o3-mini vs Mixtral 8x22B Instruct v0.1

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

o3-mini is clearly ahead on the aggregate, 56 to 28. The gap is large enough that you do not need to squint at the spreadsheet to see the difference.

o3-mini's sharpest advantage is in knowledge, where it averages 82.1 against 71.4. The single biggest benchmark swing on the page is MMLU, 86.9 to 71.4. Mixtral 8x22B Instruct v0.1 does hit back in coding, so the answer changes if that is the part of the workload you care about most.

o3-mini is also the more expensive model on tokens at $1.10 input / $4.40 output per 1M tokens, versus $0.00 input / $0.00 output per 1M tokens for Mixtral 8x22B Instruct v0.1. That is roughly Infinityx on output cost alone. o3-mini is the reasoning model in the pair, while Mixtral 8x22B Instruct v0.1 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. o3-mini gives you the larger context window at 200K, compared with 64K for Mixtral 8x22B Instruct v0.1.

Quick Verdict

Pick o3-mini if you want the stronger benchmark profile. Mixtral 8x22B Instruct v0.1 only becomes the better choice if coding is the priority or you want the cheaper token bill.

Knowledge

o3-mini

o3-mini

82.1

Mixtral 8x22B Instruct v0.1

71.4

86.9
MMLU
71.4
77.2
GPQA
-

Coding

Mixtral 8x22B Instruct v0.1

o3-mini

49.3

Mixtral 8x22B Instruct v0.1

54.8

49.3
SWE-bench Verified
-
-
HumanEval
54.8

Mathematics

o3-mini
87.3
AIME 2024
-

Reasoning

Tie

Instruction Following

o3-mini
93.9
IFEval
-

Multilingual

Tie

Frequently Asked Questions

Which is better, o3-mini or Mixtral 8x22B Instruct v0.1?

o3-mini is ahead overall, 56 to 28. The biggest single separator in this matchup is MMLU, where the scores are 86.9 and 71.4.

Which is better for knowledge tasks, o3-mini or Mixtral 8x22B Instruct v0.1?

o3-mini has the edge for knowledge tasks in this comparison, averaging 82.1 versus 71.4. Inside this category, MMLU is the benchmark that creates the most daylight between them.

Which is better for coding, o3-mini or Mixtral 8x22B Instruct v0.1?

Mixtral 8x22B Instruct v0.1 has the edge for coding in this comparison, averaging 54.8 versus 49.3. o3-mini stays close enough that the answer can still flip depending on your workload.

Last updated: March 9, 2026

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