OpenAI's New Reasoning Models: 03 vs 04 Mini

OpenAI just dropped three powerful AI models — and they're changing how fast and accurately we can solve complex problems. If you rely on AI for coding, math, or visual tasks, choosing the right model is now critical to staying ahead.

Key Strengths or Features

OpenAI’s newest releases — 03, 04 Mini, and 04 Mini High — bring several major improvements:

• Lightning-fast reasoning: 03 solved a complex math problem in just 7 seconds during real-world testing, beating expectations.

• Enhanced accuracy: 04 Mini and 04 Mini High showed cleaner, more structured problem-solving ideal for engineering-grade work.

• Autonomous search: These models can now perform web searches automatically, enhancing research tasks without manual prompts.

• Visual problem-solving: Upload images and let the models analyze content with over 80% multimodal accuracy (Ref: OpenAI Benchmarks, 1:35).

• Memory integration: Personalized answers are now possible, as models use your previous chats for more context-aware responses.

These upgrades make them ideal for engineers, coders, and researchers who demand speed and depth.

Limitations or Risks

Despite major gains, there are important limitations:

• Inconsistent real-world performance: In practice, model speed varied significantly from OpenAI’s internal benchmarks, with 03 outperforming expectations (7 sec vs expected 60 sec).

• Slight speed lag: 04 Mini and 04 Mini High were slower than 03 in simple math tasks (12 sec and 11 sec respectively), though they provided more detailed reasoning.

• Overhead for simple tasks: Reasoning models may overcomplicate straightforward requests that do not require advanced thinking.

For more detailed technical breakdowns, you can review the OpenAI Official Benchmark Page or compare with platforms like Perplexity AI.

Conclusion / Call to Action

OpenAI's new reasoning models are powerful tools — but knowing when and how to use each is key to unlocking their full potential. Advance your AI skills with our Udemy course — Singularity: AI for Engineers — and master how to apply AI models in real engineering workflows.