ZMIME
Comparison · 3 models · Updated Oct 4, 2026

Mistral Medium 3 vs Qwen3 8B vs GPT-4.1 mini

GPT-4.1 mini comes out ahead, 60 to 56 and 53 on our weighted score, though Qwen3 8B is 2.3× cheaper per token.

  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. Alibaba (Qwen)

    Qwen3 8B

    Released Apr 28, 2025

    56/100
    • ECI136.2
    • Price$0.18 / $0.70
    • Context131K
    Full specs Remove Qwen3 8B
  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 Qwen3 8B (56) and Mistral Medium 3 (53). It leads on inputs & features and context window. Qwen3 8B wins on price. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.

  • CapabilityQwen3 8BCapabilities Index (ECI): Qwen3 8B 136.2 · GPT-4.1 mini 135.0 · Mistral Medium 3 134.1
  • Lowest priceQwen3 8BQwen3 8B $0.31 · 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 · Mistral Medium 3 131,072 · Qwen3 8B 131,072 tokens
  • Widest inputsGPT-4.1 miniMistral Medium 3: Text, Images · Qwen3 8B: Text · GPT-4.1 mini: Text, Images, PDFs
  • Self-hostingQwen3 8BPublishes downloadable weights
How the score is built
MeasureWeightMistral Medium 3Qwen3 8BGPT-4.1 mini
CapabilityCapabilities Index (ECI)50%586159
Price25%547457
Inputs & features15%503570
Context window10%242461
Overall100%53/10056/10060/100
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 Qwen3 8B vs GPT-4.1 mini specifications side by side
SpecificationMistral Medium 3Mistral AIQwen3 8BAlibaba (Qwen)GPT-4.1 miniOpenAI
Capability
Capabilities Index (ECI)134.1136.2 (best)135.0
ECI rank#117 of 148#113 of 148 (best)#115 of 148
GPQA DiamondGraduate-level science questions59.5%56.8%65.9% (best)
FrontierMath Tiers 1–3Research-level mathematics——6.7%
OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025Competition mathematics32.2%56.1% (best)44.7%
SimpleQA VerifiedShort factual questions——12.7%
Price per million tokens
Input$0.40$0.18 (best)$0.40
Output$2.00$0.70 (best)$1.60
Cached input——$0.10
Blended (3:1)$0.80$0.31 (best)$0.70
Long-context rateSame rateSame rateSame rate
Price sourceOfficial Mistral APIOfficial Alibaba APIOfficial OpenAI API
Limits
Context window131,072 tokens131,072 tokens1,047,576 tokens (best)
Max output131,072 tokens (best)8,192 tokens32,768 tokens
Inputs and features
TextYesYesYes
ImagesYesNoYes
PDFsNoNoYes
AudioNoNoNo
VideoNoNoNo
ReasoningNoYesNo
Tool callingYesYesYes
Structured outputNoNoYes
Availability
WeightsProprietaryOpenProprietary
API model IDmistral-medium-2505qwen3-8bgpt-4.1-mini
API providers5124 (best)
ReleasedMay 7, 2025Apr 28, 2025Apr 14, 2025
Knowledge cutoffMay 2025Apr 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.

  • Mistral Medium 3$8.00
  • Qwen3 8B$3.20
  • GPT-4.1 mini$7.20
04 — Questions

Which should you choose?

Which is better: Mistral Medium 3, Qwen3 8B or GPT-4.1 mini?

GPT-4.1 mini is the better all-round choice, scoring 60/100 against Qwen3 8B (56) and Mistral Medium 3 (53). It leads on inputs & features and context window. Qwen3 8B wins on price. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.

Which is cheaper, Mistral Medium 3, Qwen3 8B or GPT-4.1 mini?

Qwen3 8B is cheaper at $0.18 input / $0.70 output per million tokens (official Alibaba 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 $0.31 per million tokens for Qwen3 8B versus $0.70 for GPT-4.1 mini (2.3× as much) and $0.80 for Mistral Medium 3 (2.6× as much).

Which scores higher on benchmarks?

Qwen3 8B scores higher on the Capabilities Index (ECI): Qwen3 8B 136.2 (#113 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 (129.7–138.1 vs 131.2–136.6), so treat the gap as small. On individual benchmarks: GPQA Diamond — GPT-4.1 mini 65.9%, Mistral Medium 3 59.5%, Qwen3 8B 56.8%; OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025 — Qwen3 8B 56.1%, 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, Qwen3 8B and GPT-4.1 mini yet, so there is no like-for-like coding score. On overall capability, Qwen3 8B 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 Mistral Medium 3 and 131,072 for Qwen3 8B. Maximum output per response: Mistral Medium 3 up to 131,072, Qwen3 8B up to 8,192, GPT-4.1 mini up to 32,768 tokens.

Which can read images, PDFs, audio or video?

Mistral Medium 3 accepts text and images; Qwen3 8B 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?

Qwen3 8B publishes its weights and can be self-hosted; Mistral Medium 3 and GPT-4.1 mini is proprietary.

Which is newer?

Mistral Medium 3 is the newest, released May 7, 2025. Qwen3 8B came out Apr 28, 2025; GPT-4.1 mini came out Apr 14, 2025. Knowledge cutoff: Mistral Medium 3 May 2025, Qwen3 8B Apr 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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