GPT-5 mini vs Ministral 3 8B (Reasoning)

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

GPT-5 mini is clearly ahead on the aggregate, 69 to 36. The gap is large enough that you do not need to squint at the spreadsheet to see the difference.

GPT-5 mini's sharpest advantage is in multimodal & grounded, where it averages 83.8 against 33.4. The single biggest benchmark swing on the page is MMMU-Pro, 86 to 28.

Quick Verdict

Pick GPT-5 mini if you want the stronger benchmark profile. Ministral 3 8B (Reasoning) only becomes the better choice if its workflow or ecosystem matters more than the raw scoreboard.

Agentic

GPT-5 mini

GPT-5 mini

65.7

Ministral 3 8B (Reasoning)

38.5

68
Terminal-Bench 2.0
39
70
BrowseComp
41
60
OSWorld-Verified
36

Coding

GPT-5 mini

GPT-5 mini

42.8

Ministral 3 8B (Reasoning)

15.2

80
HumanEval
24
41
SWE-bench Verified
17
37
LiveCodeBench
16
49
SWE-bench Pro
14

Multimodal & Grounded

GPT-5 mini

GPT-5 mini

83.8

Ministral 3 8B (Reasoning)

33.4

86
MMMU-Pro
28
81
OfficeQA Pro
40

Reasoning

GPT-5 mini

GPT-5 mini

81.8

Ministral 3 8B (Reasoning)

42.1

84
SimpleQA
32
82
MuSR
33
87
BBH
70
80
LongBench v2
44
79
MRCRv2
47

Knowledge

GPT-5 mini

GPT-5 mini

62.8

Ministral 3 8B (Reasoning)

30

88
MMLU
30
86
GPQA
29
84
SuperGPQA
27
82
OpenBookQA
25
73
MMLU-Pro
54
16
HLE
5
75
FrontierScience
34

Instruction Following

GPT-5 mini

GPT-5 mini

82

Ministral 3 8B (Reasoning)

70

82
IFEval
70

Multilingual

GPT-5 mini

GPT-5 mini

80.1

Ministral 3 8B (Reasoning)

61.7

82
MGSM
63
79
MMLU-ProX
61

Mathematics

GPT-5 mini

GPT-5 mini

87.2

Ministral 3 8B (Reasoning)

47.8

90
AIME 2023
33
92
AIME 2024
35
91
AIME 2025
34
86
HMMT Feb 2023
29
88
HMMT Feb 2024
31
87
HMMT Feb 2025
30
89
BRUMO 2025
32
85
MATH-500
67

Frequently Asked Questions

Which is better, GPT-5 mini or Ministral 3 8B (Reasoning)?

GPT-5 mini is ahead overall, 69 to 36. The biggest single separator in this matchup is MMMU-Pro, where the scores are 86 and 28.

Which is better for knowledge tasks, GPT-5 mini or Ministral 3 8B (Reasoning)?

GPT-5 mini has the edge for knowledge tasks in this comparison, averaging 62.8 versus 30. Inside this category, MMLU is the benchmark that creates the most daylight between them.

Which is better for coding, GPT-5 mini or Ministral 3 8B (Reasoning)?

GPT-5 mini has the edge for coding in this comparison, averaging 42.8 versus 15.2. Inside this category, HumanEval is the benchmark that creates the most daylight between them.

Which is better for math, GPT-5 mini or Ministral 3 8B (Reasoning)?

GPT-5 mini has the edge for math in this comparison, averaging 87.2 versus 47.8. Inside this category, AIME 2023 is the benchmark that creates the most daylight between them.

Which is better for reasoning, GPT-5 mini or Ministral 3 8B (Reasoning)?

GPT-5 mini has the edge for reasoning in this comparison, averaging 81.8 versus 42.1. Inside this category, SimpleQA is the benchmark that creates the most daylight between them.

Which is better for agentic tasks, GPT-5 mini or Ministral 3 8B (Reasoning)?

GPT-5 mini has the edge for agentic tasks in this comparison, averaging 65.7 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-5 mini or Ministral 3 8B (Reasoning)?

GPT-5 mini has the edge for multimodal and grounded tasks in this comparison, averaging 83.8 versus 33.4. Inside this category, MMMU-Pro is the benchmark that creates the most daylight between them.

Which is better for instruction following, GPT-5 mini or Ministral 3 8B (Reasoning)?

GPT-5 mini has the edge for instruction following in this comparison, averaging 82 versus 70. Inside this category, IFEval is the benchmark that creates the most daylight between them.

Which is better for multilingual tasks, GPT-5 mini or Ministral 3 8B (Reasoning)?

GPT-5 mini has the edge for multilingual tasks in this comparison, averaging 80.1 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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