GPT-4o mini vs Ministral 3 8B (Reasoning)

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

GPT-4o mini is clearly ahead on the aggregate, 52 to 36. The gap is large enough that you do not need to squint at the spreadsheet to see the difference.

GPT-4o mini's sharpest advantage is in coding, where it averages 65 against 15.2. The single biggest benchmark swing on the page is HumanEval, 87.2 to 24.

GPT-4o mini is also the more expensive model on tokens at $0.15 input / $0.60 output per 1M tokens, versus $0.00 input / $0.00 output per 1M tokens for Ministral 3 8B (Reasoning). That is roughly Infinityx on output cost alone. Ministral 3 8B (Reasoning) is the reasoning model in the pair, while GPT-4o mini is not. That usually helps on harder chain-of-thought-heavy tests, but it can also mean more latency and more token spend in real use.

Quick Verdict

Pick GPT-4o mini if you want the stronger benchmark profile. Ministral 3 8B (Reasoning) only becomes the better choice if you want the cheaper token bill or you want the stronger reasoning-first profile.

Agentic

GPT-4o mini

GPT-4o mini

50.9

Ministral 3 8B (Reasoning)

38.5

58
Terminal-Bench 2.0
39
49
BrowseComp
41
44
OSWorld-Verified
36

Coding

GPT-4o mini

GPT-4o mini

65

Ministral 3 8B (Reasoning)

15.2

87.2
HumanEval
24
65
SWE-bench Pro
14
Coming soon
SWE-bench Verified
17
Coming soon
LiveCodeBench
16

Multimodal & Grounded

GPT-4o mini

GPT-4o mini

60.2

Ministral 3 8B (Reasoning)

33.4

66
MMMU-Pro
28
53
OfficeQA Pro
40

Reasoning

GPT-4o mini

GPT-4o mini

49.4

Ministral 3 8B (Reasoning)

42.1

49
LongBench v2
44
50
MRCRv2
47
Coming soon
SimpleQA
32
Coming soon
MuSR
33
Coming soon
BBH
70

Knowledge

GPT-4o mini

GPT-4o mini

62

Ministral 3 8B (Reasoning)

30

82
MMLU
30
62
FrontierScience
34
Coming soon
GPQA
29
Coming soon
SuperGPQA
27
Coming soon
OpenBookQA
25
Coming soon
MMLU-Pro
54
Coming soon
HLE
5

Instruction Following

Coming soon

Comparable scores for this category are coming soon. One or both models do not have sourced results here yet.

Coming soon
IFEval
70

Multilingual

GPT-4o mini

GPT-4o mini

74.7

Ministral 3 8B (Reasoning)

61.7

87
MGSM
63
68
MMLU-ProX
61

Mathematics

Coming soon

Comparable scores for this category are coming soon. One or both models do not have sourced results here yet.

Coming soon
AIME 2023
33
Coming soon
AIME 2024
35
Coming soon
AIME 2025
34
Coming soon
HMMT Feb 2023
29
Coming soon
HMMT Feb 2024
31
Coming soon
HMMT Feb 2025
30
Coming soon
BRUMO 2025
32
Coming soon
MATH-500
67

Frequently Asked Questions

Which is better, GPT-4o mini or Ministral 3 8B (Reasoning)?

GPT-4o mini is ahead overall, 52 to 36. The biggest single separator in this matchup is HumanEval, where the scores are 87.2 and 24.

Which is better for knowledge tasks, GPT-4o mini or Ministral 3 8B (Reasoning)?

GPT-4o mini has the edge for knowledge tasks in this comparison, averaging 62 versus 30. Inside this category, MMLU is the benchmark that creates the most daylight between them.

Which is better for coding, GPT-4o mini or Ministral 3 8B (Reasoning)?

GPT-4o mini has the edge for coding in this comparison, averaging 65 versus 15.2. Inside this category, HumanEval is the benchmark that creates the most daylight between them.

Which is better for reasoning, GPT-4o mini or Ministral 3 8B (Reasoning)?

GPT-4o mini has the edge for reasoning in this comparison, averaging 49.4 versus 42.1. Inside this category, LongBench v2 is the benchmark that creates the most daylight between them.

Which is better for agentic tasks, GPT-4o mini or Ministral 3 8B (Reasoning)?

GPT-4o mini has the edge for agentic tasks in this comparison, averaging 50.9 versus 38.5. Inside this category, Terminal-Bench 2.0 is the benchmark that creates the most daylight between them.

Which is better for multimodal and grounded tasks, GPT-4o mini or Ministral 3 8B (Reasoning)?

GPT-4o mini has the edge for multimodal and grounded tasks in this comparison, averaging 60.2 versus 33.4. Inside this category, MMMU-Pro is the benchmark that creates the most daylight between them.

Which is better for multilingual tasks, GPT-4o mini or Ministral 3 8B (Reasoning)?

GPT-4o mini has the edge for multilingual tasks in this comparison, averaging 74.7 versus 61.7. Inside this category, MGSM is the benchmark that creates the most daylight between them.

Last updated: March 12, 2026

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