ZMIME
Comparison · 3 models · Updated Oct 4, 2026

GPT-4o mini vs Ministral 8B Instruct vs Mistral Small 3.1 24B

Mistral Small 3.1 24B comes out ahead, 54 to 51 and 42 on our weighted score, though Ministral 8B Instruct is 47% cheaper per token.

  1. OpenAI

    GPT-4o mini

    Released Jul 18, 2024

    51/100
    • ECI126.6
    • Price$0.15 / $0.60
    • Context128K
    Full specs Remove GPT-4o mini

  2. Mistral AI

    Ministral 8B Instruct

    Released Oct 16, 2024

    42/100
    • ECI—
    • Price$0.15 / $0.15
    • Context131K
    Full specs Remove Ministral 8B Instruct
  3. Our pick

    Mistral AI

    Mistral Small 3.1 24B

    Released Mar 17, 2025

    54/100
    • ECI127.5
    • Price$0.229 / $0.436
    • Context128K
    Full specs Remove Mistral Small 3.1 24B
01 — Verdict

Mistral Small 3.1 24B is our pick

Mistral Small 3.1 24B is the better all-round choice, scoring 54/100 against GPT-4o mini (51) and Ministral 8B Instruct (42). It leads on capability. GPT-4o mini wins on inputs & features. Ministral 8B Instruct wins on price. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%. Capability uses the average of shared benchmarks (GPQA Diamond), because Ministral 8B Instruct has no Capabilities Index score yet.

  • CapabilityMistral Small 3.1 24BShared benchmarks: Mistral Small 3.1 24B 47.5% · GPT-4o mini 37.7% · Ministral 8B Instruct 27.2%
  • Lowest priceMinistral 8B InstructMinistral 8B Instruct $0.15 · GPT-4o mini $0.263 · Mistral Small 3.1 24B $0.281 per 1M tokens (3:1 blend)
  • Longest contextMinistral 8B InstructMinistral 8B Instruct 131,072 · GPT-4o mini 128,000 · Mistral Small 3.1 24B 128,000 tokens
  • Widest inputsGPT-4o miniGPT-4o mini: Text, Images, PDFs · Ministral 8B Instruct: Text · Mistral Small 3.1 24B: Text, Images
  • Self-hostingMinistral 8B Instruct and Mistral Small 3.1 24BPublishes downloadable weights (Mistral Research License)
How the score is built
MeasureWeightGPT-4o miniMinistral 8B InstructMistral Small 3.1 24B
CapabilityShared benchmarks50%382747
Price25%778976
Inputs & features15%702560
Context window10%242424
Overall100%51/10042/10054/100
02 — Side by side

Every spec in one table

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

GPT-4o mini vs Ministral 8B Instruct vs Mistral Small 3.1 24B specifications side by side
SpecificationGPT-4o miniOpenAIMinistral 8B InstructMistral AIMistral Small 3.1 24BMistral AI
Capability
Capabilities Index (ECI)126.6—127.5 (best)
ECI rank#135 of 148—#132 of 148 (best)
GPQA DiamondGraduate-level science questions37.7%27.2%47.5% (best)
FrontierMath Tiers 1–3Research-level mathematics0.7%——
OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025Competition mathematics6.9% (best)—5.8%
SimpleQA VerifiedShort factual questions8.3%——
Price per million tokens
Input$0.15 (best)$0.15 (best)$0.229
Output$0.60$0.15 (best)$0.436
Cached input$0.075——
Blended (3:1)$0.263$0.15 (best)$0.281
Long-context rateSame rateSame rateSame rate
Price sourceOfficial OpenAI APIMedian of 1 providersMedian of 2 providers
Limits
Context window128,000 tokens131,072 tokens (best)128,000 tokens
Max output16,384 tokens (best)8,192 tokens16,384 tokens (best)
Inputs and features
TextYesYesYes
ImagesYesNoYes
PDFsYesNoNo
AudioNoNoNo
VideoNoNoNo
ReasoningNoNoNo
Tool callingYesYesYes
Structured outputYesNoYes
Availability
WeightsProprietaryOpenMistral Research LicenseOpen
API model IDgpt-4o-mini——
API providers21 (best)12
ReleasedJul 18, 2024Oct 16, 2024Mar 17, 2025
Knowledge cutoffSep 2023—Jun 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-4o mini$2.70
  • Ministral 8B Instruct$1.80
  • Mistral Small 3.1 24B$3.16
04 — Questions

Which should you choose?

Which is better: GPT-4o mini, Ministral 8B Instruct or Mistral Small 3.1 24B?

Mistral Small 3.1 24B is the better all-round choice, scoring 54/100 against GPT-4o mini (51) and Ministral 8B Instruct (42). It leads on capability. GPT-4o mini wins on inputs & features. Ministral 8B Instruct wins on price. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%. Capability uses the average of shared benchmarks (GPQA Diamond), because Ministral 8B Instruct has no Capabilities Index score yet.

Which is cheaper, GPT-4o mini, Ministral 8B Instruct or Mistral Small 3.1 24B?

Ministral 8B Instruct is cheaper at $0.15 input / $0.15 output per million tokens (median across 1 API provider). GPT-4o mini costs $0.15 input / $0.60 output per million tokens (official OpenAI API price); Mistral Small 3.1 24B costs $0.229 input / $0.436 output per million tokens (median across 2 API providers). At a typical mix of three input tokens to one output token, that is $0.15 per million tokens for Ministral 8B Instruct versus $0.263 for GPT-4o mini (1.8× as much) and $0.281 for Mistral Small 3.1 24B (1.9× as much).

Which scores higher on benchmarks?

Not every model here has a Capabilities Index score, so we compare the average of shared benchmarks (GPQA Diamond): Mistral Small 3.1 24B 47.5%, GPT-4o mini 37.7% and Ministral 8B Instruct 27.2%. On individual benchmarks: GPQA Diamond — Mistral Small 3.1 24B 47.5%, GPT-4o mini 37.7%, Ministral 8B Instruct 27.2%.

Which is better for coding?

There are no published SWE-bench Verified results for GPT-4o mini, Ministral 8B Instruct and Mistral Small 3.1 24B yet, so there is no like-for-like coding score. On overall capability, Mistral Small 3.1 24B 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?

Ministral 8B Instruct has the largest context window at 131,072 tokens, against 128,000 for GPT-4o mini and 128,000 for Mistral Small 3.1 24B. Maximum output per response: GPT-4o mini up to 16,384, Ministral 8B Instruct up to 8,192, Mistral Small 3.1 24B up to 16,384 tokens.

Which can read images, PDFs, audio or video?

GPT-4o mini accepts text, images and PDFs; Ministral 8B Instruct accepts text; Mistral Small 3.1 24B accepts text and images. GPT-4o mini handles the widest range of inputs.

Are any of these open source?

Ministral 8B Instruct and Mistral Small 3.1 24B publishes its weights (Mistral Research License) and can be self-hosted; GPT-4o mini is proprietary.

Which is newer?

Mistral Small 3.1 24B is the newest, released Mar 17, 2025. Ministral 8B Instruct came out Oct 16, 2024; GPT-4o mini came out Jul 18, 2024. Knowledge cutoff: GPT-4o mini Sep 2023, 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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