ZMIME
Comparison · 3 models · Updated Oct 4, 2026

Mistral Medium 3 vs GPT-5 Nano vs GPT-4.1 mini

GPT-5 Nano comes out ahead, 70 to 60 and 53 on our weighted score, and it is the cheaper option too.

  1. 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
  2. Our pick

    OpenAI

    GPT-5 Nano

    Released Aug 7, 2025

    70/100
    • ECI139.4
    • Price$0.05 / $0.40
    • Context400K
    Full specs Remove GPT-5 Nano

  3. 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-5 Nano is our pick

GPT-5 Nano is the better all-round choice, scoring 70/100 against GPT-4.1 mini (60) and Mistral Medium 3 (53). It leads on capability and price. GPT-4.1 mini wins on context window. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.

  • CapabilityGPT-5 NanoCapabilities Index (ECI): GPT-5 Nano 139.4 · GPT-4.1 mini 135.0 · Mistral Medium 3 134.1
  • Lowest priceGPT-5 NanoGPT-5 Nano $0.138 · GPT-4.1 mini $0.70 · Mistral Medium 3 $0.80 per 1M tokens (3:1 blend)
  • Longest contextGPT-4.1 miniGPT-4.1 mini 1,047,576 · GPT-5 Nano 400,000 · Mistral Medium 3 131,072 tokens
  • Widest inputsGPT-4.1 miniMistral Medium 3: Text, Images · GPT-5 Nano: Text, Images · GPT-4.1 mini: Text, Images, PDFs
  • Self-hostingNo open weightsAll three are available only through APIs
How the score is built
MeasureWeightMistral Medium 3GPT-5 NanoGPT-4.1 mini
CapabilityCapabilities Index (ECI)50%586559
Price25%549157
Inputs & features15%507070
Context window10%244461
Overall100%53/10070/10060/100
02 — Side by side

Every spec in one table

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

Mistral Medium 3 vs GPT-5 Nano vs GPT-4.1 mini specifications side by side
SpecificationMistral Medium 3Mistral AIGPT-5 NanoOpenAIGPT-4.1 miniOpenAI
Capability
Capabilities Index (ECI)134.1139.4 (best)135.0
ECI rank#117 of 148#102 of 148 (best)#115 of 148
GPQA DiamondGraduate-level science questions59.5%69.4% (best)65.9%
FrontierMath Tiers 1–3Research-level mathematics—20.0% (best)6.7%
OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025Competition mathematics32.2%81.1% (best)44.7%
SimpleQA VerifiedShort factual questions—11.7%12.7% (best)
Price per million tokens
Input$0.40$0.05 (best)$0.40
Output$2.00$0.40 (best)$1.60
Cached input—$0.005 (best)$0.10
Blended (3:1)$0.80$0.138 (best)$0.70
Long-context rateSame rateSame rateSame rate
Price sourceOfficial Mistral APIOfficial OpenAI APIOfficial OpenAI API
Limits
Context window131,072 tokens400,000 tokens1,047,576 tokens (best)
Max output131,072 tokens (best)128,000 tokens32,768 tokens
Inputs and features
TextYesYesYes
ImagesYesYesYes
PDFsNoNoYes
AudioNoNoNo
VideoNoNoNo
ReasoningNoYesminimal · low · medium · highNo
Tool callingYesYesYes
Structured outputNoYesYes
Availability
WeightsProprietaryProprietaryProprietary
API model IDmistral-medium-2505gpt-5-nanogpt-4.1-mini
API providers52124 (best)
ReleasedMay 7, 2025Aug 7, 2025Apr 14, 2025
Knowledge cutoffMay 2025May 30, 2024Apr 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.

  • Mistral Medium 3$8.00
  • GPT-5 Nano$1.30
  • GPT-4.1 mini$7.20
04 — Questions

Which should you choose?

Which is better: Mistral Medium 3, GPT-5 Nano or GPT-4.1 mini?

GPT-5 Nano is the better all-round choice, scoring 70/100 against GPT-4.1 mini (60) and Mistral Medium 3 (53). It leads on capability and price. GPT-4.1 mini wins on context window. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.

Which is cheaper, Mistral Medium 3, GPT-5 Nano or GPT-4.1 mini?

GPT-5 Nano is cheaper at $0.05 input / $0.40 output per million tokens (official OpenAI API price). GPT-4.1 mini costs $0.40 input / $1.60 output per million tokens (official OpenAI 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 $0.138 per million tokens for GPT-5 Nano versus $0.70 for GPT-4.1 mini (5.1× as much) and $0.80 for Mistral Medium 3 (5.8× as much).

Which scores higher on benchmarks?

GPT-5 Nano scores higher on the Capabilities Index (ECI): GPT-5 Nano 139.4 (#102 of 148), GPT-4.1 mini 135.0 (#115 of 148) and Mistral Medium 3 134.1 (#117 of 148). The confidence ranges of the top two overlap (134.9–141.7 vs 131.2–136.6), so treat the gap as small. On individual benchmarks: GPQA Diamond — GPT-5 Nano 69.4%, GPT-4.1 mini 65.9%, Mistral Medium 3 59.5%; OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025 — GPT-5 Nano 81.1%, GPT-4.1 mini 44.7%, Mistral Medium 3 32.2%.

Which is better for coding?

There are no published SWE-bench Verified results for Mistral Medium 3, GPT-5 Nano and GPT-4.1 mini yet, so there is no like-for-like coding score. On overall capability, GPT-5 Nano 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 400,000 for GPT-5 Nano and 131,072 for Mistral Medium 3. Maximum output per response: Mistral Medium 3 up to 131,072, GPT-5 Nano up to 128,000, GPT-4.1 mini up to 32,768 tokens.

Which can read images, PDFs, audio or video?

Mistral Medium 3 accepts text and images; GPT-5 Nano 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?

No. Mistral Medium 3, GPT-5 Nano and GPT-4.1 mini are proprietary and only available through APIs and apps.

Which is newer?

GPT-5 Nano is the newest, released Aug 7, 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-5 Nano May 30, 2024, 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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