New GPT-5.1: 80% Token Reduction?

Description

I ran the same architectural analysis task across all their models to see the real differences. The results surprised me: Codex Mini used 400,000 tokens vs 160,000 for Codex High, but finished in half the time and cost half as much. Why? Token pricing. The mini model is essentially GPT-4.1-level intelligence at $0.25 per million tokens instead of $1.25. GPT-5.1's smart thinking mode is the secret weapon here. It thinks 57% less on easy problems and more on hard ones—exactly what you want when you're grinding through routine coding tasks. Combined with the ability to buy $40 credit packs when you hit that dreaded "come back Monday" message, this genuinely changes how long you can work in a single session. I walk through the actual outputs from Codex High vs Codex Mini analyzing a multi-layer caching system, show you the logs with real token counts, and demonstrate how to unlock additional capacity when you need it most. Key topics covered: - GPT-5.1 Codex efficiency improvements and adaptive thinking modes - Codex Mini model performance and cost analysis - Real-world comparison: same task, different models, actual results - How to buy on-demand credits and bypass rate limits - When to use High vs Medium vs Mini reasoning levels - Token usage vs compute costs in the Codex Plus plan Links: OpenAI Codex: https://openai.com/codex #OpenAI #GPT5 #Codex #AICoding #DeveloperTools #GPT51 #CodexMini #SoftwareDevelopment #AIAssistant #ProductivityTools #CodingTools #MachineLearning #AIEngineering 00:00 - Start 00:42 - GPT-5.1 Thinks 'Just Right' 02:28 - The Mini Model! 03:28 - New Models in Codex 04:39 - Status in Codex 05:06 - Same Ask, All Models 06:38 - Duration and Tokens Compared 07:39 - GPT-5.1's Output 08:43 - Mini's Output 09:51 - Pay-as-you-go 11:05 - Conclusion