GPT-5 Medium vs Sakana Namazu: Specs & Benchmark Comparison

GPT-5 Medium is developed by OpenAI, while Sakana Namazu comes from Sakana AI. GPT-5 Medium was released in August 2025, and Sakana Namazu followed 12 months later in August 2026.

We have 2 benchmark results for GPT-5 Medium and 3 benchmark results for Sakana Namazu, but they were measured on different benchmarks, so there is no like-for-like scoreboard.

Sakana Namazu is the cheaper API at $0.95 per million input tokens and $4 per million output tokens, about 32% below GPT-5 Medium at $1.25 and $10. GPT-5 Medium takes the larger context window at 400K tokens, compared with 256K for Sakana Namazu. Both accept text and images as input. On tooling, only GPT-5 Medium supports function calling and only GPT-5 Medium offers structured output.

CharacteristicGPT-5 MediumSakana Namazu
CompanyOpenAISakana AI
Release DateAugust 6, 2025August 3, 2026
Parameters
MultimodalYesYes
Context (input)400K256K
Context (output)128K256K
Input Price / 1M$1.25$0.95
Output Price / 1M$10.00$4.00
Average Score88.5%92.4%

Verdict

Sakana Namazu leads in 2 out of 4 comparison categories.

Overall Performance

Both models show comparable average scores: GPT-5 Medium — 0.9, Sakana Namazu — 0.9.

API Cost

Sakana Namazu is 2.3x cheaper: input $0.95/1M vs $1.25/1M tokens.

Context Window

GPT-5 Medium supports a larger context: 400K vs 256K tokens.

Recency

Sakana Namazu is newer: released 8/3/2026 vs 8/6/2025.

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Frequently Asked Questions

Which is better for coding — GPT-5 Medium or Sakana Namazu?
Direct comparison on the SWE-Bench benchmark is not available. We recommend reviewing other metrics on the comparison page.
Which model is cheaper — GPT-5 Medium or Sakana Namazu?
Sakana Namazu is cheaper for input: $0.95 per 1M tokens vs $1.25.
Which has a larger context window — GPT-5 Medium or Sakana Namazu?
GPT-5 Medium supports a larger context: 400,000 tokens vs 256,000.

The GPT-5 Medium and Sakana Namazu comparison is updated for 2026. Data includes benchmark results, API pricing, context window size and other specifications. For more detailed information, visit the GPT-5 Medium or Sakana Namazu page. See also the complete list of AI model comparisons.