Model Selection Guide

Determine which large language model to use

Which Model Should I Use?

What to Consider

Choosing a model depends on the following:

1. Context Window: the context window refers to the number of tokens you can provide to a LLM. ~1 Token = ~4 characters

2. Task Complexity: more capable models are generally better suited for complex logic.

3. Web Access: whether the use case you're building require the model to have web access?

4. Cost: more capable models are generally more expensive - for example, o1 is more expensive than GPT-4o.

5. Speed: more capable models are generally slower to execute.

AirOps Popular LLMs

Model	Provider	Description	Context Window	Vision	JSON Mode	Web Access
GPT-4.1	OpenAI	Flagship for complex tasks, vision-capable	128K	✓	✓	-
GPT-4o Search Preview	OpenAI	Flagship model for online web research	128K	✓	✓	✓
O4 Mini	OpenAI	Fast multi-step reasoning for complex tasks	128K	-	✓	-
O3	OpenAI	Advanced reasoning for complex tasks	128K	-	✓	-
O3 Mini	OpenAI	Fast multi-step reasoning for complex tasks	128K	-	✓	-
Claude Opus 4	Anthropic	Powerful model for complex and writing tasks	200K	✓	-	-
Claude Sonnet 4	Anthropic	Hybrid reasoning: fast answers or deep thinking	200K	✓	-	-
Gemini 2.5 Pro Preview	Google	Advanced reasoning for complex tasks	1M	✓	✓	✓
Gemini 2.5 Flash Preview	Google	Fast and intelligent model for lightweight tasks	1M	✓	✓	✓
Perplexity Sonar	Perplexity	Balanced model for online web research	128K	-	✓	✓

Differences between “o-series” vs “GPT” models

GPT Models (4o, 4.1): Optimized for general-purpose tasks with excellent instruction following. GPT-4.1 excels with long contexts (1M tokens) while GPT-4o has variants for realtime speech, text-to-speech, and speech-to-text. GPT-4.1 also comes in a mini, and nano variant, while GPT-4o has a mini variant. These variants are cheaper and faster than their full-size counterparts. Strong in structured output

O-series Models (o3, o4-mini): Specialized for deep reasoning and step-by-step problem solving. These models excel at complex, multi-stage tasks requiring logical thinking and tool use. Choose these when accuracy and reasoning depth are paramount. These models also have an optional reasoning_effort parameter (that can be set to low, medium, or high), which allows users to control the amount of tokens used for reasoning. Validates factual accuracy and citation correctness (o4-mini)

How much will it cost to run?

The cost to run a model depends on the number of input and output tokens.

Token Approximation

Input tokens: to approximate the total input tokens, copy and paste your system, user, and assistant prompts into the OpenAI tokenizer

Output tokens: to approximate the total output tokens, copy and paste your output into the OpenAI tokenizer

Cost Approximation

OpenAI: divide the input and output tokens by 1000; then multiply by their respective costs based on OpenAI pricing*

Anthropic: divide the input and output tokens by 1,000,000; then multiply by their respective costs based on Anthropic pricing*

*This is the cost if you bring your own API Key. If you choose to use AirOps hosted models, you will be charged tasks according to your usage.