GPT-4o mini vs Qwen2.5 72B Instruct vs Mistral Small 3.1 24B
Too close to call on our weighted score (GPT-4o mini 56, Mistral Small 3.1 24B 55, Qwen2.5 72B Instruct 40). The right pick depends on what you value most.
OpenAIGPT-4o mini
56/100- ECI126.6
- Price$0.15 / $0.60
- Context128K
Alibaba (Qwen)Qwen2.5 72B Instruct
40/100- ECI129.0
- Price$1.40 / $5.60
- Context131K
Mistral AIMistral Small 3.1 24B
55/100- ECI127.5
- Price$0.229 / $0.436
- Context128K
Too close to call
It is close. Our weighted score puts them within 1 points (GPT-4o mini 56/100, Mistral Small 3.1 24B 55/100, Qwen2.5 72B Instruct 40/100), so choose by what matters most for your work: Qwen2.5 72B Instruct for raw capability and GPT-4o mini on price. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.
- CapabilityQwen2.5 72B InstructCapabilities Index (ECI): Qwen2.5 72B Instruct 129.0 · Mistral Small 3.1 24B 127.5 · GPT-4o mini 126.6
- Lowest priceGPT-4o miniGPT-4o mini $0.263 · Mistral Small 3.1 24B $0.281 · Qwen2.5 72B Instruct $2.45 per 1M tokens (3:1 blend)
- Longest contextQwen2.5 72B InstructQwen2.5 72B 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 · Qwen2.5 72B Instruct: Text · Mistral Small 3.1 24B: Text, Images
- Self-hostingQwen2.5 72B Instruct and Mistral Small 3.1 24BPublishes downloadable weights
| Measure | Weight | GPT-4o mini | Qwen2.5 72B Instruct | Mistral Small 3.1 24B |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| CapabilityCapabilities Index (ECI) | 50% | 49 | 52 | 50 |
| Price | 25% | 77 | 31 | 76 |
| Inputs & features | 15% | 70 | 25 | 60 |
| Context window | 10% | 24 | 24 | 24 |
| Overall | 100% | 56/100 | 40/100 | 55/100 |
Every spec in one table
Highlighted cells lead their row. Dashes mean the data is not published.
| Specification | GPT-4o miniOpenAI | Qwen2.5 72B InstructAlibaba (Qwen) | Mistral Small 3.1 24BMistral AI |
|---|---|---|---|
| Capability | |||
| Capabilities Index (ECI) | 126.6 | 129.0 (best) | 127.5 |
| ECI rank | #135 of 148 | #128 of 148 (best) | #132 of 148 |
| GPQA DiamondGraduate-level science questions | 37.7% | 49.2% (best) | 47.5% |
| FrontierMath Tiers 1–3Research-level mathematics | 0.7% | — | — |
| OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025Competition mathematics | 6.9% | 8.1% (best) | 5.8% |
| SimpleQA VerifiedShort factual questions | 8.3% | — | — |
| Price per million tokens | |||
| Input | $0.15 (best) | $1.40 | $0.229 |
| Output | $0.60 | $5.60 | $0.436 (best) |
| Cached input | $0.075 | — | — |
| Blended (3:1) | $0.263 (best) | $2.45 | $0.281 |
| Long-context rate | Same rate | Same rate | Same rate |
| Price source | Official OpenAI API | Official Alibaba API | Median of 2 providers |
| Limits | |||
| Context window | 128,000 tokens | 131,072 tokens (best) | 128,000 tokens |
| Max output | 16,384 tokens (best) | 8,192 tokens | 16,384 tokens (best) |
| Inputs and features | |||
| Text | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Images | Yes | No | Yes |
| PDFs | Yes | No | No |
| Audio | No | No | No |
| Video | No | No | No |
| Reasoning | No | No | No |
| Tool calling | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Structured output | Yes | No | Yes |
| Availability | |||
| Weights | Proprietary | Open | Open |
| API model ID | gpt-4o-mini | qwen2-5-72b-instruct | — |
| API providers | 21 (best) | 1 | 2 |
| Released | Jul 18, 2024 | Sep 19, 2024 | Mar 17, 2025 |
| Knowledge cutoff | Sep 2023 | Apr 2024 | Jun 2024 |
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
- Qwen2.5 72B Instruct$25.20
- Mistral Small 3.1 24B$3.16
Which should you choose?
Which is better: GPT-4o mini, Qwen2.5 72B Instruct or Mistral Small 3.1 24B?
It is close. Our weighted score puts them within 1 points (GPT-4o mini 56/100, Mistral Small 3.1 24B 55/100, Qwen2.5 72B Instruct 40/100), so choose by what matters most for your work: Qwen2.5 72B Instruct for raw capability and GPT-4o mini on price. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.
Which is cheaper, GPT-4o mini, Qwen2.5 72B Instruct or Mistral Small 3.1 24B?
GPT-4o mini is cheaper at $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); Qwen2.5 72B Instruct costs $1.40 input / $5.60 output per million tokens (official Alibaba API price). At a typical mix of three input tokens to one output token, that is $0.263 per million tokens for GPT-4o mini versus $0.281 for Mistral Small 3.1 24B (1.1× as much) and $2.45 for Qwen2.5 72B Instruct (9.3× as much).
Which scores higher on benchmarks?
Qwen2.5 72B Instruct scores higher on the Capabilities Index (ECI): Qwen2.5 72B Instruct 129.0 (#128 of 148), Mistral Small 3.1 24B 127.5 (#132 of 148) and GPT-4o mini 126.6 (#135 of 148). The confidence ranges of the top two overlap (123.8–130.7 vs 122.6–129.4), so treat the gap as small. On individual benchmarks: GPQA Diamond — Qwen2.5 72B Instruct 49.2%, Mistral Small 3.1 24B 47.5%, GPT-4o mini 37.7%; OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025 — Qwen2.5 72B Instruct 8.1%, GPT-4o mini 6.9%, Mistral Small 3.1 24B 5.8%.
Which is better for coding?
There are no published SWE-bench Verified results for GPT-4o mini, Qwen2.5 72B Instruct and Mistral Small 3.1 24B yet, so there is no like-for-like coding score. On overall capability, Qwen2.5 72B Instruct 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?
Qwen2.5 72B 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, Qwen2.5 72B 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; Qwen2.5 72B 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?
Qwen2.5 72B Instruct and Mistral Small 3.1 24B publishes its weights 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. Qwen2.5 72B Instruct came out Sep 19, 2024; GPT-4o mini came out Jul 18, 2024. Knowledge cutoff: GPT-4o mini Sep 2023, Qwen2.5 72B Instruct 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.
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