GPT-4.5, like its predecessors, is designed to handle various file formats, including PDFs. However, its ability to process PDFs is somewhat limited compared to text-based files. Here's a detailed overview of how GPT-4.5 handles PDFs compared to other file formats:
Handling PDFs
- Text Extraction and Analysis: GPT-4.5 can analyze text within PDFs, performing tasks like document summarization effectively. However, its ability to understand complex layouts, tables, or images within PDFs is not as robust as some specialized models like Claude 3 Opus[2]. GPT-4 Vision, a component of the GPT-4 suite, offers better capabilities in understanding visuals and layouts by converting PDFs into Markdown, which can then be analyzed by GPT-4 Turbo[6].
- Limitations: GPT-4.5's limitations in PDF analysis include a lack of robustness with non-text content such as diagrams or images of text. It may not consistently understand or interpret these elements accurately[2][8]. Additionally, the model's context window can be a limiting factor for very large documents, as it might not be able to process extensive texts without running out of token context[8].
Comparison with Other File Formats
- Text Files: GPT-4.5 excels at handling text-based files, offering advanced capabilities in understanding and generating text. It can process large amounts of text efficiently and is well-suited for tasks like writing, summarization, and question-answering[3][5].
- Multimodal Inputs: GPT-4.5 is part of a broader ecosystem that includes multimodal capabilities, such as text-to-image synthesis with DALL-E. However, GPT-4.5 itself does not directly process images or audio files; instead, it relies on other models like GPT-4 Vision for image analysis[1][4]. Future iterations might expand these capabilities to include audio and video inputs[5].
- Other Models: Compared to specialized models like Claude 3 Opus, GPT-4.5 may not perform as well in analyzing PDFs with complex visuals. However, GPT-4.5 offers broader capabilities across multiple domains and file types, making it versatile for a wide range of applications[2].
In summary, while GPT-4.5 can handle PDFs, its strengths lie more in text-based analysis. For complex PDFs with images or diagrams, specialized models might be more effective. The integration of GPT-4 Vision enhances its capabilities in understanding visual content within PDFs.
Citations:
[1] https://www.reddit.com/r/OpenAI/comments/17it40r/gpt4_can_now_process_pdfs_and_various_other_files/
[2] https://www.reddit.com/r/ChatGPTPro/comments/1b84mlx/how_good_is_gpt4_or_gpt4_turbo_at_analyzing_pdf/
[3] https://cdn.openai.com/gpt-4-5-system-card.pdf
[4] https://www.reveation.io/blog/gpt4v-for-pdf-analysis
[5] https://blog.promptlayer.com/everything-we-know-openais-gpt-4-5-model/
[6] https://www.groff.dev/blog/ingesting-pdfs-with-gpt-vision
[7] https://openrouter.ai/openai/gpt-4.5-preview
[8] https://community.openai.com/t/what-are-the-limitations-of-gpt-4-in-analyzing-pdf-text/534760