GPT-5.1-Codex-Max vs Ministral 3 3B (Reasoning)

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

GPT-5.1-Codex-Max is clearly ahead on the aggregate, 84 to 31. The gap is large enough that you do not need to squint at the spreadsheet to see the difference.

GPT-5.1-Codex-Max's sharpest advantage is in coding, where it averages 75.5 against 7.2. The single biggest benchmark swing on the page is HumanEval, 94 to 16.

GPT-5.1-Codex-Max is also the more expensive model on tokens at $2.00 input / $8.00 output per 1M tokens, versus $0.00 input / $0.00 output per 1M tokens for Ministral 3 3B (Reasoning). That is roughly Infinityx on output cost alone. GPT-5.1-Codex-Max gives you the larger context window at 400K, compared with 128K for Ministral 3 3B (Reasoning).

Quick Verdict

Pick GPT-5.1-Codex-Max if you want the stronger benchmark profile. Ministral 3 3B (Reasoning) only becomes the better choice if you want the cheaper token bill.

Agentic

GPT-5.1-Codex-Max

GPT-5.1-Codex-Max

86

Ministral 3 3B (Reasoning)

34

90
Terminal-Bench 2.0
33
85
BrowseComp
37
82
OSWorld-Verified
33

Coding

GPT-5.1-Codex-Max

GPT-5.1-Codex-Max

75.5

Ministral 3 3B (Reasoning)

7.2

94
HumanEval
16
75
SWE-bench Verified
9
67
LiveCodeBench
8
84
SWE-bench Pro
6

Multimodal & Grounded

GPT-5.1-Codex-Max

GPT-5.1-Codex-Max

88.2

Ministral 3 3B (Reasoning)

30.4

85
MMMU-Pro
25
92
OfficeQA Pro
37

Reasoning

GPT-5.1-Codex-Max

GPT-5.1-Codex-Max

92.1

Ministral 3 3B (Reasoning)

35.3

94
SimpleQA
26
92
MuSR
26
92
BBH
63
90
LongBench v2
37
93
MRCRv2
40

Knowledge

GPT-5.1-Codex-Max

GPT-5.1-Codex-Max

72.6

Ministral 3 3B (Reasoning)

25.2

98
MMLU
25
96
GPQA
24
94
SuperGPQA
22
92
OpenBookQA
20
82
MMLU-Pro
49
27
HLE
1
84
FrontierScience
29

Instruction Following

GPT-5.1-Codex-Max

GPT-5.1-Codex-Max

91

Ministral 3 3B (Reasoning)

68

91
IFEval
68

Multilingual

GPT-5.1-Codex-Max

GPT-5.1-Codex-Max

87.7

Ministral 3 3B (Reasoning)

59.7

89
MGSM
61
87
MMLU-ProX
59

Mathematics

GPT-5.1-Codex-Max

GPT-5.1-Codex-Max

94.9

Ministral 3 3B (Reasoning)

40.9

99
AIME 2023
27
99
AIME 2024
29
98
AIME 2025
28
95
HMMT Feb 2023
23
97
HMMT Feb 2024
25
96
HMMT Feb 2025
24
96
BRUMO 2025
26
93
MATH-500
59

Frequently Asked Questions

Which is better, GPT-5.1-Codex-Max or Ministral 3 3B (Reasoning)?

GPT-5.1-Codex-Max is ahead overall, 84 to 31. The biggest single separator in this matchup is HumanEval, where the scores are 94 and 16.

Which is better for knowledge tasks, GPT-5.1-Codex-Max or Ministral 3 3B (Reasoning)?

GPT-5.1-Codex-Max has the edge for knowledge tasks in this comparison, averaging 72.6 versus 25.2. Inside this category, MMLU is the benchmark that creates the most daylight between them.

Which is better for coding, GPT-5.1-Codex-Max or Ministral 3 3B (Reasoning)?

GPT-5.1-Codex-Max has the edge for coding in this comparison, averaging 75.5 versus 7.2. Inside this category, HumanEval is the benchmark that creates the most daylight between them.

Which is better for math, GPT-5.1-Codex-Max or Ministral 3 3B (Reasoning)?

GPT-5.1-Codex-Max has the edge for math in this comparison, averaging 94.9 versus 40.9. Inside this category, AIME 2023 is the benchmark that creates the most daylight between them.

Which is better for reasoning, GPT-5.1-Codex-Max or Ministral 3 3B (Reasoning)?

GPT-5.1-Codex-Max has the edge for reasoning in this comparison, averaging 92.1 versus 35.3. Inside this category, SimpleQA is the benchmark that creates the most daylight between them.

Which is better for agentic tasks, GPT-5.1-Codex-Max or Ministral 3 3B (Reasoning)?

GPT-5.1-Codex-Max has the edge for agentic tasks in this comparison, averaging 86 versus 34. 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-5.1-Codex-Max or Ministral 3 3B (Reasoning)?

GPT-5.1-Codex-Max has the edge for multimodal and grounded tasks in this comparison, averaging 88.2 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-5.1-Codex-Max or Ministral 3 3B (Reasoning)?

GPT-5.1-Codex-Max has the edge for instruction following in this comparison, averaging 91 versus 68. Inside this category, IFEval is the benchmark that creates the most daylight between them.

Which is better for multilingual tasks, GPT-5.1-Codex-Max or Ministral 3 3B (Reasoning)?

GPT-5.1-Codex-Max has the edge for multilingual tasks in this comparison, averaging 87.7 versus 59.7. Inside this category, MGSM is the benchmark that creates the most daylight between them.

Last updated: March 12, 2026

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