GPT-4o vs Ministral 8B
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 specs · Ministral 8B specs- PriceGPT-4o
GPT-4o publishes pricing ($10.00 / 1M output tokens) while Ministral 8B 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.
- ModalitiesGPT-4o
GPT-4o supports 3 modalities (text, vision, audio) vs 1 for Ministral 8B.
- OpennessMinistral 8B
Ministral 8B ships open weights (Mistral Research License); GPT-4o is API-only.
On balance GPT-4o edges ahead, winning 2 of 5 categories against Ministral 8B's 1. GPT-4o publishes pricing ($10.00 / 1M output tokens) while Ministral 8B 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. They differ in modality coverage, GPT-4o handles text, vision, audio while Ministral 8B handles text, which can be the deciding factor before you even look at benchmarks. Ministral 8B ships open weights (Mistral Research License); GPT-4o is API-only.
Ministral 8B is the newer of the two, released 5 months after GPT-4o, which usually means a more recent knowledge cutoff and updated safety post-training. GPT-4o is usually picked for chatbots and vision workloads, while Ministral 8B sees more deployments in edge deployment and on device. If pricing matters more than every last benchmark point, run the numbers in the calculator below before committing.
Side-by-side specs
| Spec | GPT-4o | Ministral 8B |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | OpenAI | Mistral |
| Released | May 2024 | Oct 2024 |
| Modalities | text, vision, audio | text |
| Context window | 128K tokens | 128K tokens |
| Max output | , | , |
| Input · 1M | $2.50 / 1M tokens | Pricing not published |
| Output · 1M | $10.00 / 1M tokens | Pricing not published |
| Knowledge cutoff | 2023-10 | , |
| Open weights | No | Yes (Mistral Research License) |
| API available | Yes | Yes |
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$22.50 vs ,
- Heavy usage, 1M in / 500k out per day$225 vs ,
- RAG workload, 5M in / 200k out per day$435 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).
Estimated spend for the listed models at your usage. Numbers are derived from each model's published per-million-token rates.
- GPT-4o$0.750
- Ministral 8BPricing unavailable
Benchmarks compared
Only sourced numbers. Where a benchmark is missing for one model we show the available value rather than fabricating the other.
- MMLU88.7
- HumanEval90.2
GPT-4o fits when…
- Native multimodal
- Mature SDK and tooling
- Multimodal needs covering vision, audio.
Ministral 8B fits when…
- Edge-optimized
- Strong 8B-class quality
- Self-hosting and on-prem requirements, open weights (Mistral Research License).
Consider GPT-5.5
OpenAI's mid-cycle GPT-5 refresh, improved reasoning, tool use, and multimodal grounding over the 2025 launch.
Frequently asked
Is GPT-4o or Ministral 8B 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 and Ministral 8B ship a 128K-token context window.Is GPT-4o or Ministral 8B better for coding?
Both GPT-4o and Ministral 8B 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?
Ministral 8B ships open weights (Mistral Research License). GPT-4o is API-only.When were GPT-4o and Ministral 8B released?
GPT-4o was released by OpenAI on 2024-05-13. Ministral 8B was released by Mistral on 2024-10-16.
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