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GPT-4o mini vs Pixtral 12B

A complete head-to-head: pricing, context window, benchmarks, modality coverage, and openness, with a programmatic verdict synthesized from the underlying data.

Updated

GPT-4o mini specs · Pixtral 12B specs
Verdict by category
  • PriceGPT-4o mini

    GPT-4o mini publishes pricing ($0.60 / 1M output tokens) while Pixtral 12B does not.

  • Context windowTie

    Both ship a 128K-token context window.

  • BenchmarksTie

    No directly comparable public benchmarks are available for both models, check the spec sheets for individual scores.

  • ModalitiesTie

    Both handle text, vision.

  • OpennessPixtral 12B

    Pixtral 12B ships open weights (Apache-2.0); GPT-4o mini is API-only.

It's a genuine coin-flip between GPT-4o mini and Pixtral 12B: 1 category wins each, with the rest tied. GPT-4o mini publishes pricing ($0.60 / 1M output tokens) while Pixtral 12B does not. Both ship a 128K-token context window.

No directly comparable public benchmarks are available for both models, check the spec sheets for individual scores. Both target the same set of modalities (text, vision), so the deciding factors are price, context, and raw quality. Pixtral 12B ships open weights (Apache-2.0); GPT-4o mini is API-only.

Pixtral 12B is the newer of the two, released 2 months after GPT-4o mini, which usually means a more recent knowledge cutoff and updated safety post-training. GPT-4o mini is usually picked for customer support and summarization workloads, while Pixtral 12B sees more deployments in vision and edge deployment. If pricing matters more than every last benchmark point, run the numbers in the calculator below before committing.

Side-by-side specs

SpecGPT-4o miniPixtral 12B
ProviderOpenAIMistral
ReleasedJul 2024Sep 2024
Modalitiestext, visiontext, vision
Context window128K tokens128K tokens
Max output,,
Input · 1M$0.15 / 1M tokensPricing not published
Output · 1M$0.60 / 1M tokensPricing not published
Knowledge cutoff,,
Open weightsNoYes (Apache-2.0)
API availableYesYes

Pricing at scale

What you'd actually pay at typical workloads. Numbers come from each model's published per-million-token rates.

  • Light usage, 100k in / 50k out per day$1.35 vs ,
  • Heavy usage, 1M in / 500k out per day$13.50 vs ,
  • RAG workload, 5M in / 200k out per day$26.10 vs ,

Light usage, 100k in / 50k out per day: pricing not directly comparable (one or both models are missing public per-token rates). Heavy usage, 1M in / 500k out per day: pricing not directly comparable (one or both models are missing public per-token rates). RAG workload, 5M in / 200k out per day: pricing not directly comparable (one or both models are missing public per-token rates).

Price calculator

Estimated spend for the listed models at your usage. Numbers are derived from each model's published per-million-token rates.

  • GPT-4o mini$0.045
  • Pixtral 12BPricing unavailable

Benchmarks compared

Only sourced numbers. Where a benchmark is missing for one model we show the available value rather than fabricating the other.

GPT-4o miniPixtral 12B
  • MMLU82.0
Pick GPT-4o mini if

GPT-4o mini fits when…

  • Cheap
  • Fast
  • Mature
Pick Pixtral 12B if

Pixtral 12B fits when…

  • Apache-2.0
  • Vision in 12B size
  • Single-GPU
  • Self-hosting and on-prem requirements, open weights (Apache-2.0).
Don't want either?

Consider GPT-5.5

OpenAI's mid-cycle GPT-5 refresh, improved reasoning, tool use, and multimodal grounding over the 2025 launch.

See GPT-5.5 specsGPT-4o mini vs GPT-5.5Pixtral 12B vs GPT-5.5

Frequently asked

  • Is GPT-4o mini or Pixtral 12B cheaper?
    Per-token pricing isn't published for at least one of these models, check each model's spec page for current rates.
  • Which has the larger context window?
    Both GPT-4o mini and Pixtral 12B ship a 128K-token context window.
  • Is GPT-4o mini or Pixtral 12B better for coding?
    Both GPT-4o mini and Pixtral 12B are competitive on coding benchmarks. See each model's individual spec page for HumanEval and SWE-bench scores where published. For an opinionated pick, consult our Best LLM for Coding ranking.
  • Are either of these models open source?
    Pixtral 12B ships open weights (Apache-2.0). GPT-4o mini is API-only.
  • When were GPT-4o mini and Pixtral 12B released?
    GPT-4o mini was released by OpenAI on 2024-07-18. Pixtral 12B was released by Mistral on 2024-09-17.
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