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GPT-5 mini 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 mini specs · Ministral 8B specs
Verdict by category
  • PriceGPT-5 mini

    GPT-5 mini publishes pricing ($2.00 / 1M output tokens) while Ministral 8B does not.

  • Context windowGPT-5 mini

    GPT-5 mini 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 mini

    GPT-5 mini supports 3 modalities (text, vision, audio) vs 1 for Ministral 8B.

  • OpennessMinistral 8B

    Ministral 8B ships open weights (Mistral Research License); GPT-5 mini is API-only.

On balance GPT-5 mini edges ahead, winning 3 of 5 categories against Ministral 8B's 1. GPT-5 mini publishes pricing ($2.00 / 1M output tokens) while Ministral 8B does not. GPT-5 mini 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 mini 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 mini is API-only.

GPT-5 mini is the newer of the two, released 10 months after Ministral 8B, which usually means a more recent knowledge cutoff and updated safety post-training. GPT-5 mini is usually picked for code completion and customer support 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 miniMinistral 8B
ProviderOpenAIMistral
ReleasedAug 2025Oct 2024
Modalitiestext, vision, audiotext
Context window400K tokens128K tokens
Max output128K tokens,
Input · 1M$0.25 / 1M tokensPricing not published
Output · 1M$2.00 / 1M tokensPricing not published
Knowledge cutoff2024-09,
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$3.75 vs ,
  • Heavy usage, 1M in / 500k out per day$37.50 vs ,
  • RAG workload, 5M in / 200k out per day$49.50 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 mini$0.125
  • 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 mini if

GPT-5 mini fits when…

  • Excellent price-quality ratio for production workloads
  • Fast first-token latency
  • Same tool-use API surface as flagship
  • 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-5.5

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

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

Frequently asked

  • Is GPT-5 mini 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 mini accepts 400K tokens vs 128K for Ministral 8B.
  • Is GPT-5 mini or Ministral 8B better for coding?
    Both GPT-5 mini 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 mini is API-only.
  • When were GPT-5 mini and Ministral 8B released?
    GPT-5 mini was released by OpenAI on 2025-08-07. Ministral 8B was released by Mistral on 2024-10-16.
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