ZMIME
Comparison · 2 models · Updated Oct 4, 2026

GPT-4.1 mini vs Mistral Medium 3.5

GPT-4.1 mini comes out ahead, 60 to 55 on our weighted score, and it is the cheaper option too.

  1. Our pick

    OpenAI

    GPT-4.1 mini

    Released Apr 14, 2025

    60/100
    • ECI135.0
    • Price$0.40 / $1.60
    • Context1.05M
    Full specs Remove GPT-4.1 mini

  2. Mistral AI

    Mistral Medium 3.5

    Released Apr 29, 2026

    55/100
    • ECI141.4
    • Price$1.50 / $7.50
    • Context262K
    Full specs Remove Mistral Medium 3.5

  3. Add a model

    Make it a three-way comparison.

01 — Verdict

GPT-4.1 mini is our pick

GPT-4.1 mini is the better all-round choice, scoring 60/100 against Mistral Medium 3.5 (55). It leads on price and context window. Mistral Medium 3.5 wins on capability. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.

  • CapabilityMistral Medium 3.5Capabilities Index (ECI): Mistral Medium 3.5 141.4 · GPT-4.1 mini 135.0
  • Lowest priceGPT-4.1 miniGPT-4.1 mini $0.70 · Mistral Medium 3.5 $3.00 per 1M tokens (3:1 blend)
  • Longest contextGPT-4.1 miniGPT-4.1 mini 1,047,576 · Mistral Medium 3.5 262,144 tokens
  • Widest inputsGPT-4.1 miniGPT-4.1 mini: Text, Images, PDFs · Mistral Medium 3.5: Text, Images
  • Self-hostingMistral Medium 3.5Publishes downloadable weights
How the score is built
MeasureWeightGPT-4.1 miniMistral Medium 3.5
CapabilityCapabilities Index (ECI)50%5967
Price25%5727
Inputs & features15%7070
Context window10%6137
Overall100%60/10055/100
02 — Side by side

Every spec in one table

Highlighted cells lead their row. Dashes mean the data is not published.

GPT-4.1 mini vs Mistral Medium 3.5 specifications side by side
SpecificationGPT-4.1 miniOpenAIMistral Medium 3.5Mistral AI
Capability
Capabilities Index (ECI)135.0141.4 (best)
ECI rank#115 of 148#95 of 148 (best)
GPQA DiamondGraduate-level science questions65.9%—
FrontierMath Tiers 1–3Research-level mathematics6.7%—
OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025Competition mathematics44.7%—
SimpleQA VerifiedShort factual questions12.7%—
Price per million tokens
Input$0.40 (best)$1.50
Output$1.60 (best)$7.50
Cached input$0.10 (best)$0.15
Blended (3:1)$0.70 (best)$3.00
Long-context rateSame rateSame rate
Price sourceOfficial OpenAI APIOfficial Mistral API
Limits
Context window1,047,576 tokens (best)262,144 tokens
Max output32,768 tokens262,144 tokens (best)
Inputs and features
TextYesYes
ImagesYesYes
PDFsYesNo
AudioNoNo
VideoNoNo
ReasoningNoYeshigh
Tool callingYesYes
Structured outputYesYes
Availability
WeightsProprietaryOpen
API model IDgpt-4.1-minimistral-medium-2604
API providers24 (best)12
ReleasedApr 14, 2025Apr 29, 2026
Knowledge cutoffApr 2024—
03 — Cost

What would a month cost?

Enter your expected volume in millions of tokens. List prices only; caching and batch discounts would lower these.

  • GPT-4.1 mini$7.20
  • Mistral Medium 3.5$30.00
04 — Questions

Which should you choose?

Which is better: GPT-4.1 mini or Mistral Medium 3.5?

GPT-4.1 mini is the better all-round choice, scoring 60/100 against Mistral Medium 3.5 (55). It leads on price and context window. Mistral Medium 3.5 wins on capability. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.

Which is cheaper, GPT-4.1 mini or Mistral Medium 3.5?

GPT-4.1 mini is cheaper at $0.40 input / $1.60 output per million tokens (official OpenAI API price). Mistral Medium 3.5 costs $1.50 input / $7.50 output per million tokens (official Mistral API price). At a typical mix of three input tokens to one output token, that is $0.70 per million tokens for GPT-4.1 mini versus $3.00 for Mistral Medium 3.5 (4.3× as much).

Which scores higher on benchmarks?

Mistral Medium 3.5 scores higher on the Capabilities Index (ECI): Mistral Medium 3.5 141.4 (#95 of 148) and GPT-4.1 mini 135.0 (#115 of 148). Their confidence ranges do not overlap (138.4–143.7 vs 131.2–136.6), so the gap is a real one.

Which is better for coding?

There are no published SWE-bench Verified results for GPT-4.1 mini and Mistral Medium 3.5 yet, so there is no like-for-like coding score. On overall capability, Mistral Medium 3.5 leads, which tends to carry over to coding, but test on your own codebase. Both support tool calling for agent workflows.

Which has the bigger context window?

GPT-4.1 mini has the largest context window at 1,047,576 tokens, against 262,144 for Mistral Medium 3.5. Maximum output per response: GPT-4.1 mini up to 32,768, Mistral Medium 3.5 up to 262,144 tokens.

Which can read images, PDFs, audio or video?

GPT-4.1 mini accepts text, images and PDFs; Mistral Medium 3.5 accepts text and images. GPT-4.1 mini handles the widest range of inputs.

Are any of these open source?

Mistral Medium 3.5 publishes its weights and can be self-hosted; GPT-4.1 mini is proprietary.

Which is newer?

Mistral Medium 3.5 is the newest, released Apr 29, 2026. GPT-4.1 mini came out Apr 14, 2025. Knowledge cutoff: GPT-4.1 mini Apr 2024.

How do you decide the winner?

Each model gets a 0–100 score on capability (50%, independent benchmark results); price (25%, blended price per million tokens (3 input : 1 output), log scale); inputs & features (15%, image, PDF, audio and video input, tool calling, structured output and reasoning); context window (10%, maximum tokens per request, log scale). Dimensions missing for any model are dropped and the remaining weights rescaled, so every model is judged on the same evidence. Specs and prices come from public model listings and the labs’ own API pages; capability scores come from independent benchmark runs. Data updated Oct 4, 2026.

05 — Keep comparing

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