GPT-5.1-Codex-Max vs Ministral 3 8B

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 32. 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 14.2. The single biggest benchmark swing on the page is HumanEval, 94 to 23.

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 8B. That is roughly Infinityx on output cost alone. GPT-5.1-Codex-Max is the reasoning model in the pair, while Ministral 3 8B 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. GPT-5.1-Codex-Max gives you the larger context window at 400K, compared with 128K for Ministral 3 8B.

Quick Verdict

Pick GPT-5.1-Codex-Max if you want the stronger benchmark profile. Ministral 3 8B only becomes the better choice if you want the cheaper token bill or you would rather avoid the extra latency and token burn of a reasoning model.

Agentic

GPT-5.1-Codex-Max

GPT-5.1-Codex-Max

86

Ministral 3 8B

28.9

90
Terminal-Bench 2.0
26
85
BrowseComp
36
82
OSWorld-Verified
27

Coding

GPT-5.1-Codex-Max

GPT-5.1-Codex-Max

75.5

Ministral 3 8B

14.2

94
HumanEval
23
75
SWE-bench Verified
16
67
LiveCodeBench
15
84
SWE-bench Pro
13

Multimodal & Grounded

GPT-5.1-Codex-Max

GPT-5.1-Codex-Max

88.2

Ministral 3 8B

32.4

85
MMMU-Pro
27
92
OfficeQA Pro
39

Reasoning

GPT-5.1-Codex-Max

GPT-5.1-Codex-Max

92.1

Ministral 3 8B

36.1

94
SimpleQA
28
92
MuSR
26
92
BBH
63
90
LongBench v2
38
93
MRCRv2
41

Knowledge

GPT-5.1-Codex-Max

GPT-5.1-Codex-Max

72.6

Ministral 3 8B

28

98
MMLU
28
96
GPQA
27
94
SuperGPQA
25
92
OpenBookQA
23
82
MMLU-Pro
52
27
HLE
3
84
FrontierScience
32

Instruction Following

GPT-5.1-Codex-Max

GPT-5.1-Codex-Max

91

Ministral 3 8B

69

91
IFEval
69

Multilingual

GPT-5.1-Codex-Max

GPT-5.1-Codex-Max

87.7

Ministral 3 8B

61.7

89
MGSM
63
87
MMLU-ProX
61

Mathematics

GPT-5.1-Codex-Max

GPT-5.1-Codex-Max

94.9

Ministral 3 8B

43.3

99
AIME 2023
30
99
AIME 2024
32
98
AIME 2025
33
95
HMMT Feb 2023
26
97
HMMT Feb 2024
28
96
HMMT Feb 2025
27
96
BRUMO 2025
29
93
MATH-500
60

Frequently Asked Questions

Which is better, GPT-5.1-Codex-Max or Ministral 3 8B?

GPT-5.1-Codex-Max is ahead overall, 84 to 32. The biggest single separator in this matchup is HumanEval, where the scores are 94 and 23.

Which is better for knowledge tasks, GPT-5.1-Codex-Max or Ministral 3 8B?

GPT-5.1-Codex-Max has the edge for knowledge tasks in this comparison, averaging 72.6 versus 28. 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 8B?

GPT-5.1-Codex-Max has the edge for coding in this comparison, averaging 75.5 versus 14.2. 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 8B?

GPT-5.1-Codex-Max has the edge for math in this comparison, averaging 94.9 versus 43.3. 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 8B?

GPT-5.1-Codex-Max has the edge for reasoning in this comparison, averaging 92.1 versus 36.1. 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 8B?

GPT-5.1-Codex-Max has the edge for agentic tasks in this comparison, averaging 86 versus 28.9. 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 8B?

GPT-5.1-Codex-Max has the edge for multimodal and grounded tasks in this comparison, averaging 88.2 versus 32.4. 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 8B?

GPT-5.1-Codex-Max has the edge for instruction following in this comparison, averaging 91 versus 69. 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 8B?

GPT-5.1-Codex-Max has the edge for multilingual tasks in this comparison, averaging 87.7 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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