GPT-5.1-Codex vs Ministral 3 3B: price, context and capabilities

Choose GPT-5.1-Codex for very long inputs, tool use and support agents and reasoning over long documents. Choose Ministral 3 3B for self-hosting and data control and the latest release.

In short

  • A price comparison is not possible: one of them has no comparable published price.
  • GPT-5.1-Codex reads more per request: 400k tokens against 256k.
  • Ministral 3 3B is the newer model (December 2025, against Nov 13, 2025).
  • Only GPT-5.1-Codex offers reasoning, structured output, batch api.
  • Only Ministral 3 3B offers self-hostable.

Open in the full comparison table

Which should you choose?

Each answer below comes straight from the published prices, specifications and independent benchmark results.

Very long inputs

Choose GPT-5.1-Codex

GPT-5.1-Codex reads up to 400k tokens per request, against 256k for Ministral 3 3B.

Tool use and support agents

Choose GPT-5.1-Codex

GPT-5.1-Codex scores 83% on τ²-Bench (agentic tool use), against 24.9% for Ministral 3 3B.

Reasoning over long documents

Choose GPT-5.1-Codex

GPT-5.1-Codex scores 69.3% on Long-context reasoning (AA-LCR), against 17% for Ministral 3 3B.

Self-hosting and data control

Choose Ministral 3 3B

Ministral 3 3B has open weights, so you can run it on your own servers; GPT-5.1-Codex is only available through its provider.

Latest release

Choose Ministral 3 3B

Ministral 3 3B is the newer release (December 2025, against Nov 13, 2025 for GPT-5.1-Codex).

Specifications side by side

GPT-5.1-CodexMinistral 3 3B
ProviderOpenAIMistral AI
CategoryLanguage modelsLanguage models
StatusDeprecatedGenerally available
Headline priceNo dataNo data
InputNo dataNo data
OutputNo dataNo data
Cached inputNo dataNo data
Context window400k256k
Max output128kNo data
ReleasedNov 13, 2025December 2025
Knowledge cutoffSeptember 2024No data
LicenceProprietaryOpen weights
CapabilitiesVision, Reasoning, Tool calling, Structured output, Batch APIVision, Tool calling, Self-hostable
API model idgpt-5.1-codexministral-3b-2512

Benchmarks side by side

Leader in bold.

BenchmarkGPT-5.1-CodexMinistral 3 3B
GPQA Diamond 86% 35.8%
Humanity's Last Exam 25.7% 5.4%
IFBench (instruction following) 70% 26.8%
τ²-Bench (agentic tool use) 83% 24.9%
MMMU-Pro (visual reasoning) 72.5% 38.1%
Long-context reasoning (AA-LCR) 69.3% 17%
Terminal-Bench Hard 34.8% No data
Intelligence Index No data 4.8
SciCode No data 15.3%

Independent evaluations by Artificial Analysis, run the same way for every model, at the reasoning setting shown. Percentages unless marked as an index.

Frequently asked questions

Should I choose GPT-5.1-Codex or Ministral 3 3B?

Choose GPT-5.1-Codex for very long inputs, tool use and support agents and reasoning over long documents. Choose Ministral 3 3B for self-hosting and data control and the latest release.

Which is cheaper, GPT-5.1-Codex or Ministral 3 3B?

A price comparison is not possible: one of them has no comparable published price.

Which has the larger context window, GPT-5.1-Codex or Ministral 3 3B?

GPT-5.1-Codex reads more per request: 400k tokens against 256k.

What is the difference between GPT-5.1-Codex and Ministral 3 3B?

GPT-5.1-Codex is made by OpenAI and Ministral 3 3B by Mistral AI. A price comparison is not possible: one of them has no comparable published price. GPT-5.1-Codex reads more per request: 400k tokens against 256k. Ministral 3 3B is the newer model (December 2025, against Nov 13, 2025). Only GPT-5.1-Codex offers reasoning, structured output, batch api. Only Ministral 3 3B offers self-hostable.

Which is newer, GPT-5.1-Codex or Ministral 3 3B?

Ministral 3 3B was released on December 2025 and GPT-5.1-Codex on Nov 13, 2025.