ZMIME
Comparison · 3 models · Updated Oct 4, 2026

GPT-4.1 mini vs Mistral Medium 3 vs Mistral Small 3.1 24B

GPT-4.1 mini comes out ahead, 60 to 55 and 53 on our weighted score, though Mistral Small 3.1 24B is 2.5× cheaper per token.

  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

    Released May 7, 2025

    53/100
    • ECI134.1
    • Price$0.40 / $2.00
    • Context131K
    Full specs Remove Mistral Medium 3

  3. Mistral AI

    Mistral Small 3.1 24B

    Released Mar 17, 2025

    55/100
    • ECI127.5
    • Price$0.229 / $0.436
    • Context128K
    Full specs Remove Mistral Small 3.1 24B
01 — Verdict

GPT-4.1 mini is our pick

GPT-4.1 mini is the better all-round choice, scoring 60/100 against Mistral Small 3.1 24B (55) and Mistral Medium 3 (53). It leads on inputs & features and context window. Mistral Small 3.1 24B wins on price. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.

  • CapabilityGPT-4.1 miniCapabilities Index (ECI): GPT-4.1 mini 135.0 · Mistral Medium 3 134.1 · Mistral Small 3.1 24B 127.5
  • Lowest priceMistral Small 3.1 24BMistral Small 3.1 24B $0.281 · GPT-4.1 mini $0.70 · Mistral Medium 3 $0.80 per 1M tokens (3:1 blend)
  • Longest contextGPT-4.1 miniGPT-4.1 mini 1,047,576 · Mistral Medium 3 131,072 · Mistral Small 3.1 24B 128,000 tokens
  • Widest inputsGPT-4.1 miniGPT-4.1 mini: Text, Images, PDFs · Mistral Medium 3: Text, Images · Mistral Small 3.1 24B: Text, Images
  • Self-hostingMistral Small 3.1 24BPublishes downloadable weights
How the score is built
MeasureWeightGPT-4.1 miniMistral Medium 3Mistral Small 3.1 24B
CapabilityCapabilities Index (ECI)50%595850
Price25%575476
Inputs & features15%705060
Context window10%612424
Overall100%60/10053/10055/100
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 vs Mistral Small 3.1 24B specifications side by side
SpecificationGPT-4.1 miniOpenAIMistral Medium 3Mistral AIMistral Small 3.1 24BMistral AI
Capability
Capabilities Index (ECI)135.0 (best)134.1127.5
ECI rank#115 of 148 (best)#117 of 148#132 of 148
GPQA DiamondGraduate-level science questions65.9% (best)59.5%47.5%
FrontierMath Tiers 1–3Research-level mathematics6.7%——
OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025Competition mathematics44.7% (best)32.2%5.8%
SimpleQA VerifiedShort factual questions12.7%——
Price per million tokens
Input$0.40$0.40$0.229 (best)
Output$1.60$2.00$0.436 (best)
Cached input$0.10——
Blended (3:1)$0.70$0.80$0.281 (best)
Long-context rateSame rateSame rateSame rate
Price sourceOfficial OpenAI APIOfficial Mistral APIMedian of 2 providers
Limits
Context window1,047,576 tokens (best)131,072 tokens128,000 tokens
Max output32,768 tokens131,072 tokens (best)16,384 tokens
Inputs and features
TextYesYesYes
ImagesYesYesYes
PDFsYesNoNo
AudioNoNoNo
VideoNoNoNo
ReasoningNoNoNo
Tool callingYesYesYes
Structured outputYesNoYes
Availability
WeightsProprietaryProprietaryOpen
API model IDgpt-4.1-minimistral-medium-2505—
API providers24 (best)52
ReleasedApr 14, 2025May 7, 2025Mar 17, 2025
Knowledge cutoffApr 2024May 2025Jun 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$8.00
  • Mistral Small 3.1 24B$3.16
04 — Questions

Which should you choose?

Which is better: GPT-4.1 mini, Mistral Medium 3 or Mistral Small 3.1 24B?

GPT-4.1 mini is the better all-round choice, scoring 60/100 against Mistral Small 3.1 24B (55) and Mistral Medium 3 (53). It leads on inputs & features and context window. Mistral Small 3.1 24B wins on price. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.

Which is cheaper, GPT-4.1 mini, Mistral Medium 3 or Mistral Small 3.1 24B?

Mistral Small 3.1 24B is cheaper at $0.229 input / $0.436 output per million tokens (median across 2 API providers). GPT-4.1 mini costs $0.40 input / $1.60 output per million tokens (official OpenAI API price); Mistral Medium 3 costs $0.40 input / $2.00 output per million tokens (official Mistral API price). At a typical mix of three input tokens to one output token, that is $0.281 per million tokens for Mistral Small 3.1 24B versus $0.70 for GPT-4.1 mini (2.5× as much) and $0.80 for Mistral Medium 3 (2.9× as much).

Which scores higher on benchmarks?

GPT-4.1 mini scores higher on the Capabilities Index (ECI): GPT-4.1 mini 135.0 (#115 of 148), Mistral Medium 3 134.1 (#117 of 148) and Mistral Small 3.1 24B 127.5 (#132 of 148). The confidence ranges of the top two overlap (131.2–136.6 vs 130.5–135.6), so treat the gap as small. On individual benchmarks: GPQA Diamond — GPT-4.1 mini 65.9%, Mistral Medium 3 59.5%, Mistral Small 3.1 24B 47.5%; OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025 — GPT-4.1 mini 44.7%, Mistral Medium 3 32.2%, Mistral Small 3.1 24B 5.8%.

Which is better for coding?

There are no published SWE-bench Verified results for GPT-4.1 mini, Mistral Medium 3 and Mistral Small 3.1 24B yet, so there is no like-for-like coding score. On overall capability, GPT-4.1 mini leads, which tends to carry over to coding, but test on your own codebase. All three 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 131,072 for Mistral Medium 3 and 128,000 for Mistral Small 3.1 24B. Maximum output per response: GPT-4.1 mini up to 32,768, Mistral Medium 3 up to 131,072, Mistral Small 3.1 24B up to 16,384 tokens.

Which can read images, PDFs, audio or video?

GPT-4.1 mini accepts text, images and PDFs; Mistral Medium 3 accepts text and images; Mistral Small 3.1 24B accepts text and images. GPT-4.1 mini handles the widest range of inputs.

Are any of these open source?

Mistral Small 3.1 24B publishes its weights and can be self-hosted; GPT-4.1 mini and Mistral Medium 3 is proprietary.

Which is newer?

Mistral Medium 3 is the newest, released May 7, 2025. GPT-4.1 mini came out Apr 14, 2025; Mistral Small 3.1 24B came out Mar 17, 2025. Knowledge cutoff: GPT-4.1 mini Apr 2024, Mistral Medium 3 May 2025, Mistral Small 3.1 24B Jun 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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