ZMIME
Comparison · 3 models · Updated Oct 4, 2026

Magistral Small vs Mistral Medium 3 vs GPT-4.1 mini

GPT-4.1 mini comes out ahead, 60 to 53 and 50 on our weighted score, and it is the cheaper option too.

  1. Mistral AI

    Magistral Small

    Released Jun 10, 2025

    50/100
    • ECI133.2
    • Price$0.50 / $1.50
    • Context131K
    Full specs Remove Magistral Small

  2. Mistral AI

    Mistral Medium 3

    Released May 7, 2025

    53/100
    • ECI134.1
    • Price$0.40 / $2.00
    • Context131K
    Full specs Remove Mistral Medium 3
  3. Our pick

    OpenAI

    GPT-4.1 mini

    Released Apr 14, 2025

    60/100
    • ECI135.0
    • Price$0.40 / $1.60
    • Context1.05M
    Full specs Remove GPT-4.1 mini
01 — Verdict

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 Magistral Small (50). It leads on inputs & features and context window. 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 · Mistral Medium 3 134.1 · Magistral Small 133.2
  • Lowest priceGPT-4.1 miniGPT-4.1 mini $0.70 · Magistral Small $0.75 · Mistral Medium 3 $0.80 per 1M tokens (3:1 blend)
  • Longest contextGPT-4.1 miniGPT-4.1 mini 1,047,576 · Magistral Small 131,072 · Mistral Medium 3 131,072 tokens
  • Widest inputsGPT-4.1 miniMagistral Small: Text · Mistral Medium 3: Text, Images · GPT-4.1 mini: Text, Images, PDFs
  • Self-hostingMagistral SmallPublishes downloadable weights (Apache 2.0)
How the score is built
MeasureWeightMagistral SmallMistral Medium 3GPT-4.1 mini
CapabilityCapabilities Index (ECI)50%575859
Price25%565457
Inputs & features15%355070
Context window10%242461
Overall100%50/10053/10060/100
02 — Side by side

Every spec in one table

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

Magistral Small vs Mistral Medium 3 vs GPT-4.1 mini specifications side by side
SpecificationMagistral SmallMistral AIMistral Medium 3Mistral AIGPT-4.1 miniOpenAI
Capability
Capabilities Index (ECI)133.2134.1135.0 (best)
ECI rank#120 of 148#117 of 148#115 of 148 (best)
GPQA DiamondGraduate-level science questions56.1%59.5%65.9% (best)
FrontierMath Tiers 1–3Research-level mathematics——6.7%
OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025Competition mathematics30.0%32.2%44.7% (best)
SimpleQA VerifiedShort factual questions——12.7%
Price per million tokens
Input$0.50$0.40 (best)$0.40 (best)
Output$1.50 (best)$2.00$1.60
Cached input——$0.10
Blended (3:1)$0.75$0.80$0.70 (best)
Long-context rateSame rateSame rateSame rate
Price sourceMedian of 1 providersOfficial Mistral APIOfficial OpenAI API
Limits
Context window131,072 tokens131,072 tokens1,047,576 tokens (best)
Max output8,192 tokens131,072 tokens (best)32,768 tokens
Inputs and features
TextYesYesYes
ImagesNoYesYes
PDFsNoNoYes
AudioNoNoNo
VideoNoNoNo
ReasoningYesNoNo
Tool callingYesYesYes
Structured outputNoNoYes
Availability
WeightsOpenApache 2.0ProprietaryProprietary
API model ID—mistral-medium-2505gpt-4.1-mini
API providers1524 (best)
ReleasedJun 10, 2025May 7, 2025Apr 14, 2025
Knowledge cutoff—May 2025Apr 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.

  • Magistral Small$8.00
  • Mistral Medium 3$8.00
  • GPT-4.1 mini$7.20
04 — Questions

Which should you choose?

Which is better: Magistral Small, Mistral Medium 3 or GPT-4.1 mini?

GPT-4.1 mini is the better all-round choice, scoring 60/100 against Mistral Medium 3 (53) and Magistral Small (50). It leads on inputs & features and context window. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.

Which is cheaper, Magistral Small, Mistral Medium 3 or GPT-4.1 mini?

GPT-4.1 mini is cheaper at $0.40 input / $1.60 output per million tokens (official OpenAI API price). Magistral Small costs $0.50 input / $1.50 output per million tokens (median across 1 API provider); Mistral Medium 3 costs $0.40 input / $2.00 output per million tokens (official Mistral API price). 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 $0.75 for Magistral Small (1.1× as much) and $0.80 for Mistral Medium 3 (1.1× 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), Mistral Medium 3 134.1 (#117 of 148) and Magistral Small 133.2 (#120 of 148). The confidence ranges of the top two overlap (131.2–136.6 vs 130.5–135.6), so treat the gap as small. On individual benchmarks: GPQA Diamond — GPT-4.1 mini 65.9%, Mistral Medium 3 59.5%, Magistral Small 56.1%; OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025 — GPT-4.1 mini 44.7%, Mistral Medium 3 32.2%, Magistral Small 30.0%.

Which is better for coding?

There are no published SWE-bench Verified results for Magistral Small, Mistral Medium 3 and GPT-4.1 mini 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 131,072 for Magistral Small and 131,072 for Mistral Medium 3. Maximum output per response: Magistral Small up to 8,192, Mistral Medium 3 up to 131,072, GPT-4.1 mini up to 32,768 tokens.

Which can read images, PDFs, audio or video?

Magistral Small accepts text; Mistral Medium 3 accepts text and images; GPT-4.1 mini accepts text, images and PDFs. GPT-4.1 mini handles the widest range of inputs.

Are any of these open source?

Magistral Small publishes its weights (Apache 2.0) and can be self-hosted; Mistral Medium 3 and GPT-4.1 mini is proprietary.

Which is newer?

Magistral Small is the newest, released Jun 10, 2025. Mistral Medium 3 came out May 7, 2025; GPT-4.1 mini came out Apr 14, 2025. Knowledge cutoff: Mistral Medium 3 May 2025, GPT-4.1 mini Apr 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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