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GPT-5.5 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-5.5 specs · Ministral 8B specs
Verdict by category
  • PriceTie

    Neither model publishes per-token API pricing.

  • Context windowGPT-5.5

    GPT-5.5 accepts 400K tokens vs 128K, 3.1× the room for long documents and codebases.

  • BenchmarksTie

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

  • ModalitiesGPT-5.5

    GPT-5.5 supports 3 modalities (text, vision, audio) vs 1 for Ministral 8B.

  • OpennessMinistral 8B

    Ministral 8B ships open weights (Mistral Research License); GPT-5.5 is API-only.

On balance GPT-5.5 edges ahead, winning 2 of 5 categories against Ministral 8B's 1. Neither model publishes per-token API pricing. GPT-5.5 accepts 400K tokens vs 128K, 3.1× the room for long documents and codebases.

No directly comparable public benchmarks are available for both models, check the spec sheets for individual scores. They differ in modality coverage, GPT-5.5 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-5.5 is API-only.

GPT-5.5 is the newer of the two, released 17 months after Ministral 8B, which usually means a more recent knowledge cutoff and updated safety post-training. GPT-5.5 is usually picked for agents and tool use 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

SpecGPT-5.5Ministral 8B
ProviderOpenAIMistral
ReleasedMar 2026Oct 2024
Modalitiestext, vision, audiotext
Context window400K tokens128K tokens
Max output,,
Input · 1MPricing not publishedPricing not published
Output · 1MPricing not publishedPricing not published
Knowledge cutoff,,
Open weightsNoYes (Mistral Research License)
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, vs ,
  • Heavy usage, 1M in / 500k out per day, vs ,
  • RAG workload, 5M in / 200k out per day, 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-5.5Pricing unavailable
  • 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.

Benchmark scores not yet available. We only publish numbers we can source from official model cards or independent leaderboards, see methodology.
Pick GPT-5.5 if

GPT-5.5 fits when…

  • Industry-leading tool-use and function-calling reliability
  • Strong end-to-end agent performance across SWE-bench and GAIA
  • Wide ecosystem support, ChatGPT, Realtime API, Responses API
  • Long-context tasks, handles 400K tokens vs 128K for Ministral 8B.
  • Multimodal needs covering vision, audio.
Pick Ministral 8B if

Ministral 8B fits when…

  • Edge-optimized
  • Strong 8B-class quality
  • Self-hosting and on-prem requirements, open weights (Mistral Research License).
Don't want either?

Consider GPT-5

OpenAI's unified flagship combining GPT-line breadth with built-in reasoning, replacing both GPT-4o and the o-series for most users.

See GPT-5 specsGPT-5.5 vs GPT-5Ministral 8B vs GPT-5

Frequently asked

  • Is GPT-5.5 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?
    GPT-5.5 accepts 400K tokens vs 128K for Ministral 8B.
  • Is GPT-5.5 or Ministral 8B better for coding?
    Both GPT-5.5 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-5.5 is API-only.
  • When were GPT-5.5 and Ministral 8B released?
    GPT-5.5 was released by OpenAI on 2026-03-01. Ministral 8B was released by Mistral on 2024-10-16.
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