GPT-4.1 mini vs Ministral 3 3B

Side-by-side benchmark comparison across agentic, coding, multimodal, knowledge, reasoning, and math workflows.

GPT-4.1 mini is clearly ahead on the aggregate, 58 to 27. The gap is large enough that you do not need to squint at the spreadsheet to see the difference.

GPT-4.1 mini's sharpest advantage is in reasoning, where it averages 80.9 against 30.1. The single biggest benchmark swing on the page is MMLU, 87.5 to 24. Ministral 3 3B does hit back in mathematics, so the answer changes if that is the part of the workload you care about most.

GPT-4.1 mini is also the more expensive model on tokens at $0.40 input / $1.60 output per 1M tokens, versus $0.00 input / $0.00 output per 1M tokens for Ministral 3 3B. That is roughly Infinityx on output cost alone. GPT-4.1 mini gives you the larger context window at 1M, compared with 128K for Ministral 3 3B.

Quick Verdict

Pick GPT-4.1 mini if you want the stronger benchmark profile. Ministral 3 3B only becomes the better choice if mathematics is the priority or you want the cheaper token bill.

Agentic

GPT-4.1 mini

GPT-4.1 mini

56.5

Ministral 3 3B

22.9

54
Terminal-Bench 2.0
19
71
BrowseComp
33
49
OSWorld-Verified
20

Coding

GPT-4.1 mini

GPT-4.1 mini

28.8

Ministral 3 3B

6.2

23.6
SWE-bench Verified
8
30
SWE-bench Pro
5
Coming soon
HumanEval
15
Coming soon
LiveCodeBench
7

Multimodal & Grounded

GPT-4.1 mini

GPT-4.1 mini

69.6

Ministral 3 3B

30.4

66
MMMU-Pro
25
74
OfficeQA Pro
37

Reasoning

GPT-4.1 mini

GPT-4.1 mini

80.9

Ministral 3 3B

30.1

80
LongBench v2
32
82
MRCRv2
35
Coming soon
SimpleQA
22
Coming soon
MuSR
20
Coming soon
BBH
57

Knowledge

GPT-4.1 mini

GPT-4.1 mini

62.4

Ministral 3 3B

24.5

87.5
MMLU
24
64.2
GPQA
23
61
FrontierScience
28
Coming soon
SuperGPQA
21
Coming soon
OpenBookQA
19
Coming soon
MMLU-Pro
48
Coming soon
HLE
1

Instruction Following

GPT-4.1 mini

GPT-4.1 mini

88.5

Ministral 3 3B

67

88.5
IFEval
67

Multilingual

GPT-4.1 mini

GPT-4.1 mini

72

Ministral 3 3B

59.7

72
MMLU-ProX
59
Coming soon
MGSM
61

Mathematics

Ministral 3 3B

GPT-4.1 mini

23.1

Ministral 3 3B

36

23.1
AIME 2024
25
Coming soon
AIME 2023
23
Coming soon
AIME 2025
24
Coming soon
HMMT Feb 2023
19
Coming soon
HMMT Feb 2024
21
Coming soon
HMMT Feb 2025
20
Coming soon
BRUMO 2025
22
Coming soon
MATH-500
53

Frequently Asked Questions

Which is better, GPT-4.1 mini or Ministral 3 3B?

GPT-4.1 mini is ahead overall, 58 to 27. The biggest single separator in this matchup is MMLU, where the scores are 87.5 and 24.

Which is better for knowledge tasks, GPT-4.1 mini or Ministral 3 3B?

GPT-4.1 mini has the edge for knowledge tasks in this comparison, averaging 62.4 versus 24.5. Inside this category, MMLU is the benchmark that creates the most daylight between them.

Which is better for coding, GPT-4.1 mini or Ministral 3 3B?

GPT-4.1 mini has the edge for coding in this comparison, averaging 28.8 versus 6.2. Inside this category, SWE-bench Pro is the benchmark that creates the most daylight between them.

Which is better for math, GPT-4.1 mini or Ministral 3 3B?

Ministral 3 3B has the edge for math in this comparison, averaging 36 versus 23.1. Inside this category, AIME 2024 is the benchmark that creates the most daylight between them.

Which is better for reasoning, GPT-4.1 mini or Ministral 3 3B?

GPT-4.1 mini has the edge for reasoning in this comparison, averaging 80.9 versus 30.1. Inside this category, LongBench v2 is the benchmark that creates the most daylight between them.

Which is better for agentic tasks, GPT-4.1 mini or Ministral 3 3B?

GPT-4.1 mini has the edge for agentic tasks in this comparison, averaging 56.5 versus 22.9. Inside this category, BrowseComp is the benchmark that creates the most daylight between them.

Which is better for multimodal and grounded tasks, GPT-4.1 mini or Ministral 3 3B?

GPT-4.1 mini has the edge for multimodal and grounded tasks in this comparison, averaging 69.6 versus 30.4. Inside this category, MMMU-Pro is the benchmark that creates the most daylight between them.

Which is better for instruction following, GPT-4.1 mini or Ministral 3 3B?

GPT-4.1 mini has the edge for instruction following in this comparison, averaging 88.5 versus 67. Inside this category, IFEval is the benchmark that creates the most daylight between them.

Which is better for multilingual tasks, GPT-4.1 mini or Ministral 3 3B?

GPT-4.1 mini has the edge for multilingual tasks in this comparison, averaging 72 versus 59.7. Inside this category, MMLU-ProX is the benchmark that creates the most daylight between them.

Last updated: March 12, 2026

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