ZMIME
Comparison · 3 models · Updated Oct 4, 2026

MiniMax-M2.5 vs Mistral Medium 3 vs GPT-5.4 nano

GPT-5.4 nano comes out ahead, 68 to 61 and 53 on our weighted score, and it is the cheaper option too.

  1. MiniMax

    MiniMax-M2.5

    Released Feb 12, 2026

    61/100
    • ECI146.7
    • Price$0.30 / $1.20
    • Context205K
    Full specs Remove MiniMax-M2.5

  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-5.4 nano

    Released Mar 17, 2026

    68/100
    • ECI145.8
    • Price$0.20 / $1.25
    • Context400K
    Full specs Remove GPT-5.4 nano
01 — Verdict

GPT-5.4 nano is our pick

GPT-5.4 nano is the better all-round choice, scoring 68/100 against MiniMax-M2.5 (61) and Mistral Medium 3 (53). It leads on price, inputs & features and context window. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.

  • CapabilityMiniMax-M2.5Capabilities Index (ECI): MiniMax-M2.5 146.7 · GPT-5.4 nano 145.8 · Mistral Medium 3 134.1
  • Lowest priceGPT-5.4 nanoGPT-5.4 nano $0.463 · MiniMax-M2.5 $0.525 · Mistral Medium 3 $0.80 per 1M tokens (3:1 blend)
  • Longest contextGPT-5.4 nanoGPT-5.4 nano 400,000 · MiniMax-M2.5 204,800 · Mistral Medium 3 131,072 tokens
  • Widest inputsMistral Medium 3 and GPT-5.4 nanoMiniMax-M2.5: Text · Mistral Medium 3: Text, Images · GPT-5.4 nano: Text, Images
  • Self-hostingMiniMax-M2.5Publishes downloadable weights
How the score is built
MeasureWeightMiniMax-M2.5Mistral Medium 3GPT-5.4 nano
CapabilityCapabilities Index (ECI)50%745873
Price25%635466
Inputs & features15%355070
Context window10%322444
Overall100%61/10053/10068/100
02 — Side by side

Every spec in one table

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

MiniMax-M2.5 vs Mistral Medium 3 vs GPT-5.4 nano specifications side by side
SpecificationMiniMax-M2.5MiniMaxMistral Medium 3Mistral AIGPT-5.4 nanoOpenAI
Capability
Capabilities Index (ECI)146.7 (best)134.1145.8
ECI rank#66 of 148 (best)#117 of 148#75 of 148
GPQA DiamondGraduate-level science questions—59.5%78.5% (best)
FrontierMath Tiers 1–3Research-level mathematics——44.9%
OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025Competition mathematics—32.2%87.8% (best)
SimpleQA VerifiedShort factual questions——11.7%
Price per million tokens
Input$0.30$0.40$0.20 (best)
Output$1.20 (best)$2.00$1.25
Cached input$0.03—$0.02 (best)
Blended (3:1)$0.525$0.80$0.463 (best)
Long-context rateSame rateSame rateSame rate
Price sourceOfficial MiniMax (minimax.io) APIOfficial Mistral APIOfficial OpenAI API
Limits
Context window204,800 tokens131,072 tokens400,000 tokens (best)
Max output131,072 tokens (best)131,072 tokens (best)128,000 tokens
Inputs and features
TextYesYesYes
ImagesNoYesYes
PDFsNoNoNo
AudioNoNoNo
VideoNoNoNo
ReasoningYesNoYeslow · medium · high · xhigh
Tool callingYesYesYes
Structured outputNoNoYes
Availability
WeightsOpenProprietaryProprietary
API model IDMiniMax-M2.5mistral-medium-2505gpt-5.4-nano
API providers21526 (best)
ReleasedFeb 12, 2026May 7, 2025Mar 17, 2026
Knowledge cutoff—May 2025Aug 31, 2025
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.

  • MiniMax-M2.5$5.40
  • Mistral Medium 3$8.00
  • GPT-5.4 nano$4.50
04 — Questions

Which should you choose?

Which is better: MiniMax-M2.5, Mistral Medium 3 or GPT-5.4 nano?

GPT-5.4 nano is the better all-round choice, scoring 68/100 against MiniMax-M2.5 (61) and Mistral Medium 3 (53). It leads on price, inputs & features and context window. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.

Which is cheaper, MiniMax-M2.5, Mistral Medium 3 or GPT-5.4 nano?

GPT-5.4 nano is cheaper at $0.20 input / $1.25 output per million tokens (official OpenAI API price). MiniMax-M2.5 costs $0.30 input / $1.20 output per million tokens (official MiniMax (minimax.io) API price); 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 $0.463 per million tokens for GPT-5.4 nano versus $0.525 for MiniMax-M2.5 (1.1× as much) and $0.80 for Mistral Medium 3 (1.7× as much).

Which scores higher on benchmarks?

MiniMax-M2.5 scores higher on the Capabilities Index (ECI): MiniMax-M2.5 146.7 (#66 of 148), GPT-5.4 nano 145.8 (#75 of 148) and Mistral Medium 3 134.1 (#117 of 148). The confidence ranges of the top two overlap (142.3–147.9 vs 143.2–147.7), so treat the gap as small.

Which is better for coding?

There are no published SWE-bench Verified results for MiniMax-M2.5, Mistral Medium 3 and GPT-5.4 nano yet, so there is no like-for-like coding score. On overall capability, MiniMax-M2.5 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-5.4 nano has the largest context window at 400,000 tokens, against 204,800 for MiniMax-M2.5 and 131,072 for Mistral Medium 3. Maximum output per response: MiniMax-M2.5 up to 131,072, Mistral Medium 3 up to 131,072, GPT-5.4 nano up to 128,000 tokens.

Which can read images, PDFs, audio or video?

MiniMax-M2.5 accepts text; Mistral Medium 3 accepts text and images; GPT-5.4 nano accepts text and images. Mistral Medium 3 handles the widest range of inputs.

Are any of these open source?

MiniMax-M2.5 publishes its weights and can be self-hosted; Mistral Medium 3 and GPT-5.4 nano is proprietary.

Which is newer?

GPT-5.4 nano is the newest, released Mar 17, 2026. MiniMax-M2.5 came out Feb 12, 2026; Mistral Medium 3 came out May 7, 2025. Knowledge cutoff: Mistral Medium 3 May 2025, GPT-5.4 nano Aug 31, 2025.

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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