GPT-5 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-5 specs · Pixtral 12B specs- PriceGPT-5
GPT-5 publishes pricing ($10.00 / 1M output tokens) while Pixtral 12B does not.
- Context windowGPT-5
GPT-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
GPT-5 supports 3 modalities (text, vision, audio) vs 2 for Pixtral 12B.
- OpennessPixtral 12B
Pixtral 12B ships open weights (Apache-2.0); GPT-5 is API-only.
On balance GPT-5 edges ahead, winning 3 of 5 categories against Pixtral 12B's 1. GPT-5 publishes pricing ($10.00 / 1M output tokens) while Pixtral 12B does not. GPT-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 handles text, vision, audio while Pixtral 12B handles text, vision, which can be the deciding factor before you even look at benchmarks. Pixtral 12B ships open weights (Apache-2.0); GPT-5 is API-only.
GPT-5 is the newer of the two, released 11 months after Pixtral 12B, which usually means a more recent knowledge cutoff and updated safety post-training. GPT-5 is usually picked for coding llm and agents 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
| Spec | GPT-5 | Pixtral 12B |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | OpenAI | Mistral |
| Released | Aug 2025 | Sep 2024 |
| Modalities | text, vision, audio | text, vision |
| Context window | 400K tokens | 128K tokens |
| Max output | 128K tokens | , |
| Input · 1M | $1.25 / 1M tokens | Pricing not published |
| Output · 1M | $10.00 / 1M tokens | Pricing not published |
| Knowledge cutoff | 2024-09 | , |
| Open weights | No | Yes (Apache-2.0) |
| 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$18.75 vs ,
- Heavy usage, 1M in / 500k out per day$188 vs ,
- RAG workload, 5M in / 200k out per day$248 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-5$0.625
- 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.
- MMLU91.4
- HumanEval96.2
- GPQA89.4
- SWE-bench Verified74.9
GPT-5 fits when…
- Unified model, reasoning routed automatically per query
- Excellent tool-use and JSON-mode discipline
- Strong agent performance on SWE-bench Verified
- Long-context tasks, handles 400K tokens vs 128K for Pixtral 12B.
- Multimodal needs covering audio.
Pixtral 12B fits when…
- Apache-2.0
- Vision in 12B size
- Single-GPU
- Self-hosting and on-prem requirements, open weights (Apache-2.0).
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-5 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?
GPT-5 accepts 400K tokens vs 128K for Pixtral 12B.Is GPT-5 or Pixtral 12B better for coding?
Both GPT-5 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-5 is API-only.When were GPT-5 and Pixtral 12B released?
GPT-5 was released by OpenAI on 2025-08-07. Pixtral 12B was released by Mistral on 2024-09-17.
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