# GPT-5.2: pricing, crowd verdict, pros and cons (2026)

> OpenAI's Dec 2025 frontier model: 400K context, 80% SWE-bench Verified, strong reasoning but slow output.

Source: [GLAD-AI-TOR](https://glad-ia-tor.com) · Full page: https://glad-ia-tor.com/tool/gpt-5-2
Arena: llm-models · Crowd score: 50% recommend (2 votes, Bayesian-smoothed) · Price: $14/1M out

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 Superseded by GPT-5.4/5.5 in 2026 but still served via API at previous-generation pricing.

## Key facts

- provider: OpenAI
- contextWindow: 400K tokens (128K max output)
- priceIn: $1.75/1M in
- priceOut: $14/1M out
- modalities: text, vision (text output only)
- openWeights: no

## Ratings (editorial, 1-5)

- reasoning: 4/5
- coding: 4/5
- writing: 3.5/5
- speed: 2.5/5
- valueForMoney: 3.5/5

## 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- Already superseded as of mid-2026: OpenAI recommends GPT-5.5 and GPT-5.2 no longer appears on the main API pricing page

## Best for

- long-context analysis
- agentic coding
- math and science reasoning
- professional document and spreadsheet work

## 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.

## Pricing note

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).

## Alternatives and head-to-heads

- [Claude Haiku 4.5](https://glad-ia-tor.com/tool/claude-haiku-4-5) (crowd score 67%) · [GPT-5.2 vs Claude Haiku 4.5](https://glad-ia-tor.com/vs/gpt-5-2-vs-claude-haiku-4-5)
- [Claude Fable 5](https://glad-ia-tor.com/tool/claude-fable-5) (crowd score 63%) · [GPT-5.2 vs Claude Fable 5](https://glad-ia-tor.com/vs/gpt-5-2-vs-claude-fable-5)
- [Claude Opus 4.7](https://glad-ia-tor.com/tool/claude-opus-4-7) (crowd score 57%) · [GPT-5.2 vs Claude Opus 4.7](https://glad-ia-tor.com/vs/gpt-5-2-vs-claude-opus-4-7)
- [Claude Sonnet 5](https://glad-ia-tor.com/tool/claude-sonnet-5) (crowd score 57%) · [GPT-5.2 vs Claude Sonnet 5](https://glad-ia-tor.com/vs/gpt-5-2-vs-claude-sonnet-5)

Full ranking: https://glad-ia-tor.com/hall-of-fame/llm-models

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