Mistral Medium 3 vs MiniMax-M2.5 vs GPT-4.1 mini
Too close to call on our weighted score (MiniMax-M2.5 61, GPT-4.1 mini 60, Mistral Medium 3 53). The right pick depends on what you value most.
Mistral AIMistral Medium 3
53/100- ECI134.1
- Price$0.40 / $2.00
- Context131K
MiniMaxMiniMax-M2.5
61/100- ECI146.7
- Price$0.30 / $1.20
- Context205K
OpenAIGPT-4.1 mini
60/100- ECI135.0
- Price$0.40 / $1.60
- Context1.05M
Too close to call
It is close. Our weighted score puts them within a point (MiniMax-M2.5 61/100, GPT-4.1 mini 60/100, Mistral Medium 3 53/100), so choose by what matters most for your work: MiniMax-M2.5 for raw capability and GPT-4.1 mini for long inputs. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.
- CapabilityMiniMax-M2.5Capabilities Index (ECI): MiniMax-M2.5 146.7 · GPT-4.1 mini 135.0 · Mistral Medium 3 134.1
- Lowest priceMiniMax-M2.5MiniMax-M2.5 $0.525 · 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 · MiniMax-M2.5 204,800 · Mistral Medium 3 131,072 tokens
- Widest inputsGPT-4.1 miniMistral Medium 3: Text, Images · MiniMax-M2.5: Text · GPT-4.1 mini: Text, Images, PDFs
- Self-hostingMiniMax-M2.5Publishes downloadable weights
| Measure | Weight | Mistral Medium 3 | MiniMax-M2.5 | GPT-4.1 mini |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| CapabilityCapabilities Index (ECI) | 50% | 58 | 74 | 59 |
| Price | 25% | 54 | 63 | 57 |
| Inputs & features | 15% | 50 | 35 | 70 |
| Context window | 10% | 24 | 32 | 61 |
| Overall | 100% | 53/100 | 61/100 | 60/100 |
Every spec in one table
Highlighted cells lead their row. Dashes mean the data is not published.
| Specification | Mistral Medium 3Mistral AI | MiniMax-M2.5MiniMax | GPT-4.1 miniOpenAI |
|---|---|---|---|
| Capability | |||
| Capabilities Index (ECI) | 134.1 | 146.7 (best) | 135.0 |
| ECI rank | #117 of 148 | #66 of 148 (best) | #115 of 148 |
| GPQA DiamondGraduate-level science questions | 59.5% | — | 65.9% (best) |
| FrontierMath Tiers 1–3Research-level mathematics | — | — | 6.7% |
| OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025Competition mathematics | 32.2% | — | 44.7% (best) |
| SimpleQA VerifiedShort factual questions | — | — | 12.7% |
| Price per million tokens | |||
| Input | $0.40 | $0.30 (best) | $0.40 |
| Output | $2.00 | $1.20 (best) | $1.60 |
| Cached input | — | $0.03 (best) | $0.10 |
| Blended (3:1) | $0.80 | $0.525 (best) | $0.70 |
| Long-context rate | Same rate | Same rate | Same rate |
| Price source | Official Mistral API | Official MiniMax (minimax.io) API | Official OpenAI API |
| Limits | |||
| Context window | 131,072 tokens | 204,800 tokens | 1,047,576 tokens (best) |
| Max output | 131,072 tokens (best) | 131,072 tokens (best) | 32,768 tokens |
| Inputs and features | |||
| Text | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Images | Yes | No | Yes |
| PDFs | No | No | Yes |
| Audio | No | No | No |
| Video | No | No | No |
| Reasoning | No | Yes | No |
| Tool calling | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Structured output | No | No | Yes |
| Availability | |||
| Weights | Proprietary | Open | Proprietary |
| API model ID | mistral-medium-2505 | MiniMax-M2.5 | gpt-4.1-mini |
| API providers | 5 | 21 | 24 (best) |
| Released | May 7, 2025 | Feb 12, 2026 | Apr 14, 2025 |
| Knowledge cutoff | May 2025 | — | Apr 2024 |
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
- MiniMax-M2.5$5.40
- GPT-4.1 mini$7.20
Which should you choose?
Which is better: Mistral Medium 3, MiniMax-M2.5 or GPT-4.1 mini?
It is close. Our weighted score puts them within a point (MiniMax-M2.5 61/100, GPT-4.1 mini 60/100, Mistral Medium 3 53/100), so choose by what matters most for your work: MiniMax-M2.5 for raw capability and GPT-4.1 mini for long inputs. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.
Which is cheaper, Mistral Medium 3, MiniMax-M2.5 or GPT-4.1 mini?
MiniMax-M2.5 is cheaper at $0.30 input / $1.20 output per million tokens (official MiniMax (minimax.io) 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 $0.525 per million tokens for MiniMax-M2.5 versus $0.70 for GPT-4.1 mini (1.3× as much) and $0.80 for Mistral Medium 3 (1.5× 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-4.1 mini 135.0 (#115 of 148) and Mistral Medium 3 134.1 (#117 of 148). Their confidence ranges do not overlap (142.3–147.9 vs 131.2–136.6), so the gap is a real one.
Which is better for coding?
There are no published SWE-bench Verified results for Mistral Medium 3, MiniMax-M2.5 and GPT-4.1 mini 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-4.1 mini has the largest context window at 1,047,576 tokens, against 204,800 for MiniMax-M2.5 and 131,072 for Mistral Medium 3. Maximum output per response: Mistral Medium 3 up to 131,072, MiniMax-M2.5 up to 131,072, GPT-4.1 mini up to 32,768 tokens.
Which can read images, PDFs, audio or video?
Mistral Medium 3 accepts text and images; MiniMax-M2.5 accepts text; 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?
MiniMax-M2.5 publishes its weights and can be self-hosted; Mistral Medium 3 and GPT-4.1 mini is proprietary.
Which is newer?
MiniMax-M2.5 is the newest, released Feb 12, 2026. 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.
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