.5 while staying competent on most professional tasks. Avoid it for latency-sensitive chat and creative writing, where users found it slow and flatter than GPT-5.1. Teams that want OpenAI's current frontier should pay up for GPT-5.5 instead.
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Top GPT-5.2 alternatives
All alternativesAnthropic's fastest model: about 90% of Sonnet 4.5's coding skill at $1/$5 per 1M tokens, 200K context.
Anthropic's April 2026 Opus: 87.6% SWE-bench Verified, 1M context, high-res vision, now behind Opus 4.8
Anthropic's flagship Opus-tier model for long-horizon agentic coding; 1M context at $5/$25 per 1M tokens.
Compare GPT-5.2 head-to-head
What the crowd says
“The thinking speed is brutal, I clocked something like 4 tok/s in ChatGPT on extended thinking. Pro will grind for ages and still whiff. Great scores, painful to actually use.”
“GDPval numbers are wild, it ties or beats human pros in 71% of comparisons. For science and math work (92.4 GPQA Diamond) it earned a spot in my stack.”
GPT-5.2: frequently asked questions
How much does GPT-5.2 cost per 1M tokens?
GPT-5.2 costs $1.75/1M in per 1M input tokens and $14/1M out per 1M output tokens. Base gpt-5.2 (Thinking) at $1.75/$14 per 1M; gpt-5.2-pro tier at $21/$168; cached input $0.175 (90% discount).