GPT-4.1 mini vs Claude Opus 4.1 vs Mistral Medium 3
GPT-4.1 mini comes out ahead, 60 to 53 and 49 on our weighted score, and it is the cheaper option too.
- Our pick
OpenAIGPT-4.1 mini
60/100- ECI135.0
- Price$0.40 / $1.60
- Context1.05M
AnthropicClaude Opus 4.1
49/100- ECI144.1
- Price$15.00 / $75.00
- Context200K
Mistral AIMistral Medium 3
53/100- ECI134.1
- Price$0.40 / $2.00
- Context131K
GPT-4.1 mini is our pick
GPT-4.1 mini is the better all-round choice, scoring 60/100 against Mistral Medium 3 (53) and Claude Opus 4.1 (49). It leads on price and context window. Claude Opus 4.1 wins on capability. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.
- CapabilityClaude Opus 4.1Capabilities Index (ECI): Claude Opus 4.1 144.1 · GPT-4.1 mini 135.0 · Mistral Medium 3 134.1
- Lowest priceGPT-4.1 miniGPT-4.1 mini $0.70 · Mistral Medium 3 $0.80 · Claude Opus 4.1 $30.00 per 1M tokens (3:1 blend)
- Longest contextGPT-4.1 miniGPT-4.1 mini 1,047,576 · Claude Opus 4.1 200,000 · Mistral Medium 3 131,072 tokens
- Widest inputsGPT-4.1 mini and Claude Opus 4.1GPT-4.1 mini: Text, Images, PDFs · Claude Opus 4.1: Text, Images, PDFs · Mistral Medium 3: Text, Images
- Self-hostingNo open weightsAll three are available only through APIs
| Measure | Weight | GPT-4.1 mini | Claude Opus 4.1 | Mistral Medium 3 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| CapabilityCapabilities Index (ECI) | 50% | 59 | 71 | 58 |
| Price | 25% | 57 | 0 | 54 |
| Inputs & features | 15% | 70 | 70 | 50 |
| Context window | 10% | 61 | 32 | 24 |
| Overall | 100% | 60/100 | 49/100 | 53/100 |
Every spec in one table
Highlighted cells lead their row. Dashes mean the data is not published.
| Specification | GPT-4.1 miniOpenAI | Claude Opus 4.1Anthropic | Mistral Medium 3Mistral AI |
|---|---|---|---|
| Capability | |||
| Capabilities Index (ECI) | 135.0 | 144.1 (best) | 134.1 |
| ECI rank | #115 of 148 | #81 of 148 (best) | #117 of 148 |
| GPQA DiamondGraduate-level science questions | 65.9% | 77.3% (best) | 59.5% |
| FrontierMath Tiers 1–3Research-level mathematics | 6.7% | 12.6% (best) | — |
| OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025Competition mathematics | 44.7% | 68.9% (best) | 32.2% |
| SWE-bench VerifiedFixing real GitHub issues | — | 73.4% | — |
| SimpleQA VerifiedShort factual questions | 12.7% | — | — |
| Price per million tokens | |||
| Input | $0.40 (best) | $15.00 | $0.40 (best) |
| Output | $1.60 (best) | $75.00 | $2.00 |
| Cached input | $0.10 | — | — |
| Blended (3:1) | $0.70 (best) | $30.00 | $0.80 |
| Long-context rate | Same rate | Same rate | Same rate |
| Price source | Official OpenAI API | Median of 14 providers | Official Mistral API |
| Limits | |||
| Context window | 1,047,576 tokens (best) | 200,000 tokens | 131,072 tokens |
| Max output | 32,768 tokens | 32,000 tokens | 131,072 tokens (best) |
| Inputs and features | |||
| Text | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Images | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| PDFs | Yes | Yes | No |
| Audio | No | No | No |
| Video | No | No | No |
| Reasoning | No | Yes | No |
| Tool calling | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Structured output | Yes | No | No |
| Availability | |||
| Weights | Proprietary | Proprietary | Proprietary |
| API model ID | gpt-4.1-mini | — | mistral-medium-2505 |
| API providers | 24 (best) | 14 | 5 |
| Released | Apr 14, 2025 | Aug 5, 2025 | May 7, 2025 |
| Knowledge cutoff | Apr 2024 | Mar 31, 2025 | May 2025 |
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
- Claude Opus 4.1$300.00
- Mistral Medium 3$8.00
Which should you choose?
Which is better: GPT-4.1 mini, Claude Opus 4.1 or Mistral Medium 3?
GPT-4.1 mini is the better all-round choice, scoring 60/100 against Mistral Medium 3 (53) and Claude Opus 4.1 (49). It leads on price and context window. Claude Opus 4.1 wins on capability. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.
Which is cheaper, GPT-4.1 mini, Claude Opus 4.1 or Mistral Medium 3?
GPT-4.1 mini is cheaper at $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); Claude Opus 4.1 costs $15.00 input / $75.00 output per million tokens (median across 14 API providers). 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 $0.80 for Mistral Medium 3 (1.1× as much) and $30.00 for Claude Opus 4.1 (43× as much).
Which scores higher on benchmarks?
Claude Opus 4.1 scores higher on the Capabilities Index (ECI): Claude Opus 4.1 144.1 (#81 of 148), GPT-4.1 mini 135.0 (#115 of 148) and Mistral Medium 3 134.1 (#117 of 148). Their confidence ranges do not overlap (141.6–146.0 vs 131.2–136.6), so the gap is a real one. On individual benchmarks: GPQA Diamond — Claude Opus 4.1 77.3%, GPT-4.1 mini 65.9%, Mistral Medium 3 59.5%; OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025 — Claude Opus 4.1 68.9%, GPT-4.1 mini 44.7%, Mistral Medium 3 32.2%.
Which is better for coding?
There are no published SWE-bench Verified results for GPT-4.1 mini and Mistral Medium 3 yet, so there is no like-for-like coding score. On overall capability, Claude Opus 4.1 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 200,000 for Claude Opus 4.1 and 131,072 for Mistral Medium 3. Maximum output per response: GPT-4.1 mini up to 32,768, Claude Opus 4.1 up to 32,000, Mistral Medium 3 up to 131,072 tokens.
Which can read images, PDFs, audio or video?
GPT-4.1 mini accepts text, images and PDFs; Claude Opus 4.1 accepts text, images and PDFs; Mistral Medium 3 accepts text and images. GPT-4.1 mini handles the widest range of inputs.
Are any of these open source?
No. GPT-4.1 mini, Claude Opus 4.1 and Mistral Medium 3 are proprietary and only available through APIs and apps.
Which is newer?
Claude Opus 4.1 is the newest, released Aug 5, 2025. Mistral Medium 3 came out May 7, 2025; GPT-4.1 mini came out Apr 14, 2025. Knowledge cutoff: GPT-4.1 mini Apr 2024, Claude Opus 4.1 Mar 31, 2025, Mistral Medium 3 May 2025.
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.
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