ZMIME
Comparison · 3 models · Updated Oct 4, 2026

GPT-4o mini vs Qwen Turbo vs Mistral Small 3.1 24B

Qwen Turbo comes out ahead, 48 to 44 and 43 on our weighted score, and it is the cheaper option too.

  1. OpenAI

    GPT-4o mini

    Released Jul 18, 2024

    43/100
    • ECI126.6
    • Price$0.15 / $0.60
    • Context128K
    Full specs Remove GPT-4o mini
  2. Our pick

    Alibaba (Qwen)

    Qwen Turbo

    Released Nov 1, 2024

    48/100
    • ECI—
    • Price$0.05 / $0.20
    • Context1M
    Full specs Remove Qwen Turbo

  3. Mistral AI

    Mistral Small 3.1 24B

    Released Mar 17, 2025

    44/100
    • ECI127.5
    • Price$0.229 / $0.436
    • Context128K
    Full specs Remove Mistral Small 3.1 24B
01 — Verdict

Qwen Turbo is our pick

Qwen Turbo is the better all-round choice, scoring 48/100 against Mistral Small 3.1 24B (44) and GPT-4o mini (43). It leads on price and context window. GPT-4o mini wins on inputs & features. Mistral Small 3.1 24B wins on capability. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%. Capability uses the average of shared benchmarks (GPQA Diamond and OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025), because Qwen Turbo has no Capabilities Index score yet.

  • CapabilityMistral Small 3.1 24BShared benchmarks: Mistral Small 3.1 24B 26.7% · Qwen Turbo 24.0% · GPT-4o mini 22.3%
  • Lowest priceQwen TurboQwen Turbo $0.087 · GPT-4o mini $0.263 · Mistral Small 3.1 24B $0.281 per 1M tokens (3:1 blend)
  • Longest contextQwen TurboQwen Turbo 1,000,000 · GPT-4o mini 128,000 · Mistral Small 3.1 24B 128,000 tokens
  • Widest inputsGPT-4o miniGPT-4o mini: Text, Images, PDFs · Qwen Turbo: Text · Mistral Small 3.1 24B: Text, Images
  • Self-hostingMistral Small 3.1 24BPublishes downloadable weights
How the score is built
MeasureWeightGPT-4o miniQwen TurboMistral Small 3.1 24B
CapabilityShared benchmarks50%222427
Price25%7710076
Inputs & features15%703560
Context window10%246024
Overall100%43/10048/10044/100
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 Qwen Turbo vs Mistral Small 3.1 24B specifications side by side
SpecificationGPT-4o miniOpenAIQwen TurboAlibaba (Qwen)Mistral 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%41.8%47.5% (best)
FrontierMath Tiers 1–3Research-level mathematics0.7%——
OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025Competition mathematics6.9% (best)6.1%5.8%
SimpleQA VerifiedShort factual questions8.3%——
Price per million tokens
Input$0.15$0.05 (best)$0.229
Output$0.60$0.20 (best)$0.436
Cached input$0.075——
Blended (3:1)$0.263$0.087 (best)$0.281
Long-context rateSame rateSame rateSame rate
Price sourceOfficial OpenAI APIOfficial Alibaba APIMedian of 2 providers
Limits
Context window128,000 tokens1,000,000 tokens (best)128,000 tokens
Max output16,384 tokens16,384 tokens16,384 tokens
Inputs and features
TextYesYesYes
ImagesYesNoYes
PDFsYesNoNo
AudioNoNoNo
VideoNoNoNo
ReasoningNoYesNo
Tool callingYesYesYes
Structured outputYesNoYes
Availability
WeightsProprietaryProprietaryOpen
API model IDgpt-4o-miniqwen-turbo—
API providers21 (best)32
ReleasedJul 18, 2024Nov 1, 2024Mar 17, 2025
Knowledge cutoffSep 2023Apr 2024Jun 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
  • Qwen Turbo$0.90
  • Mistral Small 3.1 24B$3.16
04 — Questions

Which should you choose?

Which is better: GPT-4o mini, Qwen Turbo or Mistral Small 3.1 24B?

Qwen Turbo is the better all-round choice, scoring 48/100 against Mistral Small 3.1 24B (44) and GPT-4o mini (43). It leads on price and context window. GPT-4o mini wins on inputs & features. Mistral Small 3.1 24B wins on capability. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%. Capability uses the average of shared benchmarks (GPQA Diamond and OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025), because Qwen Turbo has no Capabilities Index score yet.

Which is cheaper, GPT-4o mini, Qwen Turbo or Mistral Small 3.1 24B?

Qwen Turbo is cheaper at $0.05 input / $0.20 output per million tokens (official Alibaba API price). 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 $0.087 per million tokens for Qwen Turbo versus $0.263 for GPT-4o mini (3× as much) and $0.281 for Mistral Small 3.1 24B (3.2× 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 and OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025): Mistral Small 3.1 24B 26.7%, Qwen Turbo 24.0% and GPT-4o mini 22.3%. On individual benchmarks: GPQA Diamond — Mistral Small 3.1 24B 47.5%, Qwen Turbo 41.8%, GPT-4o mini 37.7%; OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025 — GPT-4o mini 6.9%, Qwen Turbo 6.1%, Mistral Small 3.1 24B 5.8%.

Which is better for coding?

There are no published SWE-bench Verified results for GPT-4o mini, Qwen Turbo 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?

Qwen Turbo has the largest context window at 1,000,000 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, Qwen Turbo up to 16,384, 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; Qwen Turbo 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?

Mistral Small 3.1 24B publishes its weights and can be self-hosted; GPT-4o mini and Qwen Turbo is proprietary.

Which is newer?

Mistral Small 3.1 24B is the newest, released Mar 17, 2025. Qwen Turbo came out Nov 1, 2024; GPT-4o mini came out Jul 18, 2024. Knowledge cutoff: GPT-4o mini Sep 2023, Qwen Turbo Apr 2024, 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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