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GPT-5 mini vs Mistral Small

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 · Mistral Small specs
Verdict by category
  • PriceMistral Small

    Mistral Small is roughly 3.3× cheaper on output tokens ($0.60 vs $2.00 per 1M).

  • 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 Mistral Small.

  • OpennessMistral Small

    Mistral Small ships open weights (Apache-2.0); GPT-5 mini is API-only.

It's a genuine coin-flip between GPT-5 mini and Mistral Small: 2 category wins each, with the rest tied. Mistral Small is roughly 3.3× cheaper on output tokens ($0.60 vs $2.00 per 1M). 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 Mistral Small handles text, which can be the deciding factor before you even look at benchmarks. Mistral Small ships open weights (Apache-2.0); GPT-5 mini is API-only.

GPT-5 mini is the newer of the two, released 11 months after Mistral Small, 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 Mistral Small sees more deployments in cheapest llm and fastest llm. If pricing matters more than every last benchmark point, run the numbers in the calculator below before committing.

Side-by-side specs

SpecGPT-5 miniMistral Small
ProviderOpenAIMistral
ReleasedAug 2025Sep 2024
Modalitiestext, vision, audiotext
Context window400K tokens128K tokens
Max output128K tokens,
Input · 1M$0.25 / 1M tokens$0.20 / 1M tokens
Output · 1M$2.00 / 1M tokens$0.60 / 1M tokens
Knowledge cutoff2024-09,
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$3.75 vs $1.50
  • Heavy usage, 1M in / 500k out per day$37.50 vs $15.00
  • RAG workload, 5M in / 200k out per day$49.50 vs $33.60

Light usage, 100k in / 50k out per day: $3.75 vs $1.50 per month, model B comes out ahead. Heavy usage, 1M in / 500k out per day: $37.50 vs $15.00 per month, model B comes out ahead. RAG workload, 5M in / 200k out per day: $49.50 vs $33.60 per month, model B comes out ahead.

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
  • Mistral Small$0.050

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 Mistral Small.
  • Multimodal needs covering vision, audio.
Pick Mistral Small if

Mistral Small fits when…

  • Apache-2.0 open-weight
  • Fast and cheap
  • Cost-sensitive workloads, 3.3× cheaper than GPT-5 mini on output tokens.
  • 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-5 mini vs GPT-5.5Mistral Small vs GPT-5.5

Frequently asked

  • Is GPT-5 mini or Mistral Small cheaper?
    Mistral Small is cheaper at $0.60 / 1M tokens per million output tokens, vs $2.00 / 1M tokens for GPT-5 mini.
  • Which has the larger context window?
    GPT-5 mini accepts 400K tokens vs 128K for Mistral Small.
  • Is GPT-5 mini or Mistral Small better for coding?
    Both GPT-5 mini and Mistral Small 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?
    Mistral Small ships open weights (Apache-2.0). GPT-5 mini is API-only.
  • When were GPT-5 mini and Mistral Small released?
    GPT-5 mini was released by OpenAI on 2025-08-07. Mistral Small was released by Mistral on 2024-09-18.
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