Magistral Small 1.2 vs GPT-4.1 mini vs Llama 4 Maverick 17B Instruct
Too close to call on our weighted score (GPT-4.1 mini 60, Llama 4 Maverick 17B Instruct 58, Magistral Small 1.2 53). The right pick depends on what you value most.
Mistral AIMagistral Small 1.2
53/100- ECI131.4
- Price$0.50 / $1.50
- Context131K
OpenAIGPT-4.1 mini
60/100- ECI135.0
- Price$0.40 / $1.60
- Context1.05M
MetaLlama 4 Maverick 17B Instruct
58/100- ECI132.2
- Price$0.321 / $0.91
- Context1M
Too close to call
It is close. Our weighted score puts them within 3 points (GPT-4.1 mini 60/100, Llama 4 Maverick 17B Instruct 58/100, Magistral Small 1.2 53/100), so choose by what matters most for your work: GPT-4.1 mini for raw capability and Llama 4 Maverick 17B Instruct 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 · Llama 4 Maverick 17B Instruct 132.2 · Magistral Small 1.2 131.4
- Lowest priceLlama 4 Maverick 17B InstructLlama 4 Maverick 17B Instruct $0.468 · GPT-4.1 mini $0.70 · Magistral Small 1.2 $0.75 per 1M tokens (3:1 blend)
- Longest contextGPT-4.1 miniGPT-4.1 mini 1,047,576 · Llama 4 Maverick 17B Instruct 1,000,000 · Magistral Small 1.2 131,072 tokens
- Widest inputsGPT-4.1 miniMagistral Small 1.2: Text, Images · GPT-4.1 mini: Text, Images, PDFs · Llama 4 Maverick 17B Instruct: Text, Images
- Self-hostingMagistral Small 1.2 and Llama 4 Maverick 17B InstructPublishes downloadable weights (Apache 2.0)
| Measure | Weight | Magistral Small 1.2 | GPT-4.1 mini | Llama 4 Maverick 17B Instruct |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| CapabilityCapabilities Index (ECI) | 50% | 55 | 59 | 56 |
| Price | 25% | 56 | 57 | 66 |
| Inputs & features | 15% | 60 | 70 | 50 |
| Context window | 10% | 24 | 61 | 60 |
| Overall | 100% | 53/100 | 60/100 | 58/100 |
Every spec in one table
Highlighted cells lead their row. Dashes mean the data is not published.
| Specification | Magistral Small 1.2Mistral AI | GPT-4.1 miniOpenAI | Llama 4 Maverick 17B InstructMeta |
|---|---|---|---|
| Capability | |||
| Capabilities Index (ECI) | 131.4 | 135.0 (best) | 132.2 |
| ECI rank | #124 of 148 | #115 of 148 (best) | #122 of 148 |
| GPQA DiamondGraduate-level science questions | 47.6% | 65.9% | 67.0% (best) |
| FrontierMath Tiers 1–3Research-level mathematics | — | 6.7% | — |
| OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025Competition mathematics | 28.1% | 44.7% (best) | 20.6% |
| SimpleQA VerifiedShort factual questions | — | 12.7% | — |
| Price per million tokens | |||
| Input | $0.50 | $0.40 | $0.321 (best) |
| Output | $1.50 | $1.60 | $0.91 (best) |
| Cached input | — | $0.10 | — |
| Blended (3:1) | $0.75 | $0.70 | $0.468 (best) |
| Long-context rate | Same rate | Same rate | Same rate |
| Price source | Median of 1 providers | Official OpenAI API | Median of 6 providers |
| Limits | |||
| Context window | 131,072 tokens | 1,047,576 tokens (best) | 1,000,000 tokens |
| Max output | 131,072 tokens (best) | 32,768 tokens | 16,384 tokens |
| Inputs and features | |||
| Text | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Images | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| PDFs | No | Yes | No |
| Audio | No | No | No |
| Video | No | No | No |
| Reasoning | Yes | No | No |
| Tool calling | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Structured output | No | Yes | No |
| Availability | |||
| Weights | OpenApache 2.0 | Proprietary | Open |
| API model ID | — | gpt-4.1-mini | — |
| API providers | 1 | 24 (best) | 6 |
| Released | Sep 18, 2025 | Apr 14, 2025 | Apr 5, 2025 |
| Knowledge cutoff | — | Apr 2024 | Aug 2024 |
What would a month cost?
Enter your expected volume in millions of tokens. List prices only; caching and batch discounts would lower these.
- Magistral Small 1.2$8.00
- GPT-4.1 mini$7.20
- Llama 4 Maverick 17B Instruct$5.03
Which should you choose?
Which is better: Magistral Small 1.2, GPT-4.1 mini or Llama 4 Maverick 17B Instruct?
It is close. Our weighted score puts them within 3 points (GPT-4.1 mini 60/100, Llama 4 Maverick 17B Instruct 58/100, Magistral Small 1.2 53/100), so choose by what matters most for your work: GPT-4.1 mini for raw capability and Llama 4 Maverick 17B Instruct on price. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.
Which is cheaper, Magistral Small 1.2, GPT-4.1 mini or Llama 4 Maverick 17B Instruct?
Llama 4 Maverick 17B Instruct is cheaper at $0.321 input / $0.91 output per million tokens (median across 6 API providers). GPT-4.1 mini costs $0.40 input / $1.60 output per million tokens (official OpenAI API price); Magistral Small 1.2 costs $0.50 input / $1.50 output per million tokens (median across 1 API provider). At a typical mix of three input tokens to one output token, that is $0.468 per million tokens for Llama 4 Maverick 17B Instruct versus $0.70 for GPT-4.1 mini (1.5× as much) and $0.75 for Magistral Small 1.2 (1.6× 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), Llama 4 Maverick 17B Instruct 132.2 (#122 of 148) and Magistral Small 1.2 131.4 (#124 of 148). The confidence ranges of the top two overlap (131.2–136.6 vs 128.0–134.1), so treat the gap as small. On individual benchmarks: GPQA Diamond — Llama 4 Maverick 17B Instruct 67.0%, GPT-4.1 mini 65.9%, Magistral Small 1.2 47.6%; OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025 — GPT-4.1 mini 44.7%, Magistral Small 1.2 28.1%, Llama 4 Maverick 17B Instruct 20.6%.
Which is better for coding?
There are no published SWE-bench Verified results for Magistral Small 1.2, GPT-4.1 mini and Llama 4 Maverick 17B Instruct 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 1,000,000 for Llama 4 Maverick 17B Instruct and 131,072 for Magistral Small 1.2. Maximum output per response: Magistral Small 1.2 up to 131,072, GPT-4.1 mini up to 32,768, Llama 4 Maverick 17B Instruct up to 16,384 tokens.
Which can read images, PDFs, audio or video?
Magistral Small 1.2 accepts text and images; GPT-4.1 mini accepts text, images and PDFs; Llama 4 Maverick 17B Instruct accepts text and images. GPT-4.1 mini handles the widest range of inputs.
Are any of these open source?
Magistral Small 1.2 and Llama 4 Maverick 17B Instruct publishes its weights (Apache 2.0) and can be self-hosted; GPT-4.1 mini is proprietary.
Which is newer?
Magistral Small 1.2 is the newest, released Sep 18, 2025. GPT-4.1 mini came out Apr 14, 2025; Llama 4 Maverick 17B Instruct came out Apr 5, 2025. Knowledge cutoff: GPT-4.1 mini Apr 2024, Llama 4 Maverick 17B Instruct Aug 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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